Dominicans win it their exuberant way
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — They are too exuberant for some, bouncing around like high school kids at a rally, celebrating even the smallest achievement, a single, a strikeout.
They are too talented for everyone, kids from the land that they proudly declare produces more ballplayers per capita than any other on the globe.
Baseball is in the soul of the Dominican Republic, serving both as recreation and, in a place of extensive poverty, an opportunity to find fame and wealth. It was so strange then — and so bewildering to the citizens of the DR — why they had done poorly in the World Baseball Championship in 2006 and 2009.
That failure has been corrected, emphatically. The DR, as the players refer to their home, won the WBC on a rainy Tuesday night along the shore of the Bay, defeating Puerto Rico, 3-0, and going through the tournament unbeaten in its eight games.
“I had enough of that shame of not having a trophy like this,” said Tony Pena, the Dominican manager, as he stared at award in front of him and several players. “And thank God this group of men was able to accomplish what we wanted, which is to put our country on top in terms of baseball.”
They are millionaires, so many on the Dominican team. They are stars in the bigs, Jose Reyes, Robinson Cano, Hanley Ramirez, Nelson Cruz. They play for the Marlins and the Yankees, the Dodgers and the Rangers. But this was their team. This was their country.
That’s why Reyes gave those fist-pumps when he led off the first with a double. That’s why Erick Aybar almost strutted into second on his double in the fifth. That’s why the entire squad, holding on to a mammoth Dominican flag, red, blue and white, danced around at game’s end.
Maybe they get on other teams’ nerves, but it’s a matter of sheer enjoyment, of full involvement, of unfettered excitement.
“This ball club is about emotion,” said Pena. He is a coach on the Yankees, and he’ll return to that position in a matter of hours. After the celebrating.
“We showed emotion every single time. And when Jose got to second base the first time and put the fists up way high, that was telling the other guys, let’s go.”
Considering the lack of an Asian team and the weather — rain was forecast and arrived early on — the attendance of 35,703 was quite impressive, about 6,000 below AT&T Park's capacity.
Fans had to flee from the open areas to protected ones, under the overhang, when the downpour arrived, but the game went on, and certainly so did the Dominican Republic, which appropriate for the setting, won on pitching. As in 2012 did the Giants, who call AT&T home.
If the other team doesn’t score, the adage goes, the worst you’ll have is a 0-0 tie. The other team, Puerto Rico, not only didn’t score in this game, it didn’t score in the previous game of the tournament against the DR and not since the fourth inning of the game before that, a stretch of 23 innings.
“You look at the Dominican roster,” said Edward Rodriguez, the Puerto Rico manager, “the arms that they have. Not only the starters, but that’s a big league bullpen right there.
“We didn’t score in those many innings, but the last time I checked there was not many that scored against that team. Because when you take a guy throwing 94, 95 and then bring in a guy throwing 97, 98, that’s pretty hard to score against.”
Samuel Deduno, who spent part of the 2012 season with the Minnesota Twins — and part in the minors — started for the Dominicans. He pitched five innings and allowed only two hits. Then came the relievers, first Octavio Dotel, who’s been around forever, then Pedro Strop, Santiago Casilla (of the Giants) and finally Fernando Rodney, who recorded his seventh save in the eight games.
“Samuel Deduno did a great job for us not only tonight, but the whole WBC,” said Pena. “He pitched three games for us, and he pitched three successful games . . . Since I said earlier, when we started the WBC, our bullpen was the root. We would play five innings with the starter and then turn the game over to them.”
Robinson Cano of the Yankees — a free agent for the coming season — was hitless Tuesday but ended up batting .469, a good reason he was chosen tournament MVP.
“We have superstars,” said Cano, “but God knows when things happen. This is a great feeling. Tony did a great job. We have this great energy and have always been praying.”
It was playing, not the praying, that enabled them to sweep through the Classic and led Dominican president Danilo Medina — watching the triumph along with virtually everyone in the nation — to call Pena and offer his congratulations.
“The Dominican Republic,” said Pena, “were hungry for this moment.”
Now that the moment has passed, the players, coaches and manager head back to their respective teams. Or will they?
“I’ll tell you one thing,” said Cano, laughing. “Tonight we are going to celebrate. Tomorrow we are going to celebrate. Thursday we will go back to spring training.”
As champions of the world.