When Are They All Coming?

Someday through the second inning, I climb previous a dozen rows of empty yellow seats towards the usher on the high of the part. “¿Cuando vienen todos?” I ask when she seems to be up. When are all of them coming? That is my first Dominican Winter League recreation, 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 seems to be confused by my query, and I fear that my iffy Spanish is guilty. “¿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 gradual to course of the whole thing of her clarification, however I catch sufficient. This recreation doesn’t matter. The semi-final spherical of the playoffs begins in just a few days and each groups have already clinched their spots. Nadie viene. No person’s coming.

…

Possibly it’s as a result of I learn “The Thrill of the Grass” too many instances as an adolescent, however I’ve at all times cherished an empty ballpark. After I lived in Queens, I’d make some extent of visiting Citi Subject on the finish of September, when the climate was nonetheless good and the Mets had lengthy been excused from taking part in baseball of any conceivable consequence. On nights like these, you might have an entire part to your self, watching the planes on their manner out and in of La Guardia and checking in on the baseball every time it suited you.

I discover a packed ballpark irritating. The reality is that ballparks aren’t designed to be nice environments after they’re full. With a capability crowd, all the things you do comes with jostling and an extended line. In every single place you go, you’re in somebody’s manner. 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 wish to be used. Everytime you rise up, the seat backside swings proper up with you, rejoicing in its newfound freedom. Every time you sit down, it’s a must to subdue it anew, subjecting it as soon as extra to the tyranny of the human butt.

(I really referred to 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 so as to preserve the correct quantity of house between one row and the subsequent. 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. In every single 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 entire FanGraphs factor doesn’t work out:

We arrive on the park at 6:45, half an hour earlier than recreation time. We all know we gained’t be capable of keep for all the recreation, and we wish 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 cut up in half: Licey blue on the third base facet and Escogido crimson on the primary base facet. We stroll round for a couple of minutes, the one followers on the concourse, then resolve to search out our seats. After we recuperate from the daze that comes from passing via the tunnel and glimpsing the great thing about the sphere for the primary time, we understand that we’re the one followers out right here as nicely. There are concessionaires within the concourse, ushers within the stands, and gamers warming up on the sphere, however we’re the one individuals in all the 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 facet of the concourse, there’s a wall of fame with footage and plaques of well-known gamers all through workforce historical past. Among the names I do know and a few I don’t. The Licey facet is extra subdued. It holds a dry erase board that includes the lineup del día from final evening’s recreation:

We’re right here to see Escogido tackle Gigantes del Cibao, and although I’ve reconnoitered all the stadium, I can’t discover the lineup for tonight’s recreation 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 one of the best seats I’ve ever had. We’re within the entrance row, simply previous the infield grime on the third base facet. That is the house facet of the stadium when Licey is taking part in, however the away facet when Escogido is taking part in. There’s no one else in our part. Actually, there isn’t a bit on our facet of the ballpark that’s occupied by a couple of group of individuals. Most of them are totally empty. There’s a household within the entrance row of the part to our left, the final at area degree, abutting the bullpen. After the sport begins, a father and son take their seats just a few 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, but it surely 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 utterly. It solely lasts for just a few moments, but it surely’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 components of the evening. Every new batter who involves the plate is a whole shock, and I get a bit of 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 look at when it’s Escogido’s flip to hit. He’s bought loads of energy, however he whiffs an excessive amount of and I wouldn’t throw him something straight till he’s taken at the very least one ball. Siri graciously makes me appear to be I do know what I’m speaking about, flailing at three straight breaking pitches off the plate.

That’s roughly how all the recreation 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 subsequent three innings. Gigantes is sloppy on protection as nicely, getting dinged for 2 errors. It may 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 fitting heart area hole to deliver dwelling Erik González. Siri makes an incredible play to chop the ball off and maintain Calixte to a single, however he’s bought no probability 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 very good job. Wendell Rijo, the Escogido second baseman, has an enormous stride and finally ends up together with his weight manner 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 manner, however he does handle a stable 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 track.

Within the backside of the fourth, the daddy and son within the part to our proper pull out a bag of crimson lollipops and be a magnet for Alberto at third base. Apparently, tossing lollipops to the gamers is a thing that happens at LIDOM 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 grime, 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 energy 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 manner too fast for me. He’s again in place by the point my telephone is out of my pocket:

For this reason he’s knowledgeable athlete and I’m not. After the subsequent pitch, the Escogido third base coach turns round and requires his personal lollipop, catching it on the fly. The umpire indicators for one as nicely, 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.

…

Folks do begin to present up finally. I doubt the gang ever reaches a thousand, however over on the Escogido facet, there are just a few sections the place a majority of the seats are stuffed. By the fifth inning, there are even just a few diehards taking part in horns and banging on drums.

We’ve 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 track on YouTube. We play it on repeat as we brush our tooth and watch the sport’s remaining 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 improbable operating catch, and Franmil Reyes and José Marmolejos each homer, bringing Escogido’s result in 4-0.

Weeks later, once I sit down to write down in regards to the expertise, I discover out simply how proper the usher was. This recreation 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. On account of torrential rain the earlier evening, it was the second recreation of a doubleheader. Searches for a field rating or a recreation abstract on that date nearly completely yield outcomes for the primary recreation. That contest featured an exciting 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 recreation, its sloppy youthful sibling, has seemingly already been forgotten.

I lastly assume to verify the official workforce social media accounts. I discover only one spotlight, posted by Gigantes, the workforce on the fallacious finish of the one-hit shutout. The play came about whereas we had been within the taxi again to our lodge, so it’s my first time seeing it. In fact, it’s so much 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 fairly than operating exhausting. The ball beats him to the plate by a very good 15 ft for an inning-ending double play:

The play is by some means 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 operating 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. it’ll finish badly, and whereas that data 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 fairly than getting what pleasure you possibly can 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 assume that’s an acceptable reflection of the night. The third base coach stands there impassively, not wanting this play to depend towards his report. As I hit play yet another time, I keep in mind that he has a lollipop in his again pocket.