Following the Dominican Republic Hit Parade

Bereft of highway signs, peppered with monster potholes and plunged into inky blackness at night, the Dominican Republic road system offers a wildly improbable series of adventures for visitors eager to explore the sleepy, tropical isle of Hispaniola.

Whether you’re in the city or the country, be prepared to share the road with horse-drawn carts, inquisitive cows and noisy motorbikes.

Traveling north out of Santo Domingo, we left a tollbooth--the country’s only tollbooth--when a squadron of armed soldiers waved us aside.

When we said we were headed for Puerto Plata, one of the militiamen ducked inside, stashed his gun on the floor and launched into a cheery barrage of chatter. He’d hitched a ride with us. The conversation sputtered along until we reached a topic of mutual fascination: baseball.

It may be America’s national pastime, but baseball is the Dominican’s, too. In every hamlet here, swarms of kids play ball, either in Little League-style parks or in open fields with makeshift equipment.

For the diehard fan there’s more: From mid-November till early February, the Dominican Republic is the home of an official winter baseball league populated with young, mostly Dominican-born players anxious to improve their standing with a major league American club. Featuring five teams, including Licey, a Los Angeles Dodgers-affiliated squad based in Santo Domingo, the Dominican League is the last frontier of major league baseball.

The highlights of our Dominican baseball odyssey were many:

--Before a game we attended in La Romana, the crowd was regaled by a fat man who stood on the dugout roof and stuffed his mouth first with baseballs, then with rum bottles, till his cheeks bulged like Dizzy Gillespie in mid-trumpet solo.

--Between innings, the public-address system blasted merengue music, which was so infectious that many of the ballplayers exited the dugouts dancing.

--The Licey team’s batboy, a tubby, white-haired senior citizen, rattled the opposition by pointing his bat, machine-gun style, at the opposing pitcher and firing off a few rounds of mock gunfire.

--The top of the outfield walls were crowded with kids armed with cherry picker-style nets, ready to steal a long fly ball away from a visiting outfielder.

Baseball is the national obsession. Youngsters dream of being signed by a major league team, eager to escape the country’s grinding poverty. Dominican-born stars such as Pedro Guerrero, George Bell and Joaquin Andujar (who played winter ball here as young major leaguers) are worshiped like movie stars. In fact, when our military hitchhiker learned we were going to a ballgame, he promptly joined us.

As for the Dominican Republic, imagine a country where electricity is always in short supply. When we drove into the south-coast town of San Pedro de Macoris one night, the entire city was dark, its tin-roof shacks and concrete-block homes illuminated only by candles and kerosene lamps. The town could boast only one huge beacon--the lights from the ballpark, which gave the stadium a radiant halo.

“I grew up in this ballpark,” said Mariano Duncan, a former Dodger infielder now with the Cincinnati Reds, who stopped to chat after he took batting practice. “I played here when I was a kid. I still live here in San Pedro, just a block away from (Houston Astro shortstop) Rafael Ramirez and near (Dodger shortstop) Alfredo Griffin and (Toronto Blue Jay all-star) George Bell, who just moved to a house he built. Everybody from San Pedro wants to play baseball in America. It’s a big dream for any boy from here.”

Between the white lines, Dominican baseball is an exact replica of American ball. But it’s the informal and always unpredictable nature of the game here that gives it a uniquely Dominican flavor.

Former stars such as Rico Carty drop by to sign autographs and throw out the first ball. If you arrive early, you can simply walk onto the field and watch batting practice or visit players and coaches in the dugout.

Felipe Alou, a former major league star who manages the Escogido team, stood on the field swapping stories for half an hour. Grabbing a seat in the stands one night, we found ourselves next to the chief scout for the Montreal Expos, on the lookout for a sharp young pitcher. (Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was here in late December on a scouting trip.)

The games are rarely dull and the price is right--$1.25 U.S. One night Licey pummeled Aguilas in a contest that featured a disputed inside-the-park home run, a collision at home plate and a wild inning in which the Licey pitcher walked the bases loaded and then proceeded to pick off two consecutive base runners.

“I’ve played and managed all over the Caribbean, and the fans and press here are just about the best,” said Licey Manager Kevin Kennedy, who manages the Dodgers’ Triple-A farm club during the regular season and is considered a prime candidate to succeed Lasorda as the next Dodger manager.

