A Dominican youth baseball trainer used baseball equipment bags identical to his players' to conceal some of the 293 kilos of cocaine and weapons that authorities seized on Sept. 17 in what they called an "unprecedented" raid. Jose Gabriel Arias Castillo, 35, had 244 packets of cocaine, two P-90 submachine guns, a rifle equipped with a silencer and telescope along with several other weapons, thousands of bullets and a drug press in a Honda Ridgeline pick-up truck parked near the home where players in his care resided.
You've got your spot on a lounge chair angled into the hot Caribbean sun, with tall, slender palm trees jutting out over your head. As you gaze at the calm turquoise waters and sip that refreshing rum drink, you may ask yourself, "What more could I possibly want?"
Tropical Storm Claudette is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle by early Monday, and the storm's outer bands already were pounding the area with heavy rain Sunday evening.
SAN PEDRO DE MACORIS, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC -- Glance through the list of important dates that Major League Baseball issues every year. There's Mother's Day in May, Father's Day in June and don't forget the Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game on July 12. What the calendar omits, however, is a date that has become the focal point in the procurement of Latin American amateur free-agents: July 2, the first day that MLB teams can sign 16-year-old international free-agent prospects who will be 17 years old by Sept. 1 of the following year is as unnoticed in the U.S. as it is front-page news in places such as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Approximately 40 percent of the players in organized baseball were born outside the United States. Most of those players sign during the summer when they are 16 years old, a signing period that begins annually on July 2.
The goofy underwater shots of my husband and much-younger son grinning behind their masks always make me smile -- just the way a vacation photo should.
The Cubs are another team that's been scouting Pedro Martinez in the Dominican Republic, where he continues to throw regularly, according to National League sources.
Doctors, nurses and other health professionals in the Dominican Republic went on a 24-hour strike Thursday at public and Social Security Institute hospitals over a wage dispute, news reports said.
Location: Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan, Puerto Rico
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Derek Jeter turning double plays with Dustin Pedroia. Chipper Jones and Adam Dunn taking extra batting practice. Roy Oswalt taking the No. 2 slot in the rotation behind Jake Peavy. Joel Hanrahan, John Grabow, Heath Bell and LaTroy Hawkins helping form the best bullpen in the world. Er, hold that last thought, given the bullpen getting Daschled in recent days. But the sights and sounds as the USA team gathered Monday confirmed the three-year wait is over: the most exciting baseball this side of October is here. The World Baseball Classic is back, and to borrow a phrase from the All-Star Game, this time it counts, America.
A Dominican youth baseball trainer used baseball equipment bags identical to his players' to conceal some of the 293 kilos of cocaine and weapons that authorities seized on Sept. 17 in what they called an "unprecedented" raid. Jose Gabriel Arias Castillo, 35, had 244 packets of cocaine, two P-90 submachine guns, a rifle equipped with a silencer and telescope along with several other weapons, thousands of bullets and a drug press in a Honda Ridgeline pick-up truck parked near the home where players in his care resided.
You've got your spot on a lounge chair angled into the hot Caribbean sun, with tall, slender palm trees jutting out over your head. As you gaze at the calm turquoise waters and sip that refreshing rum drink, you may ask yourself, "What more could I possibly want?"
Tropical Storm Claudette is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle by early Monday, and the storm's outer bands already were pounding the area with heavy rain Sunday evening.
SAN PEDRO DE MACORIS, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC -- Glance through the list of important dates that Major League Baseball issues every year. There's Mother's Day in May, Father's Day in June and don't forget the Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game on July 12. What the calendar omits, however, is a date that has become the focal point in the procurement of Latin American amateur free-agents: July 2, the first day that MLB teams can sign 16-year-old international free-agent prospects who will be 17 years old by Sept. 1 of the following year is as unnoticed in the U.S. as it is front-page news in places such as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Approximately 40 percent of the players in organized baseball were born outside the United States. Most of those players sign during the summer when they are 16 years old, a signing period that begins annually on July 2.
The goofy underwater shots of my husband and much-younger son grinning behind their masks always make me smile -- just the way a vacation photo should.
The Cubs are another team that's been scouting Pedro Martinez in the Dominican Republic, where he continues to throw regularly, according to National League sources.
Doctors, nurses and other health professionals in the Dominican Republic went on a 24-hour strike Thursday at public and Social Security Institute hospitals over a wage dispute, news reports said.
Location: Hiram Bithorn Stadium, San Juan, Puerto Rico
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Derek Jeter turning double plays with Dustin Pedroia. Chipper Jones and Adam Dunn taking extra batting practice. Roy Oswalt taking the No. 2 slot in the rotation behind Jake Peavy. Joel Hanrahan, John Grabow, Heath Bell and LaTroy Hawkins helping form the best bullpen in the world. Er, hold that last thought, given the bullpen getting Daschled in recent days. But the sights and sounds as the USA team gathered Monday confirmed the three-year wait is over: the most exciting baseball this side of October is here. The World Baseball Classic is back, and to borrow a phrase from the All-Star Game, this time it counts, America.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The kid's mother had no teeth. The baseball scout sat with her in her home in the small village, trying to decipher the sounds she was making. The unintelligible words made his job even tougher. It used to be that a scout's role was to identify a player -- could he hit, run, throw and catch? -- but as he sat across the table from the woman trying to understand her, the scout was engaged in what has become the newest part of his job: literally trying to identify a player.
Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez continues to shuffle his top military commanders as he tries to make good on his recent promise to cleanse the government of corruption.
A top Washington Nationals prospect and recipient of the largest international signing bonus in team history is not who he appeared to be. Esmailyn Gonzalez, who is listed as 19 years old on the team's roster, is actually 23-year-old Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, four sources have told SI.com.
Rescuers have found the body of a man who was one of six people aboard a small airplane that crashed Sunday evening near the northern shore of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Search operations resumed Monday for six U.S. citizens missing since their small plane crashed Sunday evening off the north coast of Puerto Rico.
Rescue crews scoured the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday for a plane that took off from the Dominican Republic en route to the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic Civil Aviation agency said.
Name that noun - Answer the following questions about people, places or things from this week's news. Fill in your answers in the space provided.
Tropical Storm Gustav left 22 dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before it pulled away from the countries Wednesday, officials said.
Tropical Storm Gustav continued on its path toward Haiti and the central Caribbean on Monday and threatened to reach hurricane strength before landfall, the National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Storm Fay formed Friday over the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean Sea, the National Hurricane Center said.
HAINA, Dominican Republic -- Edgar Mercedes has made a fortune taking bets. So when the bookie saw 13-year-old Michel Inoa throw 78 mph off a mound in 2005 he knew that the lanky, 6-foot-3 right-hander was worth the wager. He's workable. He's workable, Mercedes kept saying to himself as he thought of the adjustments he would make to Inoa's delivery: the flick of his wrist, the angle of his waist. Mercedes, whose own career as a catcher had been derailed by injuries, had found the next best thing to being a professional ballplayer -- developing them.
A plane en route from the Dominican Republic to Canada made an emergency landing Tuesday night in Florida after passengers complained of being sick, officials said.
Olga strengthened into a tropical storm Tuesday after making landfall on Hispaniola and soaking the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Noel was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Thursday as it moved away from the Bahamas and out into the cooler waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Storm Noel weakened Tuesday over most of Cuba after lashing the island's northern coast, but heavy rains continued to deluge the Dominican Republic, Haiti and portions of the Bahamas, forecasters said.
Cuba issued a tropical storm warning for the Camaguey, Las Tunas and Ciego de Avila provinces as Tropical Storm Noel approached the island.
Eighteen people, including 10 airline workers at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, appeared in federal court Tuesday on international drug smuggling and distribution charges.
(Editor's note: This story appears in the October issue of SI Latino. To subscribe to SI Latino, click here.)
When the Cleveland Indians signed Dominican prospect Angel Franco, he knew he'd been given the opportunity of a lifetime. He just didn't know that that opportunity would have nothing to do with baseball.
You may have heard a lot of folks worrying about the steep drop in the number of black baseball players as the sport celebrates Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier 60 years ago this weekend.
Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands were under hurricane watches Saturday night as Tropical Storm Ernesto gained power in the Caribbean.
When working in the tropical sun becomes too much for Ivko Maksimovic, the lanky Serbian heads to one of the Dominican Republic's pristine white-sand beaches. He first gathers up a black hat, mosquito repellent, and a bottle of drinking water.
If the World Baseball Classic could bottle the fan enthusiasm for the Dominican Republic-Venezuela game this past Tuesday, no one would ever be able to question the sport's popularity or international credentials ever again.
Staffers on Capitol Hill and in the Bush administration said Thursday it is unlikely that the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement will become active Jan. 1, as had been planned.
Hurricane Emily reached Category 3 strength Thursday evening and is moving toward the central Caribbean, the National Hurricane Center said.
The Senate has approved a free trade pact known as CAFTA that includes five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.
The U.S. Senate Thursday night approved a free trade pact with five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.
Downgraded slightly from hurricane strength, Tropical Storm Jeanne lingered over northern Hispaniola early Friday, where it battered the Dominican Republic with heavy rains and 70 mph (110 km/h) winds a day earlier, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Downgraded slightly from hurricane strength, Tropical Storm Jeanne is battering the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Airline bashing and complaining are now a national pastime, especially during the peak summer travel season.
Forecasters are expecting more rain Friday in the flood-soaked regions of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where high waters have killed hundreds of people and left thousands more homeless.
The United States and Canadian forces are struggling to assess the scope of a disaster following days of rain in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
At least 363 people have been killed in floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, officials in the two neighboring Caribbean countries say.
Port-au-Prince is in chaos as armed rebels, demanding the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, claim they have surrounded the capital. As armed thugs roam the streets, Aristide remains in the city and insists he will not step down.
Doctors in the Dominican Republic have successfully removed the second head of a baby girl in a marathon operation thought to be the first of its kind.
CARIBBEAN High-season savings. It's peak season in the Caribbean--with prices to match. But some destinations in the region are relative bargains. The Dominican Republic and Margarita Island, which...
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