Renderings courtesy Chicago Cubs
Thursday morning, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and his siblings, along with Carlos Marmol and Starlin Castro, announced the building of a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.
It will be located in La Gina and at 50 acres, the Cubs' new baseball academy will be the largest property of any academy in the D.R. In addition to baseball training, the academy will house the players and serve as an educational center. It will be a year-round training facility for major league players (during the offseason) as well as minor league players. In addition to the Dominican Republic, the academy will serve players from many other countries, including Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Aruba, Curacao and Mexico.
The academy is expected to be completed in approximately 12-18 months. La Gina is located approximately 15 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from Santo Domingo.
The academy will feature four fields (including one turf field), four covered batting cages, eight bullpens, a weight room, a cafeteria and kitchen, two locker rooms, two meeting rooms, a large classroom that can be converted to four smaller classrooms plus a theater and video room.
The on-site dormitory will house up to 80 players and eight staff members.
The academy will also have an educational center equipped with classrooms and staff to teach English and Spanish to players and personnel. Players will also have an ability to earn their GED (high school equivalent). This center will place an emphasis on education, health and nutrition.
The Ricketts family is committed to helping the Dominican Republic. Their recent donation to the Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC), a collaborative health care and educational organization in the Dominican Republic, helped fund a clinic whose goal is to reduce hypertension and diabetes in the D.R. This project will also create construction jobs during the building process and future jobs at the academy once the project is complete.
After the jump, more renderings of the academy.
Click on images to open larger versions in new browser windows or tabs.
0 recs | 70 comments
Field 1
Does field 1 have the same dimensions as Wrigley? It looks like it might.
cubsscoop - February 2, 2012
Yeah, looks like it.
Al Yellon - February 2, 2012
IIRC
… the Cubs are planning to do that in their new spring training complex in Mesa, too.
Al Yellon - February 2, 2012
I'm gonna head down for some Winter Training games.
Who’s with me?
Fukudometer - February 2, 2012
I'm always
ready to go downtown to Legina… ill refrain from further jokes about Legina to keep it PG 13.
RIP Slim - February 2, 2012 via Android app
I once knew a woman from Legina...
OK, OK…I’ll stop.
daver - February 2, 2012
Who had a old ratty Reclina?
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
Til one day she woke...
ballhawk - February 2, 2012
...and found it had broke,
ballhawk - February 2, 2012
...because she ate too much at the dinah.
ballhawk - February 2, 2012
Burma Shave!
Emelie - February 2, 2012
Impossible!
Tom Ricketts is broke. He has no money. He is sucking every dollar out of the Cubs. They will be bankrupt by 2013. He is just making this up to hide the fact that he wants to tune the Cubs into the Pirates-West or Royals-East.
rlpete - February 2, 2012
And he hired Frank McCourt!
RiskyBusiness - February 2, 2012
...
Emelie - February 2, 2012
I was thinking of a less classy guy
RiskyBusiness - February 2, 2012
Wow!
Nice to see the Cubs going “First-Class” in their development of talent in the DR.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a long-term pipeline of incredible baseball talent to the parent club.
CubFanSince1970 - February 2, 2012
Read this as:
dtpollitt - February 2, 2012
Heh.
You missed a comma.
Al Yellon - February 2, 2012
They're all brothers in blue...
…until we trade Marmol to the Yankees for Robinson Cano.
daver - February 2, 2012
I want to go to there
RiskyBusiness - February 2, 2012
How cool would it be
to go there as the English or basic math instructor? You could teach and be a part of your favorite club.
Tat14 - February 2, 2012
I think it's interesting that it's not just learning english
That’s it the GED also
Madison Cub Fan - February 3, 2012
Exactly.
I wonder what kind and how many different positions they could have available.
Tat14 - February 3, 2012
Reminds me of the soccer acadamies you in England
Now those are pretty sick looking.
unretrofied93 - February 2, 2012
*you see in England.
unretrofied93 - February 2, 2012
is this complex
for cubs players? or for prospects from those countries?
RIP Slim - February 2, 2012 via Android app
nevermind
for cubs players in offseason and minor leaguers. reading helps.
RIP Slim - February 2, 2012 via Android app
i hear ya, I just looked at the pics and didnt even noticed the article before it.
Kind of like how Playboy has articles lol.
rsikes - February 2, 2012
Playboy has articles?
