Mota Always Helping Needy

It was great to get to see Manny Mota this year when the Dodgers came to Detroit to play the Tigers. I hadn’t seen Manny for years and I was dying to ask him a question. We played together on the Dodgers in 1973, 1974,and 1975. Manny was already an established hitter and pinch-hitter deluxe. It seemed every time Walter Alston needed a hit in a clutch situation, Manny would be there to make the difference.
 
Mota, who until two years ago held the Major League record for career pinch-hits with 150, retired after 20 years with a lifetime batting average over .300. He is currently in his 46th year in professional baseball as a coach with the Dodgers.
 
This man was a hitting machine and could fill books with his knowledge of hitting and the game, but I wanted to ask him about something else. My question was, “Do you still go around collecting shoes from the players?”
 
Way back in 1974, when shoe contracts were just getting popular, Manny would come around and ask for shoes every time a shoe representative would leave new shoes for the players. He would take any shoes we had, in any condition, and put them in boxes to be sent home to the Dominican Republic. It was uncanny how he knew every time when we had extra shoes. Most of the guys were glad to donate shoes, as we knew he was giving them to the kids back home.
 
That winter, I had the opportunity to play with Manny for Licey, one of the teams in the Dominican Winter League. My wife and I lived in a hotel suite right at the beach, and life was good. Right behind us, though, in Santo Domingo, was poverty like I had never seen before. You wanted to block the sights of little children begging out of your mind, but you couldn’t. It didn’t seem like there was any real middle class there, just upper class and poverty.
 
Manny was a hero to the people of Santo Domingo, and he would give as many shoes to as many kids as he could. What I didn’t know at the time was that he and his wife Margarita had a 50-pound cooking pot and would also provide meals of beans and rice to the needy children in his neighborhood.
 
So, having not seen Manny in so many years, I was wondering if he was still collecting shoes and providing for some kids. His face lit up, and I got choked up as he replied.
 
“We now have a foundation (the Manny Mota Foundation) that has a program.” The foundation, called Campo de Sueño (Field of Dreams), was initiated by Manny in 1995, and is a multi-functional complex that includes a Recreational Community Center, a Medical Dispensary, and four baseball fields. He plans, in the future, to build an elementary school, playgrounds and basketball courts.
 
Manny proudly states, “We have around 300 kids ages six and up, that we provide meals and uniforms and equipment to. I’m happy to do it because that is the way to keep these kids away from the streets.”
 
Manny does Little League clinics in Los Angeles and asks those programs to donate equipment that he can take back to the Dominican Republic. He gets coaches from the Air Force Base in Santa Domingo, and they play and practice four days a week. These coaches are like dads to the kids. “They are someone to talk to. We don’t just talk about baseball, but about life, how important education is,” Mota says. “We provide some scholarships to send kids to school.”
 
Manny keeps no money for himself that he gets from doing clinics. He sends it to his wife to buy rice, beans, and pasta to give to the needy in the 5,000-family community around the Field of Dreams. He also has a well on the complex that provides water twice a day to around 1,500 families since the water in Santo Domingo is not always plentiful.
 
In addition, the Foundation provides around $100,000 in medical equipment and medicine to the local Hospital Nacional. In return, the hospital provides free medical care, including surgeries, to those who request assistance through the Foundation.
 
Oh, yes, in the fall, before Manny returns home, he still collects shoes from the players as well as souvenirs such as gloves and T-shirts from the Dodger organization. All winter he is at the Field of Dreams, every day, eating with the kids and coaching and teaching them. He shows them baseball movies and religious movies at night before they go home.
 
At Christmas, they provide bags of groceries for Christmas dinner to 1,500 families. They also provide aid to single mothers and mothers-to-be.
 
Manny’s face keeps getting brighter as he says, “That makes my day! That makes my life! My wife and I, we are just so happy to be able to give something back because that is the way to express how much you appreciate what He has done for us.”
 
It’s not like Manny and Margarita have nothing else to do with their time. They have eight children and 13 grandchildren with two more on the way. No, this is one humble man and his wife with a vision of love and a heart of gold who have made a difference to thousands of people in need. Just by desiring to serve their community, they went from a 50-pound cooking pot and some used shoes to their own Manny Mota Foundation. They even have their own website, www.mannymotafoundation.org.
 
We look to our government to provide programs for the needy and we look to Major League Baseball to bring back the game to the inner cities.
 
What we need are more Manny Motas.
 
Oh, he could make a difference in a game with his bat, but he’s made a far bigger difference in the game of life with his heart.
 
August 2003
By Geoff Zahn Former Head Baseball Coach University of Michigan and 12 Year Major League Veteran Pitcher