Dominican baseball card #27: Alexi Casilla

It has been a while since the Dominican Baseball Guy has had a Dominican baseball cards update. I had to stock up on some more cards, and got some good ones. So, for the latest Dominican baseball card, I have an Alexi Casilla 2011 Topps card (#339). It is a pretty standard card, no crazy graphics or anything. Topps has always had pretty boring cards.

Dominican player Alexi Casilla has had a solid MLB career since he first appeared in a game with the Twins back in 2006. He has never quite made it to 'everyday player' status, but has appeared in 69 games or more in five of his six full big league seasons. A well above average defender, he is a tick below average as a hitter, so he has been unable to hold on to a full time major league gig.

With that said, he has had some big clutch hits and been a part of some post-season success for the Twins. In 2009, during the 2009 AL Central tie-breaker game against the Tigers, Casilla hit a game-winning walk-off single to send the Twins to the playoffs. Just last week, he scored two runs and drove in four in a Twins win, so he has had some big games. The problem is he has not been able to do it consistently at the plate.

The Dominican Baseball Guy first noticed Casilla during the 2009 Dominican Winter Baseball League season. I saw him play live 15-20 times that year. He was the starting second baseman for the Gigantes for most of the year, and he really showed his class that year with a good showing at the plate and tons of good plays in the field. Even a marginal MLB player like Casilla can be a star in the winter leagues.

He is still making a major contribution for the Twins this year, though they are not in the playoff hunt. Dominican baseball player Casilla is from San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.

Dominican Baseball Card #24, #25, #26: Pedro Guerrero

The Dominican Baseball Guy has three Pedro Guerrero cards for this installment of Dominican Baseball Cards.  They are a 1990 Topps (#610), a 1990 Donruss (#63), and a 1989 Donruss (#418).  The Dominican Baseball Guy particularly loves the red outline of the card on the right, and it goes great with that Cardinals uniform.

Pedro is remembered fondly by Dodgers fans for helping them win the 1981 World Series, in which he shared a World Series MVP.  Friend of the Dominican Baseball Guy, Dodgerbobble says Pedro was one of his favorite Dodgers as a child, and True Blue LA has a nice piece on the good Dodger days of Pedro.  He earned a Silver Slugger award the next year and went on to make five all-star teams.  Pedro garnered serious MVP considerations in 1989 with the Cardinals.  He ended his big league career in 1992 right at .300 average, which is a magical number for any hitter.

Pedro is perhaps best known for his outlandish behavior, both during his playing days and after.  One day after a game he apparently spread his privates on the food spread, and he was known as a hard partier throughout his playing days.  He was charged with cocaine trafficking, but acquitted in 2000.  Thanks to Jim Rome playing the clip repeatedly, the Dominican Baseball Guy and many others know him best from the infamous O.J. Simpson 9-1-1 call:

"We have a problem here. I'm trying to get a girl to go to rehab. She's been doing drugs for two days with Pedro Guerrero, who just got arrested for cocaine, and I'm trying to get her to leave her house and go into rehab right now."

Apparently, Pedro has cleaned up his act recently and is looking to get back into baseball.  So, good luck to him.  Pedro is another of the unending stream of players from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.

Dominican Baseball Card #23: Jose Vizcaino

A Topps 1993 (#237) Jose Vizcaino card is the latest Dominican Baseball Card.  It is a pretty standard and boring card, coming just after the late 1980's wild cards and just before the more polished later 1990's-2000's cards.  Buy the card on Amazon if you want it.

Jose was a journeyman big leaguer.  The Dominican Baseball Guy is always impressed with players that are able to stick around for ten plus years, with only mediocre statistics.  An 18 year Major League Baseball career is impressive, no matter how many games Jose played or what statistics he put up.

Jose hit a walk off hit in game one of the 2000 World Series for the Yankees.  The Yankees went on to win the series.  He also played in the 2005 World Series with the Houston Astros and had a game tying home run in the top of the ninth of game 2.  The Astros would go on to lose the game and the series.

