HERO'S WELCOME FOR MANAGER Nats' selection of Acta delights Dominicans BASEBALL IN DECEMBER DAY 1

Acta is not one for hoopla, but his hometown threw the Washington Nationals' new manager a bash for the ages Friday.

Date published: 12/17/2006

By TODD JACOBSON

PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to view images from the series.

CONSUELO, Dominican Republic--Manny Acta had pulled himself from the sunroof of a rocking SUV, shaken dozens of hands and addressed hundreds of screaming fans in his baseball-crazy hometown with a humble gracias .

He thought he finally had made sense of an all-day baseball party that greeted his return to the Dominican Republic when a thunderous shower of fireworks exploded high over his head.

Acta is not one for hoopla, but his hometown threw the Washington Nationals' new manager a bash for the ages Friday. Fans greeted their favorite son with loud cheers upon his arrival at a Santo Domingo airport and continued the fiesta late into the night in Consuelo--a town built on the back of its sugar cane factory but crazy for its baseball.

Hesitant about the celebration and humble by nature, Acta could only accept that things had changed since he left the town in 1986 for a career in professional baseball.

"It's amazing," Acta said. "I always knew that these people were behind me, but I could never imagine the turnout and all the things they've been doing for me.

"It's a lot. It's too much, really."

Consuelo and nearby San Pedro de Macoris have produced dozens of baseball players, so many that Acta often jokes that it's hard to walk 100 feet without seeing a former player or a current baseball star.

Acta's home is a modest, light-blue three-bedroom house--rebuilt after a 1998 hurricane wiped out the house in which Acta grew up--where his parents, Manuel and Blanca, still live year-round.

Acta grew up playing on fields a block from his home. He played in the shadow of current and former big leaguers Alfredo Griffin, Julio Franco and Sammy Sosa (who lived in Consuelo until he was a teenager).

Former National League batting champion Rico Carty was a town hero, like Acta now, and he was in the crowd Friday.

But a manager? For a country that worships baseball, its decision-makers are held in high esteem, and there had only been three Dominican-born big-league managers before Acta. Clearly, this was different.

Follow us on

Date published: 12/17/2006