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Not only did baseball help strengthen the Dominican Republic's relationship with the United States, but it also had a massive effect on the culture of the Dominican Republic as a whole. Nowadays, baseball symbolizes a dream and hope for a better future for aspiring athletes and helps unite baseball fans (old and new) across several Spanish ...
Sports play a key role in the culture and makeup of Dominican Republic society. [1] Baseball is the most popular sport on the island country and Major League Baseball has been recruiting players from the Dominican Republic since the 1960s. [2] Basketball, football, volleyball, and boxing are other sports played in the country.
The Dominican Republic was the site of the first European settlement in the Western Hemisphere, namely Santo Domingo founded in 1493. As a result of over five centuries of Spanish presence in the island, the core of Dominican culture is derived from the culture of Spain. The European inheritances include ancestry, language, traditions, law, the ...
Baseball was first brought to the Dominican Republic by Cuban sugar planters who arrived in the country in the 1870s, fleeing the Ten Years' War on their home island, and built the nation's first mechanized sugar mills. Cuban sugar planters began providing baseball equipment to their workers as a diversion to keep up morale.
The Dominican Republic has produced some of the greatest players in the history of baseball and while only three Dominican-born players are currently in the Hall of Fame, that list looks to grow ...
Plaquita, a Dominican street version of cricket. The Dominican Republic was first introduced to cricket through mid-18th century British contact, [25] but switched to baseball after the 1916 American occupation. [26] Cricket is a very popular sport in the countries and dependencies that formed the British West Indies.
The culture of Africa brought by Africans in the Trans-Atlantic former slave trade has influenced various parts of Latin America. Influences are particularly strong in dance, music, cuisine, and some syncretic religions of Cuba, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Northwest Ecuador, coastal Colombia, and Honduras. [2] [3] [4]
Ozzie Virgil Sr., the first player native to the Dominican Republic to play Major League Baseball, died at the age of 92. He played nine seasons in the majors.