Juan Marichal is best Latin pitcher of all-time, Dominicano Juan Marichal es el mejor lanzador latino en la historia del MLB

The Dominican Baseball Guy is happy to blog that the top two pitchers on the MLB.com list of Top 5 Latin pitchers are both Dominican.  As the Dominican Baseball Guy blogged yesterday, Pedro Martinez was voted the second best Latin pitcher of all-time.

And today, the voters announced the top Latin pitcher of all-time, and the honoree is Juan Marichal.

Marichal won 191 in the 1960s, more than Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, and Don Drysdale.  He went on to win 243 games, and is probably most well known by baseball laymen for his trademark high leg kick, as pictured below.  O, and just to show how big of pansies modern day pitchers are, Marichal pitched 243 complete games and won 25 games in a season three times

He is also known for the Roseboro incident in which he hit opposing catcher John Roseboro in the head with a bat.  This incident and the fallout has been mythologized in a play.  However, luckily the incident did not define his career in the long term.

Baseball analysts and historians agree, he was the greatest Latin pitcher of all-time.  Baseball historian Rob Ruck says, "the greatest right-hander of his era," Ruck said, "at a time when there were great pitchers to be found."

And Marichal's peers and countrymen agree too.  According to Indians manager and native Dominican Manny Acta: "he was on top of the list. He was the guy."

Juan was elected to the National  Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, and he remains the only Dominican player to have that honor.  See his Hall of Fame profile.

He is still beloved by Giants fans and memorialized in a statue in front of the Giant's San Francisco home.

He is from Laguna Verde, DR, and he took a simple approach to the game, perhaps drawn from his life in the Dominican Republic:

I have five pitches. Fast ball, change, curve, slider, screwball. I don't know any hitters. Catcher, he tells me what to do. I can get any pitch I want over the plate.

Juan Marichal statue in San Francisco, by sporst on Flickr

Ex-Pirate Tony Pena elected to Latino Baseball Hall of Fame, Dominicano Tony Pena va a Salon de Fama

The Latin Baseball Hall of Fame, or Salon de la Fama del Beisbol Latino, is based in La Romana, Dominican Republic.  The organization works in coordination with MLB and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

They recently announced their class for 2012.  Aiden Gonzalez of MLB.com covered the story from the perspective of Bernie Williams and the Yankees.  But the Dominican Baseball Guy has not seen one article covering from the perspective of the Dominican inductee and former Pittsburgh Pirate Tony Pena.  Shocking, (the Dominican Baseball Guys knows) MLB and other major media outlets covering the Yankees and not the Pirates.

So, as the Dominican Baseball Guy it is my duty to cover Tony Pena's side of this great honor.  Pena is of course one the most revered Dominican players, and the Dominican Baseball Guy would consider him one of the leaders of what he considers the "modern wave" of Dominicans coming into the big leagues since the 1980s.    He is certainly one of the greatest Dominican catchers to ever play in the big leagues.  You know what, the Dominican Baseball Guy is going to say it: Tony Pena is the greatest Dominican catcher of all-time.

Which bring the Dominican Baseball Guy to another point...THERE ARE NO DOMINICAN CATCHERS nowadays.  The Dominican Baseball Guy noticed this down in the Dominican Republic.  In all the pick up games there is rarely someone playing catcher.  The Dominican Baseball Guy also hypothesizes that there is rarely good catching equipment in La Republica Dominica, so this could be another reason for the dearth of catchers in the country.  Lastly, the Dominican Baseball Guy surmises that "it's just not cool" to play catcher in for young Dominican players.  Just the opinion of the Dominican Baseball Guy, maybe some other reasons for this anomaly.

Pena had a great career that spanned 18 MLB seasons. He came up with the Pirates and went on to play with the Cardinals, Red Sox, and Indians. Tony was known for his defense behind the plate. He won 4 gold gloves and made 5 All-Star teams. He made it to the World Series with the Cardinals in 1987, losing to the Twins.

Tony also had a long career in the Dominican Winter Baseball League, playing late into his career with his original team, the Aguilas from Sanitago. The Dominican Baseball Guy could not find any statistics on his career in the DWL, but he played for more than ten years and won several titles with the Aguilas.

Tony went strait into coaching after his career was over, as many catchers do. He has managed the Aguilas for several years, winning DWL in 1998, 2000, 2001, and a Caribbean Series Championship with the team in 2001.  He spent 2002-2005 as the Royals manager and has been the Yankees bench coach for three years. 

