Baseball team to take missionary trip to Dominican Republic

A group of baseball players from Arkansas will be making a missionary trip to the Dominican Republic in July.  They will be sharing their testimonies as Christians with some Dominican ball players, as well as playing some baseball against a Dominican team.

They are one of many groups to make missionary or charitable trips to the country.  The Dominican Baseball Guy has recently blogged about Manny Acta's charitable organization (ImpACTA Kids Foundation) and David Ortiz's organization (David Ortiz Children's Fund).

Roberto's Kids is another great organization that donates baseball equipment throughout the Dominican Republic.  The Dominican Sports and Education Academy is another international organization that comes to mind as providing a great service to youths in the Dominican Republic.

There are many more baseball focused religious and charitable groups that do great work in the Dominican Republic.  These are just the ones that the Dominican Baseball Guy has become acquainted with. Please leave a comment if you know of other groups working in the country, or visit the sites listed here and make a donation if you can.

Fausto Carmona will be Indians ace

Manny Acta announced that his fellow Dominican Fausto Carmona will be the opening day starter for Acta and the Indians.  Acta says that Carmona deserves the chance to be the ace, after going 13-14 with a 3.77 ERA.  Those may not sound like great numbers, but they are pretty good for a team that finished 69-93 last year.

Carmona had no idea he was going to be the ace going into spring training, even though Acta and a lot of the Indians assumed that would be the case.  This is Carmona's sixth year in the big leagues and he has a career record of 46-51.

Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports says that there should be plenty of Carmona to the Yankees rumors later in the season.  It seems like the Indians are providing aces for the rest of the league.  First, CC Sabathia, then Cliff Lee, and now possibly Carmona.

Fausto is from Santo Domingo, DR.

Carmona pitches in 2008, by Eric Kilby on Flickr

Manny Acta builds baseball facilities in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris

ImpACTA Kids Foundation is a charitable organization Indians manager Manny Acta founded in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris.  This off season the organization constructed several ball fields in San Pedro.  The foundation dedicated two fields to San Pedro natives Rico Carty and Sammy Sosa.  They also built a facility that was dedicated to local hero Alfredo Griffin.  Another field is in the works that will also be donated to a local baseball hero, Julio Franco.

The Alfredo Griffin baseball facility features classrooms, computers, a library, and kitchen, along with the ballfields and training facilities.  Through the ImpACTA website, Acta said he is proud to be from the city and happy at the large number of kids that will come to the new facility and practice and learn daily.

Acta is one of many Dominican players that do charity work in their home country.  The Dominican Baseball guy recently blogged about the David Ortiz charity golf tournament that supports children's healthcare in Boston and the Dominican Republic.  The fact is the Dominican Republic is a poverty stricken nation, so projects such as this are greatly beneficial for young ball players and everyone in the country.

Acta played for six years in the Astros minor league organization, but never reached the big leagues.  He is on his second managerial job with the Indians after three years with the Nationals.

Acta will be managing Cleveland for the second year, by  Cathy T on Flickr

Andy Marte hits 2 HRs, Gigantes lose to Toros

11/6/09 Game
Last night, the Gigantes lost 4-2, versus the Toros from La Romana. Fernando Abad got the win, and Andy Marte (pictured) hit 2 home runs for Toros. Marte played in 47 games with the Indians last year, and will be playing for fellow Dominican Manny Acta next year.

Andy Marte with the Indians in 2009, by Keith Allison on Flickr

Not much good happened for Gigantes after Erick Almonte hit a 2 run home run in the 1st inning.

Connor Jackson player of week, Manny Acta signs as Tribe new Manager

The Dominican Winter Baseball League has an off night tonight. But Conor Jackson was named the player of the week for the first week of the season. Check out the Pelotero de la Semana link on the right side of the league website.

Connor Jackson with the Diamondbacks in 2007, by John Kim on Flickr

Any time a Dominican does anything big in the big leagues it is major news in the DR. So, the Manny Acta signing by the Tribe was big news. The Listin Diario covered the story as did the Diario Libre here. It has also been covered continually on television. As an Astros fan I am kind of disappointed he did not go to the Stros. Here is the MLB.com article. Check out his bio with the link to his name, he is a pretty interesting guy. Very smart in my opinion. Another baseball guy from San Pedro de Macoris. He has a ton a managerial experience and even managed the DR team during the first World Baseball Classic.