It is said that the game of baseball first came to the Dominican Republic in the 1860s, brought over by wealthy Cubans who fled a revolution in Cuba and settled in the Dominican Republic. However, the game really took off in the early part of the twentieth century, with the American occupation. American troops would play games against local Dominicans teams. For the Dominicans, it was a source of great pride to be able to beat the occupying troops, and from that time forward, baseball has been the preferred sport in the country.
Today, it is said that one in ten players in the US major leagues is from the Dominican Republic. Most professional teams have training and recruiting camps in the Dominican Republic, and many professional players still play winter league ball, which takes place from November until February each year, with all major cities in the Dominican Republic being represented by a team. If you are in the Dominican Republic in those months, catching a game is a must!
Some of the famous Dominicans that have played or currently play major league ball include Sammy Sosa (back playing again with Texas), Felipe and Moises Alou, Manny Mota, Juan Uribe and Pablo Ozuna (both with the White Sox), Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez (both currently with the Cubs), Julio Lugo, Julian Tavarez, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Wily Mo Pena (all currently with Boston), Armando Benitez and Pedro Feliz (both with San Francisco), Jose Reyes and Julio Franco (both with the New York Mets), Albert Pujols and Juan Encarnacion (both with St. Louis), Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, and Hector Carrasco (Angels), Daniel Cabrera and Miguel Tejada (Baltimore), and the list goes on and on.
There are a number of good sources on the history and state of baseball in the Dominican Republic. The best is "The Tropic of Baseball" by Rob Ruck, which is available at most online book sellers. Other excellent books that you might also want to try are "Sugarball: The American Game, The Dominican Dream" by Alan M. Klein, or "The Only Ticket Off the Island" by Gare Joyce. The book "El Beisbol" by John Krich also has an excellent section on baseball in the Dominican Republic. Forbes Magazine just had an interesting article about baseball in the Dominican Republic which you can view at http://www.forbes.com/fyi/2006/0424/089.html. Also, DR1 has an interesting history of baseball in the Dominican Republic, which is available here http://www.dr1.com/articles/baseball.shtml. There was also an excellent documentary that was shown on PBS entitled "Republic of Baseball: The Dominican Giants of the American Game", which you can obtain on DVD here http://www.republicofbaseball.com.
There are also a number of resources on the web, and you can find a number of baseball related links on our 'links' section.