{"id":244036,"date":"2025-11-17T07:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T11:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/?p=244036"},"modified":"2025-11-17T08:56:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:56:27","slug":"dominican-republic-defeats-puerto-rico-in-the-rd-vs-pr-showdown-at-citi-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2025\/11\/17\/dominican-republic-defeats-puerto-rico-in-the-rd-vs-pr-showdown-at-citi-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominican Republic defeats Puerto Rico in the RD vs PR showdown at Citi Field"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Robinson Cano \/ El D\u00eda<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The hundreds of red, white, and blue flags in the ballpark were not those of the United States, but those of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, brought to the park by fans at the RD\/DR Showdown, the All-Star Game between teams from the Dominican Republic\u2019s Lidom Baseball League and Puerto Rico\u2019s Liga Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dominican All-Stars won 6-2 over the Puerto Rican Stars. But more than a sports competition, the event was the celebration of the heritage and culture of two of the Caribbean\u2019s baseball powers, as well as the cultural contributions the large Dominican and Puerto Rican populations have made to New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game, which drew 20,057 to Citi Field, also honored two players who made their own marks in New York: the DR\u2019s Robinson Cano, who is in what is likely his final season of winter ball with the Estrellas Orientales in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, and Carlos Beltran, the Puerto Rican outfielder who was the 1999 American League Rookie of the Year with the Kansas City Royals and keyed a memorable Mets playoff run in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also honored by Puerto Rico was former Met and Toronto Blue Jay Carlos Delgado, who managed the LBPRC team Saturday afternoon. Delgado is again under consideration for baseball\u2019s highest honor, being inducted to Cooperstown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think these kinds of events are positive because they give us Latinos the opportunity to unite, to showcase our baseball skills and the passion that exists on two islands in the Caribbean, full of enthusiasm: the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico,\u201d Beltran said in Spanish. \u201cPeople always talk about the rivalry and all that, but I don\u2019t like to call it a rivalry. I prefer to call it brotherhood because we are brothers of the Caribbean, and even though when we step onto the field everyone wants to win, everyone wants to do well, at the end of the day we are Latinos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Latin music blaring from Citi Field\u2019s speakers, the atmosphere was as warm as San Juan or Santo Domingo, despite a November day in New York giving the teams significantly colder weather than they\u2019re used to. But even the chilly, gray afternoon couldn\u2019t dampen the spirit surrounding the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone who follows baseball knows that when the Dominican teams play Puerto Rico, it\u2019s a healthy clash,\u201d Dominican manager Carlos Gomez said in Spanish before the game. \u201cAnd anyone who comes to see a game, to see a real game between two teams, no matter how small league, when they face off, they play their hearts out. And to bring two teams with that rivalry here to New York City, I think they\u2019re going to put on a great show and people will enjoy it, and they\u2019ll want to hold an event every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moment of silence was held before the game for former Major League pitcher Octavio Dotel and musician Rubby Perez, both of who were killed in the collapse of the Jet Set Nightclub in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in April 2025. Dotel made his MLB debut with the New York Mets in 1989 and played for 13 different teams, the second-most of any player in MLB history. Perez, a merengue singer beloved in the Dominican Republic, was himself a baseball fan who aspired to be a player, but ultimately found fame as a musician. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:
MLB <\/a>
Hoy <\/a>
El Caribe <\/a>
El Dia <\/a>
Pix11 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

17 November 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hundreds of red, white, and blue flags in the ballpark were not those of the United States, but those of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, brought to the park by fans at the RD\/DR Showdown, the All-Star Game between teams from the Dominican Republic\u2019s Lidom Baseball League and Puerto Rico\u2019s Liga Beisbol Profesional … <\/p>\n

Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[337,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244036"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244095,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244036\/revisions\/244095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}