OTTAWA – Baseball Canada announced, today, the names of the 28 National Junior Team prospects that will compete for Canada on its 2006 Dominican Republic Tour.
The national junior team is slated to play eight games against Major League Baseball instructional clubs in five Dominican cities from May 24 to June 2.
A total of 410 Major League Baseball players have hailed from the Caribbean nation, which may be small in size but big on baseball.
On May 24, the team will first set foot on Dominican soil in the capital city of Santo Domingo, which has produced more major leaguers (92) than any other city in the country, including sluggers David Ortiz, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Adrian Beltre as well as former Blue Jays Juan Guzman and Alfredo Griffin.
Upon leaving Las Americas International Airport, the team will head eastward for a one-hour drive along the southern coast of the Dominican to Juan Dolio, where it will set-up base for the week-long tour.
With little time to settle in, the prospects’ opening two-game set against the Seattle Mariners begins the next day on the edge of Santo Domingo in a community called Villa Mella, starting point for seven big leaguers and where Pedro Martinez, Neifi Perez, Cecilio Guante and former Blue Jay Sandy Martinez honed their skill as youngsters.
Three of their next four games will be played in Boca Chica. Twenty minutes west of the team’s home base in Juan Dolio, Boca Chica is not only known for its serene white sand beach sheltered by a massive reef in a cove off the Caribbean Sea, but also as a sports haven which produced major leaguer Andres Thomas, a right-handed hitting shortstop for the Atlanta Braves from 1985 to 1990. Boca Chica will host the Canadians against the Minnesota Twins May 25 and against the Cleveland Indians on May 27 and 28.
Sandwiched between two games in Boca Chica is Canada’s lone game in the Dominican Republic’s second major baseball breeding ground. On May 26, just 15 minutes west of Juan Dolio, Canada will face the Anaheim Angels in the city of San Pedro de Macoris, which produced 69 major leaguers including Jose Offerman, Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano and two former Blue Jays; Tony Fernandez and Manny Lee.
On the final day in May, the Canadian contingent will head one hour inland to play the Toronto Blue Jays in Hato Mayor, the former home of six future big league players, including the ageless Julio Franco and the third youngest player in the National League in 1993, Roberto Mejia, who played four seasons with the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals until 1997.
Canada will then wrap up its Dominican tour with a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 1 in Guanuma, the only city to be visited on the tour void of a major league player.
Twenty to 23 players will be selected from the Dominican tour to move on to the fourth and final stage of the selection process for National Junior Team that will compete at the World Junior AAA Championships in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, September 17-27. From September 9-16, Team Canada will hold a weeklong training camp and exhibition series against the Cuban National Junior Team to determine its final 18-man roster for the World Championships.
Roster - 2006 National Junior Team Dominican Tour
