Enthusiasm impresses Jarek Cunningham

Mt. Spokane junior Jarek Cunningham traveled to the Dominican Republic last month for a weeklong baseball experience. What he didn’t expect was a sociology lesson that taught him much more than he ever could have learned on the diamond.

Cunningham, one of four Spokane players listed in the top 10 on the Baseball Northwest prospects list, was a member of the U.S. Baseball Stars U18 team played eight games against teams from the Valdez Baseball Academy in Santo Domingo during the last week of 2006.

The U.S. team was made up of players selected from summer Junior Olympic tournaments in Peoria, Ariz., and Jupiter, Fla., as well as open tryout camps for players who hadn’t participated in the Junior Olympics.

The Americans won seven of eight games against the Dominican teams of 16- to 22-year-olds who participate in the academic and baseball programs offered by the academy, which receives considerable financial support from Kansas City Royals pitcher Odalis Perez. Cunningham had at least one hit in every game and played errorless defense.

“It’s amazing how we live compared with the people in the Dominican,” Cunningham said upon his return. “What they have to go through day in and day out just to survive…

“My Spanish teacher told me before I left that there was a lot of poverty there, but I had no clue it would be like it was. We’d drive down the road and see the shacks the people live in. There were goats running around, and really no houses like we see up here.

“It was really an eye-opener for me, how fortunate we are compared with others. The other teams just had wood bats, so some of them used our metal bats, and when we were done a lot of our guys left their bats. Some of the younger kids (several American teams made the trip) left gloves and cleats for the Dominican players.”

The biggest baseball difference Cunningham noticed was the passion with which his Dominican opponents play the game. The Valdez players are well-scouted and see baseball as their best opportunity to make their way to a better life, he said.

“We don’t play the same way,” he said. “The Valdez kids see that as their chance to make it. They play high-energy baseball there. They were jumping around in the dugout, people were cheering, and it was all pretty cool.

“It taught me to look at the game differently, to play with that kind of enthusiasm and not just for the fun of it. It really focused my attention.”

In contrast to the impoverished living conditions, the baseball fields – facilities built by major-league organizations – were immaculate and comparable, Cunningham said, to MLB spring-training fields. That was a special treat for the Valdez players, who typically play at fields much less well-groomed. Actually, said Cunningham, the academy fields were “terrible”.

The Dominicans’ strong suit, he said, was their defense. Their weakness was their pitching. All their pitchers threw hard but had control problems, especially with their off-speed pitches.

The umpires? As usual, they couldn’t please anybody.

“They were so bad that even the Dominican guys were yelling at them,” Cunningham said. “We didn’t get homered at all. I just wish I knew what the Dominicans were saying when they were arguing with the umps. Our umpires up here would be gods down there!”

Cunningham, who played on the Mt. Spokane varsity as a sophomore, recently made an oral commitment to play at Washington State University. He’s a 6-foot, 175-pound shortstop who, after a visit to another world, will never see baseball, or life, in the same way again.