Someday in the course of the second inning, I climb previous a dozen rows of empty yellow seats towards the usher on the prime of the part. “¿Cuando vienen todos?” I ask when she appears to be like up. When are all of them coming? That is my first Dominican Winter League sport, and I used to be ready for pandemonium: the power, the blaring music, the crush of the gang. As an alternative, the stadium is desolate.
The usher appears to be like confused by my query, and I fear that my iffy Spanish is accountable. “¿Quién?” she asks. Who?
We glance across the empty stadium, and although we are saying the very same factor at the very same time, our inflections couldn’t be extra totally different. Mine is declarative: “La gente.” The individuals. Hers is interrogative: “¿La gente?” I understand that she wasn’t confused by my grammar; she was confused by the truth that I anticipated anybody to be right here within the first place. My ears are too sluggish to course of the whole thing of her clarification, however I catch sufficient. This sport doesn’t matter. The semi-final spherical of the playoffs begins in a couple of days and each groups have already clinched their spots. Nadie viene. No person’s coming.
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Possibly it’s as a result of I learn “The Thrill of the Grass” too many occasions as an adolescent, however I’ve all the time cherished an empty ballpark. After I lived in Queens, I’d make a degree of visiting Citi Subject on the finish of September, when the climate was nonetheless good and the Mets had lengthy been excused from enjoying baseball of any conceivable consequence. On nights like these, you could possibly have a complete part to your self, watching the planes on their approach out and in of La Guardia and checking in on the baseball every time it suited you.
I discover a packed ballpark annoying. The reality is that ballparks aren’t designed to be nice environments once they’re full. With a capability crowd, all the pieces you do comes with jostling and an extended line. All over the place you go, you’re in somebody’s approach. Any errand that takes you away out of your seat is prone to price you an inning or two. Even the stadium seats make it clear that they don’t actually need to be used. Everytime you arise, the seat backside swings proper up with you, rejoicing in its newfound freedom. Every time you sit down, it’s important to subdue it anew, subjecting it as soon as extra to the tyranny of the human butt.
(I really known as a producer of stadium seating to ask what makes the bottoms swing again up like that. A pleasant Australian man named Ken advised me that some seats use springs, however counterweights are most well-liked as a result of they don’t put on out over time. He additionally advised me that the bottoms stand up not due to an indomitable spirit, however as a way to keep the correct quantity of house between one row and the following. The technical time period for that house is the ‘envelope.’ Ken actually is aware of his stuff.)
It’s our first full day within the Dominican Republic, and my spouse and I spend the morning wandering round Santo Domingo’s Zona Colonial. We go to a market, traverse the ruins of an previous fort, and marvel on the Santa Bárbara Army Cathedral. All over the place we go, we see individuals in Licey hats, royal blue with a white, cursive L. We additionally stroll previous a store that may function a backup employment plan for me in case this complete FanGraphs factor doesn’t work out:
We arrive on the park at 6:45, half an hour earlier than sport time. We all know we received’t be capable of keep for the complete sport, and we would like time to discover. Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal is the house of each Tigres del Licey and Leones del Escogido, the 2 Santo Domingo groups. The concourse is break up in half: Licey blue on the third base aspect and Escogido purple on the primary base aspect. We stroll round for a couple of minutes, the one followers on the concourse, then determine to seek out our seats. After we recuperate from the daze that comes from passing via the tunnel and glimpsing the fantastic thing about the sphere for the primary time, we understand that we’re the one followers out right here as effectively. There are concessionaires within the concourse, ushers within the stands, and gamers warming up on the sphere, however we’re the one individuals in the complete stadium who aren’t getting paid to be there. I’ve by no means been the one fan in a stadium earlier than.
We wander some extra and different followers begin to trickle in. On the Escogido aspect of the concourse, there’s a wall of fame with footage and plaques of well-known gamers all through group historical past. A few of the names I do know and a few I don’t. The Licey aspect is extra subdued. It holds a dry erase board that includes the lineup del día from final night time’s sport:
We’re right here to see Escogido tackle Gigantes del Cibao, and although I’ve reconnoitered the complete stadium, I can’t discover the lineup for tonight’s sport wherever. At 7:15, the scheduled begin time, I ask an usher what time the sport will start. She says 7:30. We load up on rooster tenders and Pizza Hut breadsticks and return to our seats.
They’re simply the perfect seats I’ve ever had. We’re within the entrance row, simply previous the infield dust on the third base aspect. That is the house aspect of the stadium when Licey is enjoying, however the away aspect when Escogido is enjoying. There’s no one else in our part. In truth, there isn’t a bit on our aspect of the ballpark that’s occupied by a couple of group of individuals. Most of them are fully empty. There’s a household within the entrance row of the part to our left, the final at subject stage, abutting the bullpen. After the sport begins, a father and son take their seats a couple of rows again within the part to our proper.
Estadio Quisqueya seats 14,469 individuals, with no second deck and no seating alongside the outfield wall. It’s not an enormous stadium, nevertheless it feels completely cavernous when it’s empty. The sport begins at 7:45, and when Gigantes leadoff batter Melvin Mercedes involves the plate, the ambient hum of the small crowd dies fully. It solely lasts for a couple of moments, nevertheless it’s in contrast to something I’ve ever skilled. The stadium is actually silent.
