Southeast of Dominican Republic lies La Romana, one of the most important cities of the east coast and preferred destination among travelers. This popular destination is the house of the “Los Toros del Este” (East’s Bulls) baseball team and the Freddy Garcia’s baseball academy. La Romana baseball has produced Major League players such as Fernando Abad (Houston Astros), Antonio Alfonseca (Philadelphia Phillies), Samuel Deduno (Minnesota Twins), and Edwin Encarnacion (Toronto Blue Jays), just to name a few. But why is La Romana so involved in professional baseball?
La Romana baseball town allocated the Francesco Micheli Baseball Stadium, with a capacity for 10,000 people, as home club of the city’s baseball team “Los Toros del Este”. It was built by the Gulf and Western American Corporation and inaugurated in 1979 by The Central Romana Corporation.
With this amazing stadium and all those major league baseball players as role models to follow, a lot of kids put their dreams in baseball. For that reason, you can find a lot of little baseball fields in la Romana with kids playing before or after school, who later on probably join a baseball academy. Even though tourism is very important for La Romana’s economy, baseball has become one of the most desired job careers of young boys.
Some gossip arose last January 31st in New York after a conversation between Rob Manfred, the executive vice president of Major League Baseball, and Roberto Weill, president of the Salon de la Fama del Beisbol Latino (Latin Baseball Hall of Fame), revealed that it is almost certain that the World Baseball Classic will take place in La Romana in 2017.
If you would like to visit La Romana and their stadium, as well as more interesting places in town, take a look at the Hispaniola Explorer Tour.
Stadium photo by Edwin Rijo.