One of my
reasons for travelling to the Dominican Republic was to visit the San Francisco
Giants Felipe Alou Academia de Beisbol
in Boca Chica. I had no real idea what to expect, or even if I could get past
the front gate. Before leaving California, I had tried to contact the Giants’
office in SF and searched for an email address for the academy to see if I
could set up something beforehand. That got me nowhere so I knew it would be a
storm-the-gates affair.
And of all
the academies to try and visit, tops on my list were the hometown favorites.
Although I had a ride out to the Giants Academy, it would be up to me to sell
myself at the front gate. It turned out that it wasn’t hard at all. Maybe it’s
because I look harmless enough, or maybe it’s because I start talking and
smiling and don’t give the guard a chance to get a word in edgewise: I’m an American from San Francisco and also
a teacher and would like to know if it’s possible to visit the grounds and then
possibly talk to someone in your education office about the possibility of
working for you. Then again, who really knows what that sounded like in my Espanol?
Luckily for
me, the guard got on his walkie-talkie and soon a guy dressed in Giants gear
drove over in his golf cart. I then went on to repeat my sales pitch name
dropping the Alou brothers and Juan Marichal and how they had been childhood
heroes.  |
| One of the fields/Complex in background |
That guy turned out to be their equipment manager, Victor Henríquez. I don’t know if it just happened to be him in vicinity when the call went out about the gringa loca at the gate, (my words), but the stars had aligned in my favor. Victor, who has been with the Giants for something like 17 years, was the nicest man you could ever want to meet. He told me to hop in the golf cart and we were off.
I had known
that the Giants had opened their new facility this past August, but that was
about all I knew. I was beyond
impressed; the place is gorgeous! I’m ready to rent a room there.
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| Los Hermanos Alou |
Victor
started the tour by taking me into a main office and introducing me to some
man, (whose position I was not quite clear on).I once more dove into my talk
about teaching English and asked about any openings. The office guy said I
could talk to the education lady a little later on. Meanwhile, I had an academy
to see.
While we
walked around the facility, I told Victor how I had grown up watching all the
greats of Giants baseball. Just in case I had forgotten anything, around every
corner there were reminders of my childhood; posters of the Alou’s, Juan Marichal,
Orlando Cepeda, Tito Fuentes. I know their names better than many of the US
presidents. The new players also had places on the wall; Buster, and Mad Bum,
Cueto, and Casilla, lined the dining hall. (that had orange and black
chairs….heck, even some of the socket covers were orange.)
Victor next
took me into the massive room where the players can relax at the end of a long
day. Two giant TV’s took up one wall, comfortable couches and chairs lined up
in front of them. On one side were a few Foosball machines and probably a few
other items that didn’t register; I was in the slightest bit of shock over the
grandeur and beauty of the place. All of this was in a room where the windows,
which took up nearly the entire wall, looked out onto the three ball fields.
 |
| View from TV room |
Continuing
the tour, I was shown two large, open and airy classrooms. I briefly imagined
myself teaching English in one of them. Their education program includes
English and tech and I think there was something like math and science thrown
in. (Maybe I should have taken notes.)
I’ll stop
here to say that whoever the architect was, he got it spot on. The entire
complex is spectacular. Tons of windows and natural lighting in every square
inch of the facility. Cool concrete and light-toned stone floors, high ceilings
with visible pipes – part industrial design but retaining an air and flow of that
is not at all the cold atmosphere that is sometimes associated with this style
of design.
The players
sleep in dorm rooms, but these are nothing like the ones known to many a
college student. Large, light, airy, with bunk beds. And those beds are double
beds. It’s something I would never have thought of; big ball players needing a
slightly larger bed than the smaller of us. Possibly, with all those young ones
in the room, it might have felt a little tighter, but not by much. They also
had desks and chairs.
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| Chow Hall |
The weight
and exercise room, with its high ceilings and state of the art equipment, sits
on the ground level just steps from the playing fields. Attached to that are therapy rooms. Just down
the way are the offices with floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the
playing fields on one side, and into the hallway/reception area on the other.
