Dominican Winter League offers excitement for fans, proving ground for future stars
By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer
Today isn't completely an off day.
Sure, the World Series is taking a little break as it moves from Houston to Atlanta. But a thousand miles away, the Dominican Winter League will be around to scratch your baseball itch.
Liga de Beisbol Dominicano, or LIDOM, is a winter baseball league in the Dominican Republic that runs between late October and mid-January. Six teams across the island battle it out over a 50-game regular season, an 18-game, four-team playoff round-robin and a best-of-nine championship series.
As the Astros were tying up the series Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park, LIDOM was celebrating Opening Day. All three games were pretty close, Mets prospect Ronny Mauricio homered, there was a benches-clearing fake baseball fight, and fans were allowed back into stadiums for the first time since the pandemic.
Dominican baseball culture rocks. The league is a cauldron of baseball joy, a land of unencumbered emotion, where players can and do express themselves freely. There’s chest-pumping, bat-flipping and glove-slamming. The stands feature a lot of drums and a lot of rums. The fans roar and cheer and leap on the dugouts and create an energy more celebratory than that of any MLB fan base. It’s an incredible show, and now, for the first time, MLB TV is streaming all the games online.
The players in the league are a mix of a few different categories. There are longtime major leaguers whose names you know, such as Hanley Ramírez and Fernando Rodney. Then there are some Dominican top prospects looking for extra game action, such as Mauricio or Seattle’s Noelvi Marte.
Also, a handful of non-Dominicans in the upper minors, usually guys further down a team’s prospect list, fly down for a few weeks at a time. Joc Pederson did this when he was in Triple-A. Lastly, there are a smattering of foreign players who haven’t played affiliated ball in years (or ever) and spend their summers playing in Mexico or a stateside independent league.
LIDOM is very different from the humdrum monotony of minor-league life and its prioritization of development over competition. For many young Dominican players, LIDOM is a proving ground, a first taste of high-stakes, meaningful baseball.
Fernando Tatis Jr. starred in LIDOM, as did Rafael Devers. In fact, almost every significant Dominican star in the majors today spent time honing his game in the home league at one point or another.
That includes current Astros outfielder and longtime LIDOM stalwart Jose Siri, who, while not a star, was certainly a centerpiece of Game 2 of the World Series. Siri’s roar to the crowd after a mad dash around the bases on an error-filled play by the Braves in the second inning was the enduring image of Houston’s 7-2 win. For many rookies, playing in front of 42,000-plus might be intimidating, but not for Siri, who has played a whole lot of important games in winter ball.
Back in 2018, Siri was a key figure on an Estrellas Orientales team led by Tatis Jr. and managed by Fernando Tatis Sr. that broke a 50-year championship drought, spurring all-night parties in the streets. Siri won the Championship Series’ MVP award and was a fire starter for one of the most iconic teams in recent LIDOM history. In short, the pressure of the World Series does not faze him.
"The games in the Dominican Republic are some of the most exciting that I've ever been a part of," Siri said through an interpreter after Game 2. "I don't get nervous, thanks in part to that, because I was able to play in those atmospheres in the Dominican Republic."
The major leagues are definitely a big deal in the Dominican, but it says a lot that LIDOM’s Opening Day overlapped with Game 2 of the World Series. On the island, the national league takes precedence to the National League, as Dominicans quite understandably care more about their own teams and their own players playing in games they can go see.
That same energy flows down to the teams. The postgame locker room celebrations can get completely off the rails. Some teams have coordinated dances to team songs. Others, such as Leones del Escogido last year, perform elaborate skits to commemorate big wins.
Now that you understand it’s truly a party atmosphere, I’m sure you want in on the party. To start, you need a team to root for. There are six clubs in LIDOM, each of which has its own extensive history and unique culture. We don’t have time to do a full history lesson here today, but here’s a quick overview of the six teams.
The baseball-less winter here in the U.S. can get long, lonely and boring. With labor unrest and a potential work stoppage on the horizon, now is the perfect time to educate yourself on the world of baseball beyond MLB.
Start now! The World Series has an off day! What else do you have to do?
Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.
