Preparations Are Underway!

 Day #2 - Beach Workouts, DR Academies and a Game!

Day two welcomed the remainder of the team in the wee hours and an early start for all, as the team joined Dominican players on the beach in Boca Chica at 7:30am for a “beach workout” that included intense conditioning drills in the sand, followed by baseball skill work.  These workouts are done six days a week by professional hopefuls in the DR as part of their comprehensive training and use resources available to them; coconuts replace cones as example of how the Dominican players and coaches are resourceful.  The workouts included sprints, shuttle runs, crab walks, more sprints and then 15-20 minutes of baseball drills.  The boys proved themselves collectively and experienced a level of commitment that is unfamiliar at the high school level.

Those who didn’t eat breakfast beforehand – or needed to replace what was lost during the workout 😉 – had time to take a welcomed dip in the ocean and eat a good meal before boarding the bus to tour two Dominican Academies, the Washington Nationals and New York Yankees.  At the Nationals complex, the boys got to see specific skill work with bunting drills on one field and baserunning on another.  Some players were also hitting in covered cages but the key takeaway was the intentionality of the workouts and the focus on the “little things”, which we discussed during our evening team meeting. 

We then drove across the street to the Yankees complex (many of these academies are clustered together as the Rockies, Twins and Phillies’ facilities were also visible from the road leading into the Yankees’ site) and received an impressively thorough tour where the players heard from several staff members and met with the athletic trainer, strength and conditioning coach and one of the academic instructors, among others, while also watching an impressive BP session and the pitchers work in covered bullpens.  One of the key takeaways was the comprehensive nature of the player development model at both complexes; the players have all of their needs met under the watchful eye of organization staff members, including nutrition, language, education and life skills.  It is a stark contrast to the way of life on the island for most and a reinforcement of the tantalizing nature of a pro baseball career.

Following lunch back at the hotel, we traveled to El Toro for our first game.  En route, we drove through some startling neighborhoods were poverty was on full display for miles.  After lurching back and forth on the bus over long stretches of unpaved roads, we arrived at an oasis of baseball and one of the non-MLB academies, were we played a group of mostly Venezuelan players, hoping to be seen and signed by MLB teams.  (Their SS, in fact, had a verbal arrangement in place with one team and would be signing when he is “of age” soon.)   There were several highlights for the first time on the field, playing against a group of professional hopefuls who play year-round, but the takeaway today was about way more than what happened in those 2+ fun filled hours on the field.  After the game, the boys mingled with their Venezuelan counterparts, exchanged Instagram accounts and smiled for photos before heading back for some quick beach time and dinner by the pool.