Dominican Republic

Cap Cana, Dominican Republic Located just 10 minutes from the Punta Cana airport, Cap Cana is a self-contained, 30,000-acre ecological resort area with pristine oceanfront beaches, the luminous Cap Cana Marina, cliffs and forested hiking trails, as well as countless water-based activities. The development encompasses several resorts including Adam Jones' favorite, the Fishing Lodge. Getting there US Airways, Air Tran and American Airlines offer connecting flights to Punta Cana from BWI-Marshall.

Joel Rosario rode anyway. Upon returning to the jockey's room last May 20, he learned that his brother Marino , a police officer in his native Dominican Republic, had been killed in a motorcycle accident. Creative Cause -- and a chance to ride in his first Preakness -- awaited. Rosario went out to the track. "I just think it was really sad for me," he said Friday morning at Pimlico Race Course. "It was something that really hurt me. " Rosario took Creative Cause out with Bodemeister on the lead, but sagged to third as I'll Have Another won a duel down the stretch.

Orioles reliever Pedro Strop assembled with his new World Baseball Classic Dominican teammates three weeks ago for their first workout in Tampa, and that's when the tone for an undefeated championship run was set. The Dominican Republic has become the world's biggest baseball factory outside the United States, but the Dominican's first-round exit in the most recent WBC in 2009 was a disappointment that resonated throughout the entire Caribbean nation....

BOWIE - On his first off day as an Orioles minor leaguer, Double-A Bowie outfielder Henry Urrutia took a trip to Baltimore, where he got a tour of Camden Yards - the place he hopes his uphill and divot-filled baseball journey reaches its pinnacle. Thursday, Urrutia checked out the Orioles clubhouse, strolled up the steps of the home dugout and walked onto the field, where he took a 360-degree look around him and soaked in what seemed impossible growing up in Cuba. It was a memorable trip for the 26-year-old Urrutia - because it was the truest sign yet that his dream of playing in the big leagues was in reach.

Dr. Michael S. Murphy has developed an unusual way to ensure proper postoperative care for patients he won't see for several months. The orthopedic surgeon, who travels twice a year to the Dominican Republican to treat its neediest people for free, writes his follow-up instructions with indelible ink in Spanish on their casts. He keeps in touch by phone and e-mail with the Dominican hospital staff. Those patients who need attention before he returns "just show their casts to the local doctors," Murphy said.

Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon, accused of shooting and killing a 25-year-old man in his native Dominican Republic during New Year's celebrations, will go to trial, a judge has ruled, according to an Associated Press report out of the Dominican Republic. Simon, 30, was in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, for Monday's hearing. He was back in the United States later Monday and started for Double-A Bowie on Tuesday night in Richmond, Va. Dinora Diloné, an attorney for Simon, maintains that his client is innocent in the shooting that killed Michael Castillo Almonte.

Baltimore Orioles' star center fielder Adam Jones loves to sleep out — which works out nicely for him, realization, since his team spends more than 80 days a year on the road. Obviously undaunted by frequent changes of scenery, Jones has been a consistent performer for the Orioles, winning a Gold Glove Award in 2009 and being named the team's most valuable player last fall by the local news media. All of this high-profile activity might lead one to assume that during the offseason Jones would prefer to unwind at home, sleeping in his own bed. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

The Least of These Ministries, a faith-based, nondenominational relief organization founded by Manchester resident Steve Hull and his wife, shipped 200,000 meal packages to undernourished Haitian sugar cane workers this week. On the morning of Oct. 10, the organization took possession of the food packages from another group, Feed My Starving Children, after pledging to transport the food to Haitians living in work camps in the Dominican Republic. The shipment was passed along later this week.

IT MAY BE that this was not the dirtiest election in Dominican history -- it is also possible that my cat Nikko, placed in an aviary, will embrace the birds.It may also be that the "old crowd" here really did not steal the elections.But in these days immediately after the May 16 elections, the mood is suspiciously quiet. The capital has seen no victory celebrations by President Joaquin Balaguer, officially re-elected by 43 percent of the voters to his seventh term even though he is 87 years old and blind.

The Orioles' season is long over, but in fall and winter, baseball aficionados can savor the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd in the Dominican Republic, one of the Caribbean's "it" destinations. Most people know that several top sluggers hail from the country, but did you know Christopher Columbus is also one of the country's claims to fame? The explorer discovered the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti, on his maiden voyage to the New World. Not a sports or history buff?