Other than these highlights, Jose never made an all-star team or had any Gold Gloves, but it is an impressive career nonetheless.  He played in 1800 games for eight teams, and had a career average of .270.

Jose is currently an assistant with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball operations department.  He is from San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.

Dominican Baseball Card #22: Ramon Romero

The 22nd installment of Dominican Baseball Cards is a 1986 Topps #208, Ramon Romero.  This card falls under the category of random Dominican baseball cards, as Romero is probably a little known player.  The Dominican Baseball Guy loves the blue glove.  It hearkens back to a young Pedro Martinez with the Expos.  As rare of a card it probably is, it is actually available on Amazon.

Romero is another Dominican big leaguer from San Pedro de Macoris.  Simply, astounding the number of players that have come out of this city of around 300,000 people.  The Dominican Baseball Guy could not make this stuff up.  Seemingly every other post has a player from the town, which the Dominican Baseball Guy has been calling the Mecca of baseball.

The Dominican Baseball Guy says this falls under random cards because Romero only spent two seasons in the big leagues, 1984 and 1985.  Funny that he did not even play in the majors the year this card came out.  Romero was signed by the Indians in 1976, so had a long minor league career.  He had a career 2-3 record with a 6.28 ERA.  Yea, pretty short lived major league career, but at least he made it to the show.

No idea where Romero is or what he has been doing since his playing days.  Please leave a comment if you know anything or remember him with the Indians.

Dominican Baseball Card #21: Luis Castillo

The Dominican Baseball Guy has another San Pedro de Macoris native for the Dominican Baseball Card #21, Luis Castillo.  The card is a 2010 Topps #394: great shot on front, shiny on front and back with nice design, and the back has his full statistics for 10 plus years in the big leagues.

Luis started his major league career in 1997 with the Florida Marlins where he was the starting second baseman at the age of 21.  He has been the everyday second basemen for the Marlins, Twins, and is now with the Mets.  He won a World Series with that 1997 Marlins team, though he did not play in the playoffs due to injury.  And he was one of the only holdovers for the 2003 Marlins that also won the World Series.  

Luis had a 35 game hit streak in 2002 and has gone to 3 All Star games along with 3 Gold Gloves.  Luis will be with the Mets next year (he is in a position battle).  He is from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.

Dominican Baseball Card #20: Juan Bell

Dominican Baseball Card #20 is a 1990 Topps #724 of Juan Bell.  One of those super boring early nineties baseball cards.  See all the Dominican Baseball Cards.

Perhaps Juan's greatest claim to fame is that he is George Bell's brother.  Juan had a fairly uneventful career.  He spent five seasons in the big leagues, and parts of 12 seasons in the minor leagues.  Juan had a career .212 batting average in the majors.  The Brewers some how payed him $1.82 million as a free agent in 1993 even though he had a career big league average under .200 in two previous seasons and around 300 at bats.  He spent his final season in the AAA Mexican league in 2000.

The Dominican Baseball Guy could not find anything on Juan Bell since he retired in 2000.  He is probably hanging with George somewhere in the Dominican Republic, but leave a comment if you remember Juan or you have any information on him today.  He is from San Pedro de Macoris.

Dominican Baseball Card #19: Carmen Castillo

The #19 Dominican Baseball Card is Carmen Castillo.  Carmen is one of the lesser known Dominican players that the Dominican Baseball Guy has profiled in his Dominican Baseball Card updates.  The card is a 1989 Topps.

The Dominican Baseball Guy could hardly find any information on Carmen.  It is a shame because he had a very long career.  Carmen debuted for the Indians in 1982 and spent seven seasons with the team.  He then went on to play for the Twins for 3 seasons.  So, he had a ten year big league career which is pretty impressive.  It seems he was used as a utility outfielder, and played as needed.  His career high in games was 94 and he had a career .252 average, which is...well average.  And he is another of a long line of players from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.

If anyone knows Carmen or anything more about his career or post-playing days please leave a comment.  Otherwise enjoy game 2 of the Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM) finals tonight.

