Seeing the Dominican teams and their players play the way they do and even watching these players during practice gave us a new sense of playing the game. These gentlemen play the game we call our national pastime like there is no tomorrow. We definitely gathered the sense of dedication from talking to a couple of the Dominicans that were with us, Miguel and Arno. Miguel recently signed with the Oakland A's and Arno is a former professional ballplayer who now trains Dominican baseball players who are looking to go to get signed by MLB teams. They talked about how there are days that they wake up at 4 am and start training at 5 am and go for a lot of the day. Miguel and I became really close friends and he was telling me that during his 72 game season, there would be days that he would go 36 hours without eating a big meal because he wouldn't have enough money, often times maybe just eating a little sandwich or a burger. When one of our players asked him why he keeps playing if he barely gets to eat, Miguel responded with "Because this is my way out. I'd rather be hungry now for a couple of weeks or months than be hungry for the rest of my life." This is the type of dedication that we saw from them and will take with us going forward as we dedicate ourselves in the classroom and the ball field.
What was the best part of the trip for you overall?
The best part of the trip was just getting to experience a different way of playing baseball, which helped us see a new way of playing the game we love. Also, the time we spent together as a team and getting to know our teammates in a whole different way. I truly believe we got closer as a team as a result of this trip and our values changed a lot. During our time there, our phones did not work; I believe that we noticed that not having a phone for a whole week is not that bad at all. In other words, we noticed that first world problems aren't really problems at all.
What is something that you will take with you going forward from the trip?
Something I will take forward from this trip is to be thankful for being blessed with the opportunity to play baseball all the way from Little League to college. I am especially grateful for everywhere baseball has taken me throughout my years of playing. It has taken me many places and with this being possibly my last year playing baseball at a competitive level, I will play like there is no tomorrow. I will try to play the way the Dominican's we faced played and hopefully by doing so I can make our team better.
