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Cockfighting used to be the most popular spectator sport in the Dominican Republic, but it is not even close to being the biggest now... After an interesting evening a.o. in a bat-cave club, we decided to go visit the major spectator sport.
BEISBOL
is HUGE in the Dominican Republic! Beisbol is played the same way as american
baseball not like pesäpallo which is a similar sport only being played
in Finland (no not in the sauna)... In fact the dominican baseball-series starts
after the end of the american league, and many of the best dominican players
have been draughted to the US, or even plays in both series. They are national
heroes... Presently the major one is Sammy Sosa. MVP (most valuable player)
in the american baseball league. His name flew around the world some weeks ago
as he got a ball in his helmet, which cracked, but left his head unhurt. It
was even in the norwegian news...
Every dominican is into baseball, so being in Santo Domingo, we just had to go to a baseball game. We picked a local internal fight at Estadio Quisqueya. Licey vs. Estrellas. We did not have tickets, but lined up 1 hour and a half before the start of the game. There were 5 lines, and the all were only 30 meters.
1 hour later, the line was about 50 meters, but we had advanced only 5. There was something fishy going on... So we waited, and waited, and discussed, and waited.... The game started, we could hear the cheering loud and clear. Half an hour into the game we gave up. We decided that this game was not THAT important to us, that we would wait 3 hours to get in... We started walking back to get a cab to the hotel....
3 minutes minutes later we had 4 tickets from the black market for a total of 20 dollars instead of 10 (why line up in the first place)..... and suddenly we were inside!
As we sat down it took about 20 seconds before we were offered a bottle of rum and canned coke...from the official waitresses patrolling the area. Styrofoam cups with icecubes just like in Cabarete. Excellent service....not quite like at a soccer game back home in Norway where alcohol is forbidden... We were not the only ones drinking Dominicana Libre (close to Cuba Libre- just add more rum).
As the game went on it appeared that everyone were zippin' on something. With our ears humming from the cockfight the day before, we thought we would manage all levels of noise, but the soundlevel at the stadium was exceeding our expectations by far. The more rum and coke the stronger the sound. I have never heard anything like it in my whole life. When one team hit a homerun, the crowd exploded in colours and sound.
...and drank more rum ...and coke... in increadible doses. And so did we...
Run like hell..... Ruuuuuun! There was a lot of action! The game ended at the score 15-8 which are quite a lot of points. We were happy to have so much action in our game...
Really happy! It was definately something we will remember... Finnur is not in this photo, as he had to go and get a closer look at the cheerleaders or take a leak. As he returned his face turned even more pale, as the boy behind him had gotten even another replacement tank for his high pressure horn. Finnur was pretty close to stuffing it down his fathers throat... Move the mouse over the picture above, to get sympathy for Finnur...
OK, the game was extremely good, but as you travel in the Dominican Republic you learn that there is amusement around every corner. Take details like transportation, it is really amazing. Like the cab-ride back home. Check out the interior of this taxi, you can imagine how it was on the outside:
And if you think there was a glasswindow behind the guys, you are wrong... It was hilarious! Of course you could not hear the noise from the street, the Bachata is continously flowing loudly from the speakers...