Dominican Baseball Cards #16, #17, #18: Sammy Sosa

This installment of Dominican Baseball Cards features one of the most famous Dominican baseball players: Sammy Sosa.  And since the Dominican Baseball Guy missed the last two baseball card updates, the Dominican Baseball Guy has three cards today.  There is a Score 1990 #558, a Score 1992 #258, and an Upper Deck 1990 #17.  All three come from Sammy as a Chicago White Sock.  A lot of people probably forget he started his career with the Rangers and then got traded to the White Sox for Harold Baines and others before he made his way to the Cubs.

Sosa became one of the most famous Dominican ballplayers after his race to break Roger Maris's single season home run record with Mark McGwire in 1998.  Sammy lost out that year and ended the year in second place with 66 home runs, which is still the 3rd best mark for home runs in a season ever.  He also won the NL MVP that year and the Roberto Clemente award.  He has 3 of the top 6 home runs in a season marks, and is 7th on the all time list with 609.  Sosa also had 6 Silver Slugger awards and made 7 all-star games.  Quite a career for a guy that started out as a speedy, good fielding outfielder.

His later career was marred by the corked bat incident, and like many from his generation steroid allegations. He was one of the 104 leaked names from a supposedly private MLB test in 2003.  Whatever the allegations, this guys numbers are certainly Hall of Fame worthy.  We will have to wait and see if he gets in.  The baseball writers that vote on the Hall know more about the ethics of the game than does the Dominican Baseball Guy, so I will trust their judgement in this case.

In recent months Sosa has been in the news, since being accused of whitening his skin, a la Michael Jackson.  The photos are unmistakable, when compared to his early years in MLB.  Sosa was a very popular player in the Dominican Republic during his playing days, as our most successful Dominican MLBers.  The recent whitening scandal, and the perceived idea that he doesn't come to the Dominican Republic much anymore, have made him somewhat of a villain in his home country today.  In any case, he was a great player in his day, and he hails from the center of the best baseball in the world, San Pedro de Macoris.

Dominican Baseball Card #15: Rafael Belliard

This installment of Dominican Baseball Cards is a 1990 Topps #143, Rafael Belliard.  The Dominican Baseball Guy has a lot of cards from this Topps set.  Not sure why because they are pretty ugly, but they come at a very popular time for card collecting.

Rafael Belliard played 17 seasons in MLB, 1155 games and 2301 at bats, for the Pirates and Braves.  He hit 2 home runs.  Yes, that is not a typo.  He hit 2 home runs in 2301 at bats.  He was named as a Player that Obviously Never Took Steroids by Just Call Me Juice blog, which I guess is a good thing.

He never made an all-star team or had any individual honors.  Pretty amazing for someone to stick around for 17 years without ever taking any individual awards.  His biggest individual accomplishment: he twice appeared in the top ten in the NL in sacrifice bunts.  His prowess was as a great fielding short stop.  Rafael did win a World Series title with the Braves in 1995.  He played with the Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter League (LIDOM).

Rafael is currently a coach with the Tigers (Here is his Tigers coaching profile).  He even has his own Facebook page.  His cousin Ronnie Belliard played for the Dodgers last season and has been in MLB since 1998.  Rafael is from Pueblo Nuevo, DR.

Dominican Baseball Card #13 and #14: Willy Mo Pena and Jose Offerman

The Dominican Baseball Guy missed the last baseball card update due to Thanksgiving and all the updates he was doing regarding the 2010 All-Dominican Team and other end of year awards.  So here are two cards to finish off the month.

First off is a Willy Mo Pena card.  This is a 2007 Topps, believed to be part of a team collection because it is numbered BOS5.  They are pretty cool, glossy cards, that are heavy in weight.  The Dominican Baseball Guy likes them a lot.

From 2002-2008 Willy played with the Reds, Red Sox, and Nationals.  He has always had lots of power, hitting 77 HRs and 225 RBI in those eight big league years.  Willy played part of the 2009 season for the Mets AAA team, and then played most of 2010 with the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Independent Atlantic League.  Last summer, the Padres signed him to a minor league deal, so he could be in the big leagues next year at some point.

