Dominican Nicknames

Nicknames are very common in this country, everyone has them, and generally goes by their nickname. With that said, the commentators on TV and the announcers at games end up giving out lots of nicknames to players.

All baseball fans know Dominicans David Ortiz (Big Papi), Manny Ramirez (Man Ram), Alex Rodriguez (ARod), and Pedro Martinez (Petey).

Thus far the Dominican Baseball Guy has said that Juan Francisco is known a ¨El Diamante¨ (The Diamond) and Dario Veras is known as ¨El Flaco de Oro¨(The Golden Skinny Guy). Of course Dario´s nickname makes a lot more sense in Spanish.

I spent last night in the press box with the announcer for los Gigantes and learned a knew nickname. Israel Paredes (the Announcer for Gigantes) has been calling Luis Durango La Maquina (The Machine). All these nicknames fit the players really well. Durango is leading the league in steals, and when he runs he does it like a machine. He plays center field really well and has a pretty good average. The Dominican Baseball Guy earlier guaranteed that we will see him in the Majors within 2 years, and he has done nothing to make me doubt this. Interestingly, Durango is Panamanian, and counts as an import in the Dominican Winter League. Durango was with the Padres AA team last year, check out the labels to see other posts on him.











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More nicknames to come, just check out the nicknames tag.

Juan Francisco, Conor Jackson Continue to Mash, Luis Durango will be in Majors

11/13/09 Game
Juan Fracisco had two towering home runs last night. These shots were close to 400 footers. This guy has a ton of power and will definitely be in the big leagues next year. Also for Gigantes, Luis Durango is a really really fast center fielder that has been playing well. He also showed off his arm last night, gunning a guy down at the plate when I thought he had no chance on the play. The Dominican Baseball Guy GUARANTEES they will be in the big leagues within 2 years.

For Escogido, Conor Jackson is leading the league in average, runs scored, and stolen bases, and is 3rd in RBI. Diamondbacks fans should be happy he is rounding back into big league form.

Here are some photos of the game from the Julian Javier Stadium in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic, all courtesy of the Dominican Baseball Guy:

 

Luis Durango .483 average, Conner Jackson 2-4

11/3/09 Game
Panamanian Luis Durango continued his hot hitting for the Gigantes and is hitting .483 with 6 walks, and 4 stolen bases. He has been hitting lead off daily and playing center field.

Luis Durango in 2008 with the Padres A affiliate, by SD Dirk on Flickr

Conor Jackson continued to hit as well, after being named player of the week for the first week. He went 2-4 with 2 RBI to push his RBI total to 10 in 13 games.

The Gigantes lost 4-3, and fell to 0-8 on the road, while they are 5-1 at home. San Fransisco de Macoris does have the best fans that I have seen (I have attended games in Santiaogo and Santo Domingo). The atmosphere is better than a lot of MLB miseason games that I have attended. They are really in to the game and cheer loudly, even at times that do not seem to be big moments. But does a home field crowd really make that much of difference (0-8 vs. 5-1)? They need to improve on the road.