He pointed to the batting cage, which had so many holes in its protective netting that balls simply rocketed through.

Kennedy, a 35-year-old graduate of Los Angeles’ Taft High School (where he was a teammate of 1989 American League Most Valuable Player Robin Yount), said the ballpark lights “will drive you crazy.”

He smiled. “We were in La Romana the other night and the lights went dead and we had to call the game. We even have a term for it now--you get ‘lighted out.’ I’d say if we play five games a week, we lose the lights half the time.”

Two nights later, in La Romana, the lights blinked and dimmed about 30%, bathing the field in a twilight glow.

Still, the Dominican Republic features attractions other than baseball. With a good map and a sampling of beginner’s Spanish, you can motor around this lovely country with relative ease. The most striking scenery is found on the four-hour drive from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata, which takes you through lush, mountainous terrain with spectacular views and sweeping valleys of sugar cane, tobacco and pineapple fields reminiscent of rural Hawaii.

The north coast features the bustling town of Puerto Plata (Christopher Columbus’ first landing place), the resort enclave of Playa Dorada and the village of Sosua. Founded by German Jews fleeing Nazi oppression, it’s a popular tourist stop featuring everything from trinket shops to Club Roca, with its “Los Transvestitos” bump ‘n’ grind revue.

On the south coast, Santo Domingo offers a scenic (and easily walkable) colonial district, crammed with 16th-Century treasures ranging from a 1760-era sundial (the New World’s first solar clock) to the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Menor, an elegant church completed in 1541 and alleged to hold the bones of Columbus.

As you head east, take time to stop in the sleepy beach towns of Boca Chita and Playa Juan Dolio, before heading for San Pedro de Macoris and Casa de Campo, the island’s swank resort. Built in the 1970s by Gulf & Western, Case de Campo has a pair of Pete Dye golf courses, hillside tennis courts, an equestrian center and charter boats for fishing and sailing.

Nearby Altos de Chavon, also a G & W creation, is an ersatz 16th-Century Spanish village complete with a 5,000-seat stone amphitheater, a museum of Taino Indian artifacts and an Oscar de la Renta boutique. Farther east, in Punta Cana, is a Club Med.

For the more adventuresome there’s night life, especially in Santo Domingo with its merengue clubs, including the Meson de la Cava (built in a natural cave 50 feet underground), gambling joints (the most lavish is the Jaragua Casino) and the Santo Domingo Cockfighting Coliseum, which features bloody Wednesday night contests.

The cuisine is similar to other Caribbean fare, with the emphasis on chicken and pork dishes, sea bass and exotic soups. Except for resort hotels with their purified water, you’d be wise to drink bottled water.

And be cautious of petty crime. Two bags were stolen from our car in Santo Domingo. Still, the locals are friendly and intensely curious about norteamericanos .

A few reminders:

--Hotel accommodations are inexpensive, but be prepared: The service is erratic at best (even when the electricity is working). The peak tourist season is from late December through mid-March, so if you’re looking for good weather--and off-season rates--aim for April or early December, after the end of the late-fall rainy season.

--Don’t drive on your own if you don’t understand Spanish. It’s inevitable that you’ll get lost maneuvering through the bewildering traffic circles that anchor the roads leading in and out of major towns, especially since few are marked with street signs. The rural highways rarely have posted speed limits, but Santo Domingo’s speed traps feature police with radar guns.

--Most of all, be patient. Nothing starts on time here. Not even baseball. In mid-December, we drove up to Santiago to attend the Dominican all-star game, featuring the stars of the five winter league teams. After a long round of pregame festivities, including a 60-yard dash, a home-run contest and a throwing match, the crowd finally stood for the National Anthem.

The first batter was already approaching the plate when the anthem--which sounded like a merengue version of “The Lone Ranger” theme--suddenly began blaring over the PA system. The crowd doffed their caps, except for a flinty cigar-smoking gent who refused to budge.

Swilling Presidente beer and fanning himself with a battered fedora, he growled: “Let’s play ball!”

For general information on travel to the Dominican Republic, contact the Dominican Tourist Information Center, 485 Madison Ave., Suite 202, New York 10022, (212) 826-0750.