Willy has played for the Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter Baseball League for many years.  Last season, he won the final Player of the Week Award in the Dominican Baseball Winter League, as the Dominican Baseball Guy blogged.  As far as I can tell, he has not played in the winter league this year, which is suprising considering all the success he has had in previous years.  Willy is from Lagunda Salada, DR.

The #14 Dominican Baseball Card is a Jose Offerman 1991 Bowman #182.  These are perhaps some of the most boring cards ever, but it is a Dominican Baseball Card, so it is worth a blog.

Jose had a productive major league career in 15 MLB season.  He played 1600 games and made two All-Star teams, with the Dodgers in 1995 and the Red Sox in 1999.  Jose also had a successful career with Licey in the Dominican Winter Baseball League.  He won some domestic championships and Caribbean Series titles with Licey, then went on the manage them in 2008-2009.

His career ended with two incidents.  The first happened while he played in the Atlantic Independent League, in which he charged the mound with a bat.  He never played in the states after this incident.  The second incident occurred during the 2009 Dominican Winter League, in which he punched an umpire and was banned for life.  So, guess his career is probably over, since he is banned for life from two leagues, and probably has little shot of a return to MLB or the minors.  Jose is another from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.

Dominican Baseball Card #11 and #12: Felix Fermin

The #11 and #12 Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Baseball Cards are two Felix Fermin cards.  The first is a 1990 Donruss #191.  The second is a 1990 Topps #722.

Felix had a long career in the big leagues.  The Dominican Baseball Guy was suprised to find out that he never made an All-Star team or had any major award.  He played for ten years in the big leagues, debuting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1987.  He then spent 5 years with the Indians, and was traded to the Mariners for Omar Vizquel before the 1995 season.  He had probably his best year with the Mariners, as a Ken Griffey Jr. team won the AL West in 1995.  Fermin was an everyday player on that team.  Felix retired in 1996 after 11 games with the White Sox.

Felix is a popular player in Santiago, Dominican Republic, where he spent his Winter League seasons with the Aguilas.  He went on to manage the Aguilas after he retired.  He managed the Aguilas from 2000-2008, winning the Dominican Winter Baseball League 5 times in this period.  In 2009 he went on to manage the Gigantes del Cibao, and he led them to the Championship Series of the Dominican Winter Baseball League last season, before losing to Escogido in 9 games.  He is again coaching the Gigantes this season, and he remains very popular in Santiago, even though he manages their main rival.  Felix is from Mao, DR.

Dominican Baseball Card #10: Nelson Cruz

First off, the Dominican Baseball Guy now has his own domain, so be sure and bookmark dominicanbaseballguy.com.  And now on to the #10 Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Baseball Card.

The Dominican Baseball Guy does not usually do this, but he has to borrow a card from The Hamiltonian blog.  So, thanks to this post from the Hamiltonian, the Dominican Baseball Guy's 10th Dominican Baseball Card is a Nelson Cruz custom:

It's just a great card and it has Cruz playing for the Dominican Republic.  Nelson is just starting his career, so not much to say or update here.  The Dominican Baseball Guy recently tweeted and facebooked an article on Cruz's rise to the big leagues (see the article on Cruz's Road to the Bigs here).  He actually started as a basketball player and did not start baseball until he was 16.  The Mets signed him at the age of 17 in 1998, and 11 years later he was an all-star with the Rangers.

Nelson was an all-star and hit in the home run derby in 2009.  This year he fought threw injuries, but when he plays, he is considered one of the best corner outfielders in the game.  He is considered a true 5 tool players, and has shown all these skills, hitting for power and average, running, fielding and throwing.  If he can stay healthy, the Dominican Baseball Guy guarantees he will be an all-star for many years to come.