Fish-tankish design that felt comfortable rather than freakish.
The locker
room was next. Victor opened the door and invited me in. I hesitated. This,
after all, is where the guys change. He assured me that they were all playing
so I went in, pulled out my camera, walked to the second row of lockers – and
that’s where I saw a guy changing. Luckily for him, he had on shorts, but I
high-tailed it out of there.
 |
| Victor Henriquez, Equipment Manager |
Throughout my
tour, Victor told me about his time with the Giants arriving when he was only
19. It was easy to see how he had worked his way up to equipment manager. We
went into his office, the equipment room. There, lining the walls, were real
live Giants uniforms. I touched them. I have always wondered what the fabric
content was. It might be polyester, but it felt darn decent. I am aware that a
whole lot of money goes into the research of professional sportswear, but since
I had never felt a polyester that I would ever let touch my skin, it was always
hard to imagine how anyone could play in the stuff. I guess if you are a
professional athlete, they use superior polyesters.
Maybe I
stopped jumping up and down and whooping it up towards the end of our tour.
Maybe not. The closest I have ever been to anything Giants were a couple of
games out at Candlestick. I’ve never even been to AT&T. But I have listened
to games on the radio and watched them on TV since I was itty-bitty. To
actually walk through and touch part of the hallowed grounds that are team Giants,
made my day – if not my entire trip down here.
All the while
I kept thinking about my dad. He gave me my love of baseball. I clearly
remember him talking about the Latin players and how good they were, and the
truly exceptional fact that three brothers had played on the same team, and
that team was our Giants.
I also
remembered that I was the little girl who desperately wanted to play baseball.
Girls had no chance to do so back then. I still have one of the most valued
gifts that my dad ever gave me – my own mitt. I found it not too long ago and
felt a little sad when I noticed that it had never really seen much action. But
then I remembered how my dad knew how much I had wanted one. And when he came
home one day and handed it to me, I was over the moon. (I also still have my
Willie Mays Louisville Slugger that I got at bat day out at The Stick.)
—–
I would be
remiss here if I did not talk about the Yankee’s Academy and how I might just
have turned into a little bit of a fan. Before anyone out there considers this
sacrilege for a Bay Area girl, listen to the tale.
It seems
there are baseball players around every corner here, especially in Boca Chica.
It’s hard to know if they are yet affiliated with one of the MLB teams, are at
a pre-MLB academy, or just play locally.
 |
| Future Stars |
The other day
I was in line at the supermarket and two players came up behind me with only a
large bottle of water. I told them they could go ahead of me. One thing led to
another and I found out that they were both from Venezuela and were at the
Yankee’s academy. I told them how I wanted to teach English with one of the
teams here. And then we talked about
Venezuelan players like Pablo Sandoval, one of my all time favorite players to
watch. I asked if they thought it would be possible to visit their camp and
they assured me that I would be welcomed.
This had been
two days before I went to see the Giants, but the same tactics worked here.
This time, it was a little earlier in the morning, so I waited at the front
gate for the receptionist to arrive. She took me around a few places and then
handed me off to the English department head, Melissa.
I couldn’t
have been more warmly welcomed. Melissa was thrilled that a credentialed,
experienced teacher was looking for work, and that I seemed to have arrived at
the perfect time. She showed me around the wing of the building with its four classrooms,
computer room, and materials library. She showed me the curriculum that had
been newly developed and I was quite impressed.
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| Yankees Central, Boca Chica |
Prior to
arriving in Boca Chica, I had no idea if any of the teams actually had a proper
education program in place, and if they did, had no idea what it might be. I
soon found out that most, if not all the teams have something in place and that
they are all working to improve their programs. When kids leave school at 16 to
hunt the dream of a pro career, all else can easily be cast to the wayside. It
has only been more recently that the MLB has realized that these kids need, and
deserve, a bit more to fall back on should they not be in that tiny percentage
that makes it into the big leagues.
Baseball and
proper education; what could be better?