Tony is from Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. His son Tony Pena Jr. has pitched in the LIDOM and has had a cup of coffee as a pitcher with the Royals, and his other son, Francisco Pena, is in the Mets organization.  He joins Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Tetelo Vargas, Rico Carty and Horacio Martinez as the Dominican members of the Latino Hall of Fame.

Tony Pena, Yankees bench coach, by Keith Allison on Flickr

Dominican Republic hopes to host World Baseball Classic

Héctor Pereyra, the president of the Federación Dominicana de Béisbol (Fedobe) said that the Dominican national baseball team has put in a request with World Baseball Classic, Inc. to host an opening round of the next World Baseball Classic. The next classic is scheduled to take place in 2013.

The letter was signed by Pereya, Leonardo Matos Berrido (the president of the Dominican League of Winter Baseball), Juan Francisco Puello (president of the Confederación de Béisbol del Caribe), Mario Soto (president of the Federación Dominicana de Peloteros Profesionales), and former players Stanley Javier and Juan Marichal. This is a who's who list of people in charge of domestic baseball in the Dominican Republic.

Needless to say, the whole country is surely behind this effort. And it would be a disaster if they were to host the opening round and put up a performance like the Dominicans did in 2009 when they were ousted in the first round. And that was a team filled almost entirely with big league players.

The Dominican Baseball Guy cannot wait for the next one...still two years away.

Hanley Ramirez in the World Baseball Classic, by Rabbethan

Juan Marichal play to debut in Columbus, Ohio

Playwright and actor Roger Guenveur Smith will debut his one man play about the Marichal-Roseboro incident in 1965.  In the event, Juan Marichal attacked John Roseboro with a bat and hit him in the head.  Roseboro eventually recovered and came to forgive Marichal for the unspeakable act.  The two even went on to become friends.

Guenveur Smith weaves the baseball story with other events, such as the Watts race riots and the United States invasion of the Dominican Republic that were happening at the time.  The play tells a personal story of the two men, but also gives a historical and cultural historical lesson of the 1960s.  See the play at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.

Marichal is the only Dominican player in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, though there should be a few to follow soon.  He is a ten time all-star selection and had his #27 retired by the Giants.  He is from Laguna Verde, DR.

The Juan Marichal statue outside Giants stadium, by Eric Molina on Flickr

Latino Baseball Hall of Fame inducts 2011 members

The Latin Baseball Hall of Fame was founded last year and inducted their second class on February 12, 2011.  Fourteen new members were inducted, and over 20 men were inducted in the inaugural year last year.  See the full list at the Salon de Fama del Beisbol Latino site.

The Dominicans now members of the hall are 2010 nominees Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, and Tetelo Vargas, and the 2011 inductees Rico Carty and Horacio Martinez.

Juan Marichal statue in San Francisco, By Eric Molina on Flickr

The induction ceremony has taken place in the resort city of La Romana, Dominican Republic the last two years and there are plans to build the hall in this city, though construction has yet to begin.

See the full article and further commentary at the Dominican Baseball Examiner.

History of the Estadio Quisqueya

The Dominican Baseball Guy is going to continue a series of blog posts that he started at the beginning of the Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM) season last year.  They will be on the history of Dominican Baseball, with a focus on the teams and stadiums.  The first two posts on Dominican Baseball History were the History of the Gigantes del Cibao and the History of the LIDOM.  The Dominican Baseball Guy also included a post with several important books that have a histories of Dominican Baseball.

The Quisqueya Stadium is the most important sporting place in the Dominican Republic.  It is in Santo Domingo and is home to the Licey Tigers and the Ecogido Lions, the two most prominent and longest standing teams in the country.  The stadium was the dream of longtime dictator Rafael Trujillo and inaugurated on October 23, 1955.  Trujillo is not usually seen as a favorable ruler as his regime was characterized by an iron fist, but he did maintain order and brought progress in infrastructural development.  And he loved baseball.

Quisqueya has been the Cathedral of baseball in the Dominican Republic and has hosted 50 plus games nearly every year since the first game in 1955.  Everyone in the country knows this stadium and it is the dream of most young players to play here, even more so than in the big leagues because their friends and family can see them play in the Quisqueya.

Last May, the federal government set forth to redevelop the stadium and surrounding area.  They will be adding 10,000 seats to make the capacity nearly 25,000, and they will be updating locker rooms and all the guest facilities.  Additionally, they plan to develop the area around the stadium and build apartments, a luxury hotel, and retail outlets.  The new area will be named after Juan Marichal, the only Dominican in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.  He is from Laguna Verde, DR.

You can see a complete history at the Licey website here.  Great place to see a game, and it will be even better when this renovation is complete!