Pirates' Increased Efforts In Latin America Include New Facility

Pirates Seek To Enhance Latin American Efforts With Higher Signing Budget, New Academy

THE COMPLEX: In part two of the series, Kovacevic reported the Pirates' Latin American Academy will include a "two-level headquarters building with offices for the Pirates' Latin American staff, a dormitory for as many as 90 players and coaches, two classrooms, a computer/video room, dining hall and players' lounge." Each of the 18 players on the Dominican Summer League team, the "best of the crop, will have his own room." The classrooms will be "used for baseball as well as English classes and, in some cases, reading and writing of native Spanish," and the offices "will be wired for the Internet -- not common here -- and fitted with direct phone contact to PNC Park, with calls made by simply dialing three-number extensions." The facility also will include a "two-level, two-team clubhouse building, with a weight room and equipment storage," as well as a "quadrangle of four fields." The complex is a "few minutes north of the capital Santo Domingo's international airport," which makes the location "convenient for the Pirates' visiting staff." The complex also is "close to several other academies," including those of the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers, Rays and Royals. The "same people the Pirates have handling building operations" in Pittsburgh and Bradenton, Florida, are responsible in the Dominican, including PNC Park Senior VP & GM Dennis DaPra, who has "paid monthly visits throughout construction" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/1).

THE ARCHITECT: In part three of the series, Kovacevic profiles Gayo, who the Pirates hired away from the Indians in '03 with a "bigger salary and the promise of an investment in the region comparable to that of the Indians, this despite the franchise inexplicably having left the position of Latin American scouting director vacant for five years." Gayo can oversee "as many as six hours' worth or workouts in a day, within a nomadic itinerary that sees him flying alone to check out fledgling baseball countries such as Nicaragua or, in the hotbeds, getting driven to remote regions by his national scouts in hopes of finding a player no other team has seen." But Gayo has "not come close to matching the productivity of his time with the Indians," as "only two of his signed players have reached Pittsburgh, both pitchers" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/2).

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