Easy Ed - February 2, 2012
that's sick! in a good way..
rsikes - February 2, 2012
The Cubs are investing in ways that the organization never had before.
Part of that is: Ricketts gets it!
The other part is: Theo is asking for it!
SackMan - February 2, 2012
This had been in the plans before Theo came here.
bdlugz - February 2, 2012
That's why I said Ricketts gets it.
He’s been laying out plans for new facilities, bigger draft budgets, etc. prior to hiring Theo….
SackMan - February 2, 2012
After the 2nd-grade-level not-even-refrigerator-worthy "renderings" of the right field Budweiser patio/porch project...
…it’s nice to see some professional renderings for a change.
Never heard of this JMF company but I wish they’d send one of their interns up to Chicago and show them how it’s done.
ballhawk - February 2, 2012
Well...
… now you’ve done it. I’ve sent some images to Mike, who draws the cartoons here and is way better at Photoshop than I am.
Hopefully, he’ll send me a better rendering. If so, I’ll post it.
Al Yellon - February 2, 2012
Man, you got some high standards for second graders.
shoemile - February 2, 2012
I thought the RF LED board renderings were the creations of Todd Ricketts
cubsnlinux - February 2, 2012
I hope they build an outfield wall on that field that looks like Wrigley.
To help better simulate playing at home.
SackMan - February 2, 2012
You think that's something you can duplicate?
I mean, I wonder how closely you could model the “playability” of Wrigley Field in the DR. Obviously, there are significant weather/wind differences, but would the wall actually “feel” like the wall in Wrigley? Is it even possible to be detailed enough in the materials, construction, and landscaping to build an outfield wall that could reproduce the bounces that you’d see in the Friendly Confines?
I think this would be a really cool engineering project.
CJK - February 2, 2012
The Ricketts are awesome people
I
subtle - February 2, 2012
Agreed.
II
daver - February 2, 2012
Just thought I'd add this.
III
Al Yellon - February 2, 2012
What IV?
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
Hi
V
timh815 - February 2, 2012
Rainbow
VI
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
Bottom of the
VII
Time to sing.timh815 - February 2, 2012
C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER
jesus christos - February 2, 2012
And I thought
VIII was going to be enough
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
IX
jesus christos - February 2, 2012
Did you...
IN-X’d to just speak German?
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
i was taught german at 7 XI
ok, that was horrible
jesus christos - February 2, 2012
Not as horrible as the Big XII is going to be this year...
ballhawk - February 2, 2012
Ocean's
XIII
timh815 - February 2, 2012
Final Fantasy
XIV
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
I think this thread has had it's
XV minutes of fame
Musicdude10 - February 2, 2012
I'll kinda miss Aramis Ramirez this year.
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
Sweet, I'll be XVI
Fukudometer - February 2, 2012
I'll buy you some weed and we can celebrate.
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
the comments about this on cubs.com are more mind numbingly dumb than usual
jesus christos - February 2, 2012
This is fine, but it should put to rest any ideas of the Ricketts family asking for money from the state.
TJ11 - February 2, 2012
For now.
santoswoodenlegs - February 2, 2012
It won't.
shoemile - February 2, 2012
They would look stupid spending that much money in another country and asking for taxpayer money here...
TJ11 - February 2, 2012
Trust me, that won't bother them.
Has it been reported how much this place is gonna cost?
shoemile - February 2, 2012
As much as I like improvements to the Cubs...they should NEVER get taxpayer money now.
TJ11 - February 2, 2012
Is there any information
Of possible government help from the DR? If they did would getting tax money be more plausible again?
mjsher2 - February 2, 2012
Depends how much I guess, but the bottomline is they have asked before for the taxpayers to foot the bill for improvements to Wrigley Field and now they are spending money not only out of Illinois but out of the country...
So I think while it is a worthy they thing to do….Dont try crying poor again.
TJ11 - February 2, 2012
As much as I don't like the tax payers footing the bill
Besides Lambeau Field and the shrine to Jerry Jones are there any other stadiums/ ball parks that haven’t been built with out at least some public funds?
Madison Cub Fan - February 3, 2012
PacBell/SBC/AT&T Park, i.e. where the SF Giants play, was built at no cost to the taxpayers
From its Wikipedia entry…
However (funny how there’s always a ‘however’)…
ballhawk - February 3, 2012
Were the teams that got taxpayer funds spending millions in other countries after asking for a handout?
Thats why I think this bridge is burned.
TJ11 - February 3, 2012
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