Orioles reliever Pedro Strop assembled with his new World Baseball Classic Dominican teammates three weeks ago for their first workout in Tampa, and that's when the tone for an undefeated championship run was set. The Dominican Republic has become the world's biggest baseball factory outside the United States, but the Dominican's first-round exit in the most recent WBC in 2009 was a disappointment that resonated throughout the entire Caribbean nation....

Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles. zero -- runs allowed by Pedro Strop in six games for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. Orioles position players Adam Jones and Jonathan Schoop produced mixed results at the World Baseball Classic -- each had some big hits but put up underwhelming numbers overall -- but reliever Pedro Strop was of the most unhittable relievers in the tournament.

Adam Jones delivered again at the World Baseball Classic, driving home a run in the seventh inning of the U.S. team's 7-1 win over Puerto Rico in Miami on Tuesday night. Jones' single up the middle against former Orioles lefty J.C. Romero stretched the U.S. lead to 4-0. The Orioles center fielder had the go-ahead hit in the U.S. team's win over Canada on Sunday, which sent them through to the double-elimination second round. The U.S. is off Wednesday and faces the Dominican Republic on Thursday at 7 p.m., also at Marlins Park.

Orioles right-handed reliever Pedro Strop, who will pitch for the Dominican Republic in this spring's World Baseball Classic, said choosing to participate in the WBC was an easy decision. While Orioles teammates Jim Johnson (United States) and Miguel Gonzalez (Mexico) have deciding to decline invitations to pitch in the WBC in order to stay in camp with the Orioles, Strop said he prepared to pitch in the tournament from the time last season ended. “I had a plan right after the season was over,” Strop said.

Southwest Airlines will add two destinations next spring to its schedule of flights from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the carrier announced Monday. On April 14, AirTran Airways, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southwest, will begin daily service to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, pending government approval. Southwest will offer three daily nonstop flights to Flint, Mich., from BWI. In addition, three AirTran destinations will convert to Southwest, beginning the same day: Charlotte, N.C.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Portland, Maine.

Though its chances of making it out of pool play at the Cal Ripken World Series faded a few days ago, the Harford County squad from Forest Hill did not lie down in its final game of the tournament Tuesday afternoon, handing the Midwest Plains squad of Lamar, Colo., a 5-1 defeat. Playing as the visiting side at Fenway Park, Harford County (1-3) scored three times in the top of the first, with Jordan Wax starting things by doubling in Nicholas Sulzbach. Wax then scored on a single by Sean D'Adamo, while D'Adamo scored on a single by Jake Johnson.

The Oriole Advocates yesterday shipped more than 4,000 pounds of new and used baseball equipment to the Dominican Republic, the final step of their "Cardboard to Leather" drive.Inspired by a series of Sun articles detailing the desperate poverty of thousands of baseball-playing youths in the Dominican, many of whom use gloves made of cardboard, the Advocates collected equipment for a week earlier this month at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.Carlos Bernhardt, the Orioles scout in the Dominican, will distribute the equipment in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris.

The variables involved in planning a Caribbean family vacation can be daunting enough to send the weak scurrying back to a condo in Sarasota, Fla. Ideal for honeymooners or stressed-out grown-ups, many Caribbean resorts are designed for those who need to get away from it all. Yet children seem to need something to do other than lounging on sunny beaches. Picky teenage travelers need something to do other than sneaking into casinos. (At least, their parents think so.) And the deal-breaker is that many remote Caribbean destinations require changing planes.

Baltimore Orioles' star center fielder Adam Jones loves to sleep out — which works out nicely for him, realization, since his team spends more than 80 days a year on the road. Obviously undaunted by frequent changes of scenery, Jones has been a consistent performer for the Orioles, winning a Gold Glove Award in 2009 and being named the team's most valuable player last fall by the local news media. All of this high-profile activity might lead one to assume that during the offseason Jones would prefer to unwind at home, sleeping in his own bed. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Cap Cana, Dominican Republic Located just 10 minutes from the Punta Cana airport, Cap Cana is a self-contained, 30,000-acre ecological resort area with pristine oceanfront beaches, the luminous Cap Cana Marina, cliffs and forested hiking trails, as well as countless water-based activities. The development encompasses several resorts including Adam Jones' favorite, the Fishing Lodge. Getting there US Airways, Air Tran and American Airlines offer connecting flights to Punta Cana from BWI-Marshall.