Nelson has played with the Gigantes in Dominican Winter Baseball League, for several years.  He led the league in home runs and RBI in 2008.  He is a huge crowd favorite with the Gigantes fans and even played a few games last year after making an MLB all-star team.  Gigantes fans say "llega papa," or "here comes the papa" when Cruz is playing.  He is a huge draw in the Dominican Winter League.

Nelson is from Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic.  Tony Pena, the 9th Dominican Baseball Card, is also from Monte Cristi.  This is actually a province, not a city.  It is in the far north-west corner of the Dominican Republic on the border with Haiti.  Good players come from all over the Dominican is the point.

Dominican Baseball Card #9: Tony Pena

The 9th edition of the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Baseball Card is a Tony Pena 1988 Fleer #45.  I really like the cheese factor of this set from Fleer.  The white borders are hideously great.  Guess this was the 80s cheese factor making its way onto the baseball cards.  Tony has a great mustache too, and according to movember.org, next month is the month of the mustache.


Tony 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.  And he split 40 games between the White Sox and Astros in his last season, so the Dominican Baseball Guy guesses we have to count those teams too.  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, and 2001, and a Caribbean Series Championship with the team in 2001.  He even showed up for the second half of last season, as the Aguilas were playing bad and fired their American manager, bringing in Pena to finish the season.  He spent 2002-2005 as the Royals manager and won the AL manager of the year in 2003, taking the Royals to 3rd place finish in the AL, unheard of for the Royals.  He has been the Yankees bench coach for two years, winning a World Series title last year, and still in the hunt of the ALCS this year.  Tony is from Monte Criti, Dominican Republic.  His son Tony Jr. pitched in the DWL last year (as the Dominican Baseball Guy blogged) and his other son, Francisco, is in the Mets organization.

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

Dominican Baseball Card #5 and #6: Moises Alou

So technically Moises Alou was born in Atlanta, but his father and uncles were some of the first Dominicans to play in the big leagues and he has always had a home in Santo Domingo, so he is surely Dominican.  His father, Felipe, and uncles, Jesus and Matty, are national heroes and very well known amongst Dominican fans.  The last Dominican Winter Baseball League season (2010-11) was dedicated to the Alou brothers.  The Dominican Baseball blogged about this a couple times, as it seemed every game recap in the newspapers down there ended with: this season is dedicated to the Alou brothers.

The Dominican Baseball Guy has two really cool Moises Alou cards to share for the #5 and #6 Dominican Baseball Cards.  The first is a Rookie 1991 Rookie card, #38.  The blue border on this card is one of the tackiest faces of any set the Dominican Baseball Guy has ever seen, but for some reason he loves it.  The next card is his 1990 Score Rookie card (#592) that comes from his very first season in which he spent a few games with the Pirates.  It is crazy how young and skinny he looks, and the Dominican Baseball Guy loves looking at how players add that weight as they get older.

Moises played an amazing 17 years in the major leagues.  He first came up with the Expos where he was managed by his father.  He would later be managed by Felipe again in San Francisco.  Moises won a championship with the Florida Marlins in 1997 and then had three great years with the Dominican Baseball Guy's hometown Houston Astros.  The Dominican Baseball Guy remembers Alou as a dominate player in these years. In this three year stint he hit at least 27 HRs, 108 RBI, and batted over .300 every year.  He was then involved in the Steve Bartman incident that would have sent the Cubs to the World Series.  Moises then spent a few semi-productive years with the Giants and Mets.  A very successful and eventful career overall.

Moises has been able to stay involved with the game and is now the General Manager for Escogido in the Dominican Winter Baseball League.  Moises played for Escogido and his father managed the team previously.  According to MLB.com, he enjoyed the position last year, as he took his team to the Caribbean Series.  Escogido went on to win the Series.  Pretty good, for a first year GM.  He is back in the same position this year, and they have just opened training camp (See this article).