I by no means do discover the lineups posted wherever, and that finally ends up being probably the most enjoyable elements of the night time. Every new batter who involves the plate is an entire shock, and I get a little bit hit of dopamine every time I acknowledge a reputation. Jose Siri comes up subsequent, and I excitedly give my spouse a scouting report. He’s an unimaginable heart fielder, the participant to observe when it’s Escogido’s flip to hit. He’s acquired loads of energy, however he whiffs an excessive amount of and I wouldn’t throw him something straight till he’s taken not less than one ball. Siri graciously makes me seem like I do know what I’m speaking about, flailing at three straight breaking pitches off the plate.
That’s kind of how the complete sport goes for Gigantes. Escogido pitcher Tyler Alexander strikes out 9 and permits only one hit over six innings. Relievers Yosver Zulueta, Alex Colomé, and Jeurys Familia add 4 extra strikeouts, permitting only one baserunner over the following three innings. Gigantes is sloppy on protection as effectively, getting dinged for 2 errors. It might simply be 4, as second baseman Luis García and third baseman Hanser Alberto each drop powerful however catchable pop-ups in foul territory. Within the second inning, across the time I’m embarrassing myself by expressing curiosity as to when the followers would possibly present up, Escogido places a run throughout. Orlando Calixte laces a ball into the precise heart subject hole to deliver dwelling Erik González. Siri makes a fantastic play to chop the ball off and maintain Calixte to a single, however he’s acquired no likelihood at catching González.
There are many gamers I don’t know, and I begin to take notes, however I’m having an excessive amount of enjoyable to do a superb job. Wendell Rijo, the Escogido second baseman, has an enormous stride and finally ends up together with his weight approach out entrance by the point the ball arrives. I can’t think about he’ll ever be capable of actually pay money for a ball that approach, however he does handle a strong single over the second baseman’s head. The one different notice I make is that first baseman Aderlin Rodríguez has an absolute banger of a walk-up tune.
Within the backside of the fourth, the daddy and son within the part to our proper pull out a bag of purple lollipops and be a focus for Alberto at third base. Apparently, tossing lollipops to the gamers is a factor that occurs at LIDOM video games. When Alberto turns, the daddy heaves one over the online and it falls at Alberto’s ft. As fast as lightning, he scoops the lollipop off the dust, unwraps it and pops it in his mouth, secures it deep in his cheek, wrenches the stick out by power, then stashes the stick and the wrapper in his again pocket. It’s the oddest feat off power I’ve ever seen, and he manages to do all of it in between two pitches. I attempt to get an image, however Alberto is approach too fast for me. He’s again in place by the point my cellphone is out of my pocket:
For this reason he’s knowledgeable athlete and I’m not. After the following pitch, the Escogido third base coach turns round and requires his personal lollipop, catching it on the fly. The umpire alerts for one as effectively, however he can’t make the play, and I handle to get an image as he stoops right down to seize it from the grass:
Each the third base coach and the umpire put their lollipops of their again pockets for safekeeping.
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Folks do begin to present up ultimately. I doubt the gang ever reaches a thousand, however over on the Escogido aspect, there are a couple of sections the place a majority of the seats are crammed. By the fifth inning, there are even a couple of diehards enjoying horns and banging on drums.
We now have to depart after the sixth. Once we get again to the lodge, I pull up the sport on MLB.TV. I additionally pull up Aderlin Rodríguez’s walk-up tune on YouTube. We play it on repeat as we brush our tooth and watch the sport’s ultimate frames. Though Gigantes by no means challenges for the lead, issues get extra thrilling within the ninth. Siri lastly will get an opportunity to make a implausible working catch, and Franmil Reyes and José Marmolejos each homer, bringing Escogido’s result in 4-0.
Weeks later, after I sit down to jot down in regards to the expertise, I discover out simply how proper the usher was. This sport didn’t matter in any respect. I attempt to fact-check my notes, however I discover shockingly little proof that it even occurred. There’s no full-game replay on YouTube, and even any highlights. As a consequence of torrential rain the earlier night time, it was the second sport of a doubleheader. Searches for a field rating or a sport abstract on that date virtually solely yield outcomes for the primary sport. That contest featured an exhilarating comeback, with Escogido trailing 1-0, then scoring as soon as within the eighth and twice within the ninth, all on balls that by no means left the infield. The second sport, its sloppy youthful sibling, has seemingly already been forgotten.
I lastly assume to examine the official group social media accounts. I discover only one spotlight, posted by Gigantes, the group on the improper finish of the one-hit shutout. The play passed off whereas we had been within the taxi again to our lodge, so it’s my first time seeing it. In reality, it’s rather a lot much less spectacular for Gigantes than it’s embarrassing for Escogido. Leadoff man Junior Lake tries to tag up from third on an especially shallow fly ball to left, then compounds his mistake by trying over his shoulder on the left fielder quite than working arduous. The ball beats him to the plate by a superb 15 ft for an inning-ending double play:
The play is someway each weird and banal, a foul determination that Lake simply can’t assist himself from making. I seek for an analogy as I watch him working together with his head craned round like that. The one factor that involves thoughts is the sensation of getting again along with an ex who handled you poorly the primary time round. You recognize it’ll finish badly, and whereas that information isn’t highly effective sufficient cease you from doing it, it’s highly effective sufficient to poison the expertise earlier than it even begins, so that you spend the entire time regretting your determination quite than getting what pleasure you’ll be able to from it.
As I watch the play once more, I understand that if we hadn’t left early, we’d be proper there in the midst of the body, simply behind Lake as he takes off. As an alternative, our part is totally empty. I suppose that’s an acceptable reflection of the night. The third base coach stands there impassively, not wanting this play to rely towards his report. As I hit play yet another time, I do not forget that he has a lollipop in his again pocket.