Dominican Baseball Card #7 and #8: Luis Polonia

The Dominican Baseball Guy has two Luis Polonia cards for this edition of the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Baseball Cards.  The first is a 1989 Topps #424 and the second is a 1992 Topps #37.  Luis had a long career that started with the A's in 1987.  He spent 12 years in the big leagues with six teams.  Crazy stat: he had five stints with the Yankees.  They picked him up mid-season four times.  He won two World Series titles with Atlanta (1995) and the Yankees (2000).  The Dominican Baseball Guy was surprised to find he never made an all-star team.  His last year in the majors was 2000, but he has played in Mexico and the Dominican Republican ever since.

Luis has played in the Dominican Winter Baseball League for many years.  He was even playing last season at the age of 45 in a kind of fair well tour.  He has played his entire Dominican Winter League career with his hometown team, the Aguilas of Santiago, DR.  Luis has the all time record for hits in the Dominican Winter Baseball League with 877.  The Dominican Baseball Guy thinks last season was his last year in the Dominican Winter League, but who knows, he may show up this year again.

According to baseballreference.com page on Polonia, he runs the Expos Baseball Academy in Santiago, but obviously the Expos are no longer an active organization.  He actually has his own academy now where he trains Dominicans in an efforts to get them signed.  Seems to be a well run operation and he offers training for anyone that wants to pay, though the Dominican Baseball Guy is sure he takes on most of his Dominican clients for a percentage of their bonus if and when they sign.  Here is a link to his academy website: http://www.luispolonia.com/index.html