Dominican Baseball Card #4: Tony Fernandez

Dominican Baseball card #4 is 1990 Fleer #634 Tony Fernandez/Cal Ripken Jr.  Obviously Tony Fernandez is the Dominican Part of this card.  Tony was part of the Dominican influence with the Blue Jays throughout the 1980s.  The Blue Jays were one of the first teams of the modern era to have a bunch of Dominican players on their big league team and in their farm system.  Epy Guerrero was responsible for signing a lot of these Dominican players.  Here is an article from 1989 and a more recent one on Epy.

 Tony Fernandez was a great shortstop that played an incredible 18 seasons in the big leagues from 1983-2001.  He had four strait gold gloves in the late 1980s and made the all-star team 5 times.  Tony was part of the Blue Jays World Championship team in 1993 and reached the World Series again in 1997 with the Cleveland Indians, but lost to the Florida Marlins.  He had a career .288 average and hit .300 four times.  He actually played one year in Japan, before returning to Toronto to retire as a Blue Jay in 2001.  Tony had a very long and successful career.  Another Dominican from the famed city of San Pedro de Macoris.

Tony was in Toronto in August to honor the anniversary of a no-hitter in which he played.  From Slam Sports:

The most exciting moments of the day came just before the game when the Jays celebrated the 20th anniversary of Dave Stieb's no-hitter. With old teammates Tony Fernandez, Jesse Barfield, Pat Hentgen and Duane Ward on hand, the crowd of 26,624 applauded warmly for all five players, but especially for Stieb, who appreciated the ceremony. "It was a real thrill to relive a few of those old moments," said Stieb, who was daughter Patty accompanied him. "I will never forget this day."

Not sure what else Tony is up to now, but post a comment if you have heard anything.  Hopefully he is still involved with baseball in the DR or somewhere.

Dominican Baseball Card #3: George Bell

The latest Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Baseball Card is a 1990 Score #286 George Bell card.  Toronto Blue Jays fans remember George Bell fondly I am sure.  The Dominican Baseball Guy decided to scan the front and back of this card, because these Score cards have cool insert pictures on the back.  Of course, you can see his full stats at George Bell's Baseball Cube page since it is kind of hard to see the stats here.  Bell did this before steroids came around when it was actually an amazing incredible feat to have 47 HRs and 134 RBI in a season.  George won the AL MVP for this season, and he was the first Dominican to win an MVP award.  He played for nine years that were all super productive (seven with Toronto, 1 with the Cubs, and 1.5 with the White Sox).  Bell is a member of the Rogers Centre's Level of Excellence, the Blue Jays Hall of Fame.

 

Bell has been in the news lately because the Dominican Baseball Guy's Dominican Player of the Month, Jose Bautista, just broke his Blue Jays single season home run record that was set in that 1987 season.  Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star interviewed Bell for this article, and David Perkins of the Star wrote this article after Bautista broke the record.  Bell has been following Bautista and says that Bautista is one of his favorite players.  He is happy that a fellow Dominican is breaking his record, and says that everyone in the DR is following him:

“They love what Jose is doing. They’ve always had the older guys like (Albert) Pujols, and Pedro Martinez, but Jose is running away with the home-run lead and he’s close to breaking (Bell’s Jays record). A lot of people are talking about it here.”

This is typical in the DR.  Everyone wants to see the Dominicans playing in the big leagues and hopes that they do well.  Dominicans root for their fellow Dominicans above all else.

George Bell now owns a construction company in his home town, the Mecca of baseball, San Pedro de Macoris, DR.  He is also an avid golfer, has a 1 handicap, and plays lots of golf in the DR and throughout the US.  He still has family in Boston and splits time between the DR and the US, as it is only a 2 hour flight or so to Florida or the northeast coast.  Congrats George on a great career and life!

The Dominican Baseball Guy has so many Dominican Baseball cards that he is going to start doing a Dominican baseball card post 3 times a month, on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of every month.

Dominican Baseball Card #2: Pascual Perez

The Dominican Baseball Guy had never heard of Pascual Perez, but the Dominican Baseball Guy came across this card in his stock pile of baseball cards and with that hair had to put him up as the second Dominican Baseball Guy Dominican Baseball Card post.

