The two most successful teams in the Dominican Republic's baseball history head to Citi Field on Friday for a three-day exhibition series captivating the city's Dominican diaspora.
Los Tigres del Licey and Las Águilas Cibaeñas will play three games in New York City for the first time in the history of the Dominican Professional Baseball League, also called LIDOM, an acronym of its Spanish name.
Even people who don’t usually care about the sport have made plans to attend the series, which is being billed as a battle between the “Titans of the Caribbean.”
"Why wouldn't I go, it's going to be something legendary, you know, something that's going to impact the world, so people can really see where the real talents come from," said Kevin Vasquez, while standing on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 168th Street in Washington Heights.
Up and down the block, everyone had their attention fixed on the upcoming games. Every person Vasquez stopped to talk to while making his way to the nearby restaurant he helps run has an opinion on — or tickets to — the three games.
Vasquez called out to Hilario Villio, who owns a party supply store on the corner of 169th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, to emphasize that point.
"Are you rooting for Las Águilas or Licey?" Vasquez asked.
Villio shook his head quickly to tell Vasquez he didn't care for either. He roots for Los Leones del Escogido, the third-most-successful LIDOM team. But personal preferences didn’t stop him from buying tickets, so that he could attend with his son.
"Your body feels good when you watch a game in this country between Licey and Las Águilas," he said in Spanish. "Of course, I feel good."
Baseball's roots in the Dominican Republic date back to the 1870s, when sugar plantations dominated the Caribbean, according to cultural anthropologist Andrew Mitchel, who has studied the island's baseball history.
Members of the Cuban upper class first saw the sport when they visited the United States for business and leisure. When those Cubans opened sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic, they brought the sport with them.
"The sport then passes from this sort of urban, middle- and upper-middle-class pursuit of 'let's play on a Sunday and have fun with it' into the workers at these sugar plantations," he said.
It was the sugar plantation workers who helped baseball expand quickly to every corner of the island. Refinery workers – many of whom were seasonal migrants to the Dominican Republic from places like Haiti and the British West Indies – played the sport during the part of the season when sugarcane couldn't be cut or harvested. Sugar refineries also established their teams early on.
Now, the Dominican Republic and baseball are inextricably linked, with Dominican players making up the backbone of Major League Baseball.
The league estimated in 2023 that about 1 out of every 9 of its players hails from the island. Legendary names like David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Sammy Sosa and Albert Pujols have dominated baseball for decades. Even current Mets shortstop Ronny Mauricio has played for Licey since 2021 and was named LIDOM MVP last year.
Mitchel said baseball is a way for Dominicans living away from the island – including the 700,000 living in NYC – to strengthen their cultural ties to their home.
Among people in the diaspora, Mitchel said "there's a desire to maintain especially language [and] religion but also culture, and a major part of Dominican culture is baseball.”
That kind of enthusiasm was on full display at Peligro Sports, a Washington Heights baseball supply store on Amsterdam Avenue, two days before the series. People stopped on the street to gawk at the two mannequins in the front window, dressed head to toe in uniforms for Las Águilas and Licey. Customers rolled into the store in waves, eager to buy sweatshirts, T-shirts and baseball hats ahead of the big series.
Domingo Lanfranco eyed the merchandise from outside. He said the excitement goes beyond his country's love of baseball: It's a connection with home.
"I see this as a dream," he said in Spanish. "It makes me immensely proud, especially because many Dominicans can't go back to their country to see those two teams. They have the chance to do it here."
