KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Before taking batting practice ahead of their game against the Ontario Blue Jays at the Houston Astros spring training facility Thursday afternoon, several players from the Dominican Prospect League (DPL) elite team kept entertained playing a form of stickball popular in the Dominican Republic.
Described by DPL president Brian Mejia as a kind of “Dominican-style wiffleball,” pitchers throw the plastic cap off of the top of 5-gallon plastic jugs to a batter wielding a broom handle.
The pitcher can make the plastic cap curve and carry, dip and dart. The adept batters hit the cap with amazing regularity any how.
“That’s how they start getting their hand-eye coordination at a young age,” Mejia explained.
The majority of the players the DPL brought to the United States for Perfect Game USA-sponsored games in Florida and Arizona this week and next, momentarily left behind lives of poverty in the Dominican Republic.
Plastic jug caps and broomsticks were the only things available to the players in their neighborhoods.
“A lot of these kids don’t have running water at home … and everything the kids here in the U.S. experience is very far from reality for them,” Mejia said. “Just them getting here and experiencing this makes them want to sign that big contract and help their family.”
It is with that goal in mind the Dominican players were here Thursday to play a single nine-inning game against the Blue Jays, an elite 18U traveling team. The young athletes on the DPL elite team want to be seen by professional scouts, and a couple of dozen were on hand Thursday.
When asked their aspirations, the players sounded a familiar theme.
“Anytime we can come to the States and play at big league fields, it’s always a plus,”16-year-old outfield top prospect Ronald Guzman said through Mejia. “My experiences have been great and it’s good to see how the pro guys go about their business.
“I want to turn pro and hopefully sign in July with a good bonus to help my family,” he said. “I want to get to the big leagues and hopefully get to the Hall of Fame.”
Franmil Reyes, a promising 15-year-old outfielder, echoed Guzman.
“I appreciate the DPL bringing me to the U.S. to show my talent,” he said.“I want to sign and hopefully turn pro soon, and get a bonus that will help my family out.”
And there was this from 16-year-old shortstop prospect Angel Yente:
“I would love to sign a pro contract and be able to come and be a professional and experience spring training here in Florida. I want to help my family get to that comfort zone so they won’t be scratching and clawing to make ends meet.”
Most participants in Perfect Game events want to get in front of both pro scouts and college coaches and recruiters. The Dominican youngsters are out to catch the eye of only the scouts.
Mejia and his partner Ulises Cabrera formed the DPL in 2009 in an effort to “Implement a system that would help the signing process be transparent in the sense there were a lot of scandals going on” in the Dominican, according to Mejia.
He pointed to age-fraud issues and growing steroid use among young Dominicans, and a lot of the players were being evaluated only on workouts and not on their play during actual games.
“We decided to implement this system where we put the best kids in the Dominican Republic together in game situations, and it’s working,” Mejia said. “We’ve signed about 90 players (to pro contracts) with a total value of $18 million-plus in the last two years.”
The DPL began planning this trip to the U.S. a couple of months ago mostly to conduct open workouts. Mejia contacted Perfect Game to see if it could arrange games against American teams, and instead PG gave the DPL squad an opportunity to play two elite teams from Canada.
“It worked out great,” Mejia said. “We’ll play (two) nine-inning games and the guys will go get ‘em.”
The DPL elite team that is here and will be in Arizona next week has 13 players on its roster, most of them 16-years-old.
The squad started its Florida stay on Tuesday with a workout at the New York Yankees spring training facility in Tampa, and on Wednesday traveled to Fort Myers for a six-inning scrimmage against a Boston Red Sox rookie team.
It is scheduled to hold another open workout back at the Astros complex on Friday and then will leave for Arizona for the PG-sponsored game against the Langley Blaze at the Texas Rangers’ spring gtraining home in Surprise, and for a couple more open workouts.
In just their first two days in Florida, the DPL players got in front of some pretty influential eyes.
“Anytime you get guys like Mark Newman – who is the vice-president of baseball operations for the Yankees – seeing your players in a workout session in the U.S., and anytime you have Theo Epstein – the GM of the Red Sox – seeing your players, it’s all positive,” Mejia said. “That’s what the whole point of bringing them here was, and I think they were excited about it and we’re definitely excited about it.
“It’s a new culture (for the players) and it’s something they’re all going to experience at some point in their careers because all of them will sign pro contracts,” he continued. “It’s a head start on scouting and it’s a head start on the exposure of these kids to the U.S.”