- As a child, every Dominican has two dreams: to play baseball and go to the United States. Instead, the former is a dream and the latter a necessity. This is the story of how Juan Marichal became the first Dominican to enter the hall of fame.
- Juan Marichal was one of the first Major League stars to emerge from the Dominican Republic.
The first Dominican to reach the Cooperstown Hall of Fame. His dominance in the 1960s for the San Francisco Giants makes him the winningest pitcher of the decade. He won 20 or more games in six of the ten years and made nine All-Star teams.
In 1965, Los Angeles and Vietnam were burning. Also, the Dominican Republic, where US troops are involved in a "peacekeeping" mission.
During what some describe as the first golden age of Latino baseball, major league teams did little to facilitate the acclimatization of Spanish-speaking Latino players; this made adaptation much more complex, facing the language barrier and racism.
Every Dominican as a child has two dreams: Play baseball and go to the United States. Instead, the first is a dream and the second a necessity. The story of how Juan Marichal became the first Dominican to reach the hall of fame. The story of a Dominican who succeeds in the United States against all odds.
To tell the story of Juan Marichal, we have to start at the beginning, Montecristí, where everything began; the year was 1937 when the dictator Trujillo ordered a cruel massacre of Haitians and Montecristí, located near the border with Haiti.
Everyone agrees when talking about baseball and Marichal, listening to Juan Marichal tell the anecdotes of his life and career.
This voice begins with the images of the play; it is empty and only illuminated by the moon. We see the back of Juan Marichal (84), walking alone in the corridor on the way to the field of play. He wears an old shirt from when he played with the San Francisco Giants; on the shirt, his number 27. The number was retired by the Giants in 1975 and is hanging in the corner of the stadium. He saunters; he is now an older adult, he is no longer an athlete; we see some dirt marks on his shirt; it is a used shirt, one that I wear in a baseball game, a worn and sweaty shirt with sweat marks.
He does not limit himself to informing as if it were a journalistic or didactic speech, nor to elaborate a strictly personal reflection as an amateur documentary would do. Halfway between one record and another, the voice of the narration can ask itself questions, remember past events, challenge the viewer, communicate a piece of information, propose a hypothesis, and offer an interpretation. A bit like a late-night radio show, with that public and intimate relationship with the viewers.
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