D-Backs and San Pedro

Early this morning, I had the opportunity to spend time with Junior Noboa, the Assistant General Manager to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and their Director of Latin American Operations. Junior has been around the game for a long time; he played in the Majors for eight years, serving as a utility player on a number of teams, and is one of the oldest employees for the Diamondbacks, first starting when the team officially became a franchise in 1995. Because of his extensive experience, he had a great perspective on baseball in the Dominican Republic, and it was a pleasure to talk with him.

In many ways, Noboa is the pioneer of the modern Major League academy in the country. In 1995, after signing with the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers were still the only team with a real facility in the country (other teams had scouting programs and teams, but they were in bad shape). Noboa decided to build a facility close to Boca Chica, where I am staying now. He told me that he talked to Peter O'Malley, then the owner of the Dodgers, about his venture. O'Malley called him crazy, saying that it was a waste of time and space to build academies near Boca Chica, instead of near the Dodgers academy. Regardless, Noboa built the first baseball facility in Boca Chica, which at the time housed the Indians and Diamondbacks. Thirteen years later, the Boca Chica area is home to about 14 of the 29 big league teams with operations in the country.

Noboa emphasized the positive benefits that the academy has provided for the country. First and foremost, it makes life much easier on the players. In 1986, Noboa was signed by the Cleveland Indians as a sixteen year old. One week later, he was whisked off to a farm team in New York, never having been away from his family, and with limited English. Now, players get a full 2-3 years to develop, learn English, and receive cultural instruction before leaving the country. In addition, Noboa cited the many employees that MLB employs, and the fact that MLB is now invests about $100 million annually in the country (this does not include Major League salaries). Finally, Noboa told me that reaching the Major Leagues provides a dream for every Dominican boy, important in a country full of economic plight.

The Diamondbacks also, in large part to Noboa's efforts, are active in the community. They have helped build schools, baseball fields, and sponsored medical clinics. Noboa told me the Diamondbacks have also worked with the US Chamber of Commerce. In a program like the Padres carried out, the Diamondbacks with the Chamber to identify projects, and then give money, which is in turn matched by USAID. It appears that this method is effective, as the Chamber of Commerce can effectively survey a community and identify its needs, which both Noboa and the Padres told me.

While the Diamondbacks currently only have an English tutor come three to four times a week, Noboa emphasized the importance of education for the Dominican players. He understands both the potential downfall of players that don't make it to the US, and the weak Dominican education system in general. He told me he admires the efforts of teams like the Mets, and hopes that his team moves in that direction in the near future.

In addition to his efforts to work in the community with the Diamondbacks, Noboa is active in personal enterprises. He is the owner of Baseball City (Baseball City is a group of six facilities on the same land; Junior owns both the land and the facilities), and runs a company which builds academies throughout the country, and then leases them to major league teams. Additionally, Noboa recently started working on a facility which will allow impoverished kids to come for a week and receive baseball instruction, while learning the importance of staying off the street and staying in school. Noboa lit up when he talked about this project, which he hopes will be able to house 600 kids at a time. He took me to see the complex; it had two beautiful baseball fields, a soccer field, and two basketball courts. They are currently constructing a dormitory, and he hopes that it will be done by next year. While no teams are officially sponsoring the facility, Noboa said that players like Mariano Rivera and Brandon Webb have expressed interest in helping out.

Noboa, through both his efforts with the Diamondbacks, and in his personal endeavors, has demonstrated the real impact that baseball can make in the Dominican community. He has helped to create jobs, worked with institutions to identify community needs, and continues to help the Dominican youth. It was truly inspiring to be able to spend time with him, as he exuded passion and enthusiasm throughout our conversations.

In the afternoon, I traveled to San Pedro de Macoris. Known as the center of Dominican baseball, San Pedro has produced more players than any other place in the country. While the city itself is not much to look at, full of low-income housing and devoid of any tourist hotspots, the baseball stadium in the center of town is as nice as any American minor league stadium. It provides a huge juxtaposition; indeed, the roads around the stadium are full of tin-roofed houses without electricity, while the stadium itself has huge lights for night games. Although there are currently no games going on, I got to walk inside the stadium; the field is perfectly maintained, and the seats look comfortable as well. For San Pedro, baseball is larger than life.

I walked a few minutes out of town to the orphanage the Red Sox work with, Mis Pequenos Hermanos. I was able to talk to their Director, an Irish man who has been there since the orphanage opened in 2002. The orphanage currently houses about 120 kids, but is expanding, and they hope to have 500 soon. The facilities themselves are actually quite nice; they have a primary school, are building new classrooms, and have decent accomodation for the kids. The Director told me that the Red Sox Lindos Suenos program had just finished up about three weeks ago; kids had come from the States to work with kids from the DR to build a baseball field in the orphanage. He was quite pleased with the result, although the field was not yet finished. He said that he expected local contractors to finish it soon, and they planned to open the field beyond the orphanage, to the accompanying town. All the children I talked to were very excited to play on the field, and asked me to come back soon to play with them. Additionally, the Red Sox plan to come back in the next few years to continue their relationship. It seems that it is working better than the field the team built in El Mamon, demonstrating the importance of building an actual relationship when helping out in a community.