Manny and Bartolo:The Heart of the DR

The Burlington Indians saw two great Dominican players in the early 1990's. Manny Ramirez and Bartolo Colon come from two different parts of the Dominican Republic, but both found their way to Burlington and eventually to the big leagues. Ramirez was born in Santo Domingo before he moved to New York. He arrived in Burlington in 1991. During his time, he played in 59 games and hit 19 home runs. He still holds the highest slugging percentage in Burlington history with .679. He would eventually go on to have a long career with the Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers, White Sox and Rays. Manny's career included a 165 RBIs season in 1999 and he won the Batting Title in 2002. Ramirez was a twelve-time All-Star and a two-time World Series winner both wins with the Boston Red Sox. Ramirez ended his career with 555 home runs and a slash line of .312/.411/.585.
Bartolo, better known as 'Big Sexy', was born in Altamira, DR. He spent 1994 in Burlington. In 1994, he had a 7-4 record with a 3.14 ERA. His career was spent with an abundance of teams. He spent is first six seasons with the Cleveland Indians, then moved on to the Montreal Expos, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and then back to the White Sox. He was released by the White Sox in 2009 and spent 2010 not playing. In 2011, the New York Yankees signed Colon before he went to the Oakland A's. After two successful years with the A's, Colon signed with the New York Mets. He spent the following three seasons in New York. In his final two seasons in the big leagues, Colon bounced from the Braves to the Twins, and ended his career with the Texas Rangers. Bartolo was a four-time All-Star and a 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner. Colon also holds the most career wins by any Latin American pitcher (247), and was the second oldest Met player to hit a home run at 42 years old.