Baseball, Literacy, and Life in the Dominican Republic

By Pepe Frias

After 10 years in the big leagues—723 games from 1973 to 1983—and now in my mid-50s, I’m learning that being out of uniform doesn’t mean being out of touch. This summer, as last, I’ve been a guest coach at Home Run Baseball Camp at Friendship Recreation Center in Northwest Washington. Weekdays , as many as 200 boys and girls are there.

It’s pure baseball, far removed from strike talks and player-management standoffs. The children—many from public schools, others from exclusive academies—see baseball as a game of stress-free joy. In the daily drills and games—played on four fields kept immaculate by a Whitman High School senior who will be studying agronomy in college—the kids are asked to follow the motto of the camp: “Talent is what you have, effort is what you give.”

Twenty assistant coaches, from a University of Pennsylvania junior who wants to be a kindergarten teacher to a Wilson High student from Sierra Leone whose parents were killed in front of him when he refused to join the rebel army, teach that heart and hustle matter.

This is the kind of baseball I want to see in my country, the Dominican Republic, and in the impoverished canefield villages where I grew up and still live. Currently, we have more than 1,600 players under contract to major league organizations. As early as four or five, Dominican kids see the game as a route out of poverty—just about the only route. Baseball fields or canefields. For nearly 40 years, shirtless and shoeless Domincan teenagers have been recruited by agents and scouts on the prowl for the payoff of the next one-in-10,000 Sammy Sosa.

But what of the 9,999 others who get released in the minors?

My friend John McCarthy, who founded Home Run Baseball Camp 10 years ago, and I have established a baseball and literacy program in Consuelo, my village near San Pedro de Macoris. It’s the literacy that counts. When a signed player doesn’t get to the big leagues, as most don’t, being finished professionally shouldn’t mean being finished personally. Literacy is essential.

Coach McCarthy, who also runs a literacy and baseball program at Garrison Elementary in the Shaw neighborhood, has received foundation funding to establish Home Run Baseball in Consuelo. He and I work with a Catholic sister—on the island for more than 40 years—to keep Dominican children in school. No more leaving, as I and many others did, in grade school to work and help our families survive.

At Friendship playground, the Home Run campers have futures that aren’t baseball dependent. They’re taught life skills—read books, be grateful for your blessings, teamwork, eat fruits and vegetables—as well as baseball skills. It should be this way in the Dominican Republic, too.

These past two years for about 400 children, boys and girls, it’s happening.

Pepe Frias was an infielder for the Montreal Expos, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers. He lives on Pepe Frias Boulevard in Consuelo, Dominican Republic with his wife and four children.