The Dominican Republic started training on Tuesday with a view to forming the best possible baseball team to find a place at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“We have an interesting group, many Dominicans who are not under contract in the United States have responded to the call to join the team,” said the Dominican team’s general manager, José Gómez.
“ We have a large group because we know some of them will be able to get a job, others may have an accident and learn from past mistakes, because we are not calling a small group, but more than 40 players who will come in. two groups and we plan to add some baseball players organized to have the best possible team to represent the country, ”he added.
In training yesterday under the most recognized Emilio Bonifacio and Juan Francisco, two relevant pieces of the Dominican winter ball were seen.
“There is also Jorge Bonifacio, Emilio’s brother, Jefry Pérez, Jimmy Pardes, Gustavo Núñez, Diego Goris, Juan Francisco, Carlos Franco. In pitching we have people like Edward Paredes, Darío Alvarez, Lisalverto Bonilla, Jairo Asencio, William Jerez, Luis Santos, we have many important branches of winter baseball, ”he said.
The team will travel on April 22 and play three fires in Florida before hostilities begin on April 31 in the first game against Puerto Rico.
“We have to be in first place among the best eight teams in America. Only Mexico qualified so far. We share a group with Puerto Rico, the United States and Nicaragua. On the other side are Venezuela, Colombia, Canada and Cuba, all strong teams ”.
The team leader is Fernando Tatis, who was not present on the first day of training as he is in the United States with his son, who is recovering from a shoulder injury that has kept him out of the game since Monday 5.
“We hope to have Fernando next week, meanwhile Wilton Veras is in charge of the training sessions. We also have Manny Garcia as the pitching coach and Anderson Hernandez. Other coaches will join later, ”added Gómez.
In addition to Gómez, in baseball operations, the Dominican team has winter team executives such as Daniel Rufenacht (Licey), Oliver Arias, (Stars), Luis Manuel Sánchez (Giants) and Héctor Borg (Bulls).
“We have an interesting group, many Dominicans who are not contracted in the United States”
