Dominican Republic to host Tigers in Santa Domingo exhibitions ahead of World Baseball Classic

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — While announcing the Dominican Republic will host the Detroit Tigers for a pair of exhibitions on March 3 and 4 ahead of the World Baseball Classic, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred maintains playing regular-season games on the island nation is currently unfeasible.

“I think the limiting factor on regular-season games is just the size of the facility,” Manfred said Monday at the winter meetings. “You know how the economics of those games work. We replace the gate that the home team’s given up, and it’s just very hard in a stadium of this size that we’re talking about to do a regular-season game.”

Santo Domingo’s Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal has a capacity of about 13,000.

Since 2017, MLB has played a regular-season game at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, with a capacity of about 2,500. It also played a “Field of Dreams” game in 2021 and '22 at Dyersville, Iowa, a ballpark that can hold about 7,800, and will have Minnesota and Philadelphia play there on Aug. 13.

Games in the Dominican Republic are more costly to stage than in the U.S.

“The expense side gets to be really big,” Manfred said.

The Dominican Republic opens the WBC on March 6 against Nicaragua, part of a group that also includes Israel, the Netherlands, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The exhibitions were sparked last offseason by a conversation between former big leaguer Nelson Cruz, the Dominican Republic's general manager, and New York Yankees special assistant Omar Minaya, the former GM of the New York Mets and Montreal Expos.

MLB then decided to dedicate the games to the memory of the victims of the April 8 roof collapse at Santo Domingo’s Jet Set nightclub. Former big league pitcher Octavio Dotel and Cruz's sister, Nelsy, were among the more than 200 people who died.

As part of the event, MLB and the promoter UEPA will donate to the Dominican Red Cross.

MLB has played four times in the Dominican Republic previously: exhibitions between the Mets and Expos (1999), Houston and Boston (2000), the Tigers and Twins (2020) and Tampa Bay and the Red Sox (2024). MLB is upgrading the field surface, as it did in 2024.

“Playing in the Dominican Republic again is an important step in our ongoing internationalization efforts, and equally important, it’s an opportunity for us to give back in the Dominican Republic where we have so many players that have entertained our fans for years,” Manfred said.

Cruz, a seven-time All-Star, attended the news conference along with three-time MVP Albert Pujols, the Dominican Republic's manager.

“I was talking to my mom about it, eight months since the tragedy,” Cruz said. “Every 8th of every month, she’s down as she can get. I know she’s going to be pumped, and she’s going to be happy for this. And the people who lost a member on that day, as well, they’re going to be happy.”

Pujols had spoken with the Los Angeles Angels and San Diego about their manager openings but wasn't offered either job.

“I didn’t have to make that tough decision,” he said.

Pujols is confident he will be an MLB manager at some point.

“My time will come,” he said.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Rob Manfred, left, commissioner of Major League Baseball answers questions during a news conference as Nelson Cruz, former baseball player and general manager of the Dominican National team listens during a news conference at the MLB winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Nelson Cruz, former baseball player and general manager of the Dominican National team speaks during a news conference at the MLB winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Albert Pujols, former baseball player and manager of a Dominican professional baseball team, makes remarks during a news conference at the MLB winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Albert Pujols, former baseball player and manager of a Dominican professional baseball team, makes remarks during a news conference at the MLB winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Rob Manfred, left, commissioner of Major League Baseball, Nelson Cruz, center, former baseball player and general manager of the Dominican National team, and Albert Pujols, former baseball player and manager of a Dominican professional baseball team, take part in a news conference at the MLB winter meetings, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

LONDON (AP) — Iceland's national broadcaster said Wednesday it will boycott next year's Eurovision Song Contest because of discord over Israel's participation, joining four other countries in a walkout of the pan-continental music competition.

Broadcasters in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia told contest organizer the European Broadcasting Union last week that they will not take part in the contest in Vienna in May after organizers declined to expel Israel over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The board of Iceland's RÚV met Wednesday to make a decision.

At its conclusion the broadcaster said in a statement that “given the public debate in this country ... it is clear that neither joy nor peace will prevail regarding the participation of RÚV in Eurovision. It is therefore the conclusion of RÚV to notify the EBU today that RÚV will not take part in Eurovision next year.”

“The Song Contest and Eurovision have always had the aim of uniting the Icelandic nation but it is now clear that this aim cannot be achieved and it is on these program-related grounds that this decision is taken,” the broadcaster said.

Last week the general assembly of the EBU — a group of public broadcasters from 56 countries that runs Eurovision — met to discuss concerns about Israel’s participation. Members voted to adopt tougher contest voting rules in response to allegations that Israel manipulated the vote in favor of its competitor, but took no action to exclude any broadcaster from the competition.

The pullouts include some big names in the Eurovision world. Spain is one of the “Big Five” large-market countries that contribute the most to the contest. Ireland has won seven times, a record it shares with Sweden.

Iceland, a volcanic North Atlantic island nation with a population of 360,000, has never won but has the highest per capita viewing audience of any country.

The walkouts cast a cloud over the future of what’s meant to be a feel-good cultural party marked by friendly rivalry and disco beats, dealing a blow to fans, broadcasters and the contest’s finances.

The contest, which turns 70 in 2026, strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years, stirring protests outside the venues and forcing organizers to clamp down on political flag-waving.

Opponents of Israel’s participation cite the war in Gaza, where more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government and whose detailed records are viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

Israel’s government has repeatedly defended its campaign as a response to the attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023. The militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in the attack and took 251 hostage.

A number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim Israel has vigorously denied.

Wednesday marked the final day for national broadcasters to announce whether they planned to participate. More than two dozen countries have confirmed they will attend the contest in Vienna, and the EBU says a final list of competing nations will be published before Christmas.

FILE - JJ, from Austria, stands on the stage with his trophy after winning the Grand Final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)