Viva el Beisbol

Ah, summer. Time for a ballgame, for peanuts, for Cracker Jacks and for cartas para intercambio de las ligas mayores del beisbol. Translation: Donruss Estrellas Spanish-language baseball cards. Introduced last year by the Texas-based Donruss Trading Card Co., the brightly colored cards--which give heavy play to Latino stars and offer trivia about their “naciones de origen”--have flourished here in Southern California, and have also shown up in the classroom. Educators at Iowa State hope to use them to teach gringos a thing or two about espanol.

Not that any of that matters to the ninos who’ll be collecting Dodger lanzador Hideo Nomo or Adrian Beltre on tercera base. The thrill for kids, says Donruss spokesman Tracy Hackler, “is just opening up the packs.” Unwrapping gifts, after all, is always a jonron--no matter what language you cheer in when someone knocks the ball out of the park. The 2003 Donruss Estrellas are due this summer at Albertson’s and other Southern California retailers.