UChicago baseball team makes connections, donates equipment on Dominican Republic trip

When UChicago baseball coach Kevin Tyrrell heard from a colleague that there were opportunities for teams to travel to the Dominican Republic (D.R.) to donate baseball equipment and compete against local teams, he knew it would be a transformative experience for his players. 

Tyrrell got in touch with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, which facilitates service opportunities through the Manny Mota International Foundation at its Dominican development academy, just outside of Santo Domingo, for visiting teams.

Over Thanksgiving break, the Maroons traveled to the D.R. with 43 bags of equipment in tow and spent four days making the most of their time on the island. 

Tell us about the service opportunities and charity work the team did in the D.R.

One of our assistant coaches works at a facility that prints apparel and baseball uniforms. Sometimes printing mistakes happen, and sometimes teams don't even come and pick them up. So he had about 30 teams’ worth of jerseys that were still wrapped in plastic and had never been worn. We brought an awful lot of things there, including bats, helmets and hats, too. 

Our first donation was the first day we were there, to a group of about 35 young men who were in the San Antonio de Guerra area. They came to the Dodgers’ campus and we had them take as much as they could fit in their arms. 

A lot of young men growing up in that area between the ages of 12 and 15 don’t have many options, and education is not something that's highly prioritized. If they don't have access to baseball equipment, that’s one less option. 

They were thrilled with the things that we brought, a lot of which was brand new. Their eyes lit up. You just felt like, maybe if this keeps any of them interested in baseball a little bit longer, then we made a positive impact. 

Then we had some equipment left over, so we were able to make another donation to another organization down there, too. We also did a beach cleanup, which I thought was pretty impactful. It was just a really powerful trip.

What was the benefit of traveling to the D.R., from a team perspective?

It was 90 degrees and sunny every day. We had some really productive practices every morning, and the Dodgers fed us really, really well. 

The third day we were there, we played a game against a group of young men who were either ex-professionals or trying out for professional teams down there. 

I think our guys got a lot out of it. They got to spend a lot more time together than they normally do, without the hustle and bustle of their class schedules to worry about. Even our downtime was a really useful thing for us as a baseball program. We don't get to do that very often, outside of practices. With how young our team is, I think it was really good for bonding.

What was the highlight of the trip for the players?

We went to go see a Dominican Winter League game, and that was just electric. I think that would probably be the highlight for most of the guys. [Cleveland Guardians All-Star third baseman] José Ramirez was in the lineup that night, as were five other current big leaguers. That just went really well. 

The environment was what I would imagine a soccer game in Europe to be like. Fans are cheering and making noise constantly. It was just really cool, and I don’t think any of them will ever forget it.