Pascual debuted in 1980 as a pitcher with the Pirates, go figure with that hair.  He had a long career, playing all or part of 11 seasons in the big leagues with the Pirates, Braves, Expos, and Yankees.  So the Dominican Baseball Guy is surprised he has never heard of him.  He spent most of his career as a starter, peaking with 15 wins with the Braves in 1983.  Pascual ended his career with 67 big league wins and 63 minor league wins.

Baseballcube.com has the most comprehensive listing of player stats, so check out Pascual's page there.

According to his wikipedia page, Pascual exhibited some typical flare associated with Dominican and Latin players:

One of Pascual's pitches was a slow, high-arcing changeup. Since he was the only one in the majors throwing this pitch at the time, many referred to it as the Pascual pitch, although it is historically referred to as an Eephus pitch.
Pascal first made his trademark peek through the legs to check the runner on first in 1979 in the Dominican League. He put his head through his legs to look at Rafael Landestoy on first base.

Pascual is from San Cristobal, DR.  Not sure what he is doing now, but leave a comment if you have heard anything about his post playing days.

Dominican Baseball Card #1: Raul Mondesi

The Dominican Baseball Guy has been inspired by some fellow baseball bloggers to start a weekly post with Dominican baseball cards. Here are some of the favorite baseball card blogs of the Dominican Baseball Guy: Night Owl Cards, Card Board Junkie, A Cardboard Problem, A Pack a Day, The Baseball Card Blog, Cardfu the Sports Card Blog, BDJ610's Topps Baseball Card Blog, Dinged Corners.  Then there are some that cover particular players or teams: Carl Crawford Cards, Cards on Cards, Grand Cards (Curtis Granderson) and one that covers the Dominican Baseball Guy's beloved Texas Rangers, Texas Rangers Cards.  The Dominican Baseball Guy will get a list of these (and other) baseball card blogs up soon.

So, with that said, the Dominican Baseball Guy is starting a weekly post of Dominican Baseball Cards.  This is a great way to show off some cards, and expose people to Dominican Baseball Players from the present and inform people about Dominican players from the past.

The first Dominican Baseball player card to be posted is a 1990 Bowman Raul Mondesi card:

Raul Mondesi was a five tool player and highly touted prospect when he came up with the Dodgers in 1993.  Interesting that Bowman put out a Raul Mondesi card, even though he was only a minor leaguer at the time.  That shows how highly thought of he was as a prospect.  Raul had some very good years with the Dodgers and Toronto, hitting 30 HRs with 80 RBI a few times.  He won the NL Rookie of the Year in 1994 and Gold Gloves in 1995 and 1997.  The Dominican Baseball Guy was surprised to see that he only made one All-Star game in 1995.  A lot of people would characterize Mondesi as a player that did not reach his potential, but the Dominican Baseball Guy thinks that 13 years in the big leagues (271 HRs, 860 RBI, .273 lifetime), along with the Gold Gloves and All-Star appearance, is a pretty good career.

Raul retired for good in 2005.  He returned to his hometown of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, and became involved in politics.  He first served in the Dominican Congress, representing his home district of San Cristobal.   He was recently elected Mayor of San Cristobal and will be serving a 6 year term (this is the only article the Dominican Baseball Guy could find on this).  That's right, Raul Mondesi is mayor of his hometown.  This shows how important baseball is in the DR.  This article in the LA Times describes Mondesi's political rise and explains part of the reason former ball players are successful in Dominican politics:

"Retired ballplayers are very useful. And being that baseball is the king of Dominican sports, they use them a lot," said Americo Celado, a columnist for the Dominican website Clave Digital. "But never thinking they can work for the good, submitting project after project in the Congress that will benefit society. Basically, it's to take advantage of their popularity."

Name recognition, after all, is huge in a country where 33% of the population doesn't finish eighth grade, and nearly two-thirds of people don't graduate from high school."

Artists and baseball players have a better chance of getting elected because of their fame. And their money," Celado said. "That's what [the political parties] use them for.

 Look for another Dominican Baseball Card on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of every month!