A different kind of winter ball for Latin players

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The chilly, blustery and rainy conditions at Yankee Stadium for Friday’s Game 1 of the American League Championship Series were challenging for both teams. And more of the same is forecast for Game 2 tonight.

‘The weather is obviously great this time of year,’ the Yankees’ Johnny Damon deadpanned after Friday’s series opener. ‘The wind was playing havoc on a few balls out there. The last two innings it started to get a bit colder.’

And Damon grew up in Kansas, where conditions like we’ve seen in New York this week would be considered balmy. So imagine how cold it feels to the Latin American players on both teams. The Angels started two Venezuelans, two Dominicans and a Cuban on Friday while the Yankee lineup included three Dominicans and a Puerto Rican.

‘There are times it can be a bit of problem,’ Melky Cabrera, the Yankees’ Dominican-born center fielder, said in Spanish. ‘But you get used to the cold.’

Cabrera said the Yankees have heaters in the dugouts and players on both teams carry sponge-like hand warmers with them on the field.

‘You can put it in your pocket and it warms your hands,’ Cabrera said.

Still, Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano was taking no chances, wearing a wool undershirt with a hood that covered everything but his eyes.

The Angels’ Erick Aybar, who was involved in a first-inning fielding mistake that allowed the Yankees to score a run, also made no attempt to disguise his discomfort with the cold.

‘It’s not like the Dominican,’ he told reporters after Game 1.

-- Kevin Baxter