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T HE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019 | 13

NON SEQUITUR PEANUTS

GARFIELD

KENKEN

Answers to Previous Puzzles

WIZARD of ID

DOONESBURY CLASSIC 1993

CALVIN AND HOBBES

DILBERT

Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

SUDOKU No. 2808

Fill the grid so

that every row,

column 3x3 box

and shaded 3x

box contains

each of the

numbers

1 to 9 exactly

once.

Fill the grids with digits so as not

to repeat a digit in any row or

column, and so that the digits

within each heavily outlined box

will produce the target number

shown, by using addition,

subtraction, multiplication or

division, as indicated in the box.

A 4x4 grid will use the digits

1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.

For solving tips and more KenKen

puzzles: http://www.nytimes.com/

kenken. For Feedback: nytimes@

kenken.com

For solving tips

and more puzzles:

http://www.nytimes.com/

sudoku

KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC.

Copyright © 2018 http://www.KENKEN.com. All rights reserved.

(c) PZZL.com Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution No. 2708 CROSSWORD | Edited by Will Shortz

Across

1 Egg containers

5 Figure who works with

figures, for short

8 1995 cyberthriller

about espionage

14 Road map

15 ___ lamp

16 Deep gorge

17 Entertainer who

popularized the phrase

“You ain’t heard

nothing yet”

19 Showy shrub

20 2004 film about

a group of street

dancers

22 United, for one: Abbr.

23 Twisted

24 “Yoo-hoo!”

28 Senatorial thumbs-up

29 Pommes frites

seasoning

30 Lavish attention (on)

31 Science of sound

35 Ashen

36 2014 romance about

two teens with cancer,

with “The”

40 Slowing down, on a

score: Abbr.

41 Ship named for

an ancient Roman

province in Iberia

42 Smeltery import

44 Quibble

45 Instrument featured

on Springsteen’s “Born

to Run”

46 Common recyclable

48 Tosspot

49 Only mo. that can

begin and end on the

same day of the week

52 2003 Christmas-

themed rom-com

55 Religious

enlightenment

58 Sour notes?

59 Underling

60 Top prize in los Juegos

Olímpicos

61 Bread with hummus

62 What 8-, 20-, 36- and

52-Across sound like

they could be about

63 “Absolutely!”

64 Boatload

Down

1 Fixes, as a pet

2 Alnico, e.g.

3 Spicy Southern

cuisine

4 Make out, to a Brit

5 Singers of high notes

in olden times

6 Hardly poetic

7 Bumps on the path to

adulthood?

8 Section of a bookstore

9 Hell Week hellion, say

10 Gave the slip to

11 Goose egg

12 Austin-to-Boston dir.

13 Leaves in hot water?

18 Most underhanded

21 Monkey named for a

king in Greek myth

25 Herbert Hoover, by

birth (uniquely among

all U.S. presidents to

date)

26 Breakout company of

1976?

27 Group with a meeting

of the minds?

28 Brynner of “The King

and I”

29 “To Kill a

Mockingbird” narrator

31 Big dos

32 City near the Great

Sphinx

33 Revealed a secret

about

34 Kind of skating

37 Italian dishes that are

simmered

38 Lady Liberty, for one

39 Burden

43 Where one might

take or dodge shots

44 Maritime forces

47 Cattle-herding canine

48 Cause of goose

bumps

49 Thrash (around)

50 ___ Eight (March

Madness stage)

51 Standing rule

53 Salutation at sea

54 Concert pieces

55 Fast flier of the past,

for short

56 Chowed down

57 Boatload

PUZZLE BY DANIEL GRINBERG

Solution to Aug 27 Puzzle

DORAGTHEOCEVA

AROMAORTHOVIS

MELISSASAIMLESS

POEBUDOPENTO

FIRSTSATBAR

TOWELRIBSEST

STELLASALLSET

POLLUTILEUTNE

LAURENSUNREAL

TASNAMEFORTY

OFFERSEPALS

PLANESORGAHI

DARLENESLEARNED

OMGLAPELMENLO

GEOSPACYEXAMS

12345678910111213

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21

22 23 24 252627

28 29 30

313233 34 35

36 373839

40 41

42 4344 45

46 47 48 495051

52 53 54

555657 58

59 60 61

62 63 64

Sports

cently as she drank coffee at the dining

room table while the food cooked.

Alvino learned to cook in bulk at her

mother’s food stand in Don Gregorio, a

small town in the baseball-loving Domi-

nican Republic. After some financial

trouble in her family, Alvino took over

the stand’s cooking duties at age 10.

No country outside the United States

has produced more major leaguers than

the Dominican Republic, and few fam-

ilies have produced more than the Guer-

reros.

Alvino’s four sons — Vladimir Sr.,

Wilton, Eleazar and Julio Cesar — all be-

came professional baseball players, and

several of their children did, too. Vladi-

mir Jr., a rookie, is the only grandchild in

the major leagues now.

Although she ended up living with

Vladimir Sr. for most of his 16-year ca-

reer, she first lived with his older brother

Wilton, who reached the major leagues

as a Los Angeles Dodger just weeks be-

fore Vladimir Sr. joined the Montreal Ex-

pos in September 1996. Wilton told his

mother that his Dominican and Vene-

zuelan teammates longed for home-

cooked meals, so she made some for him

to take to the stadium.

Alvino was relieved when Wilton was

traded to the Expos in 1998, allowing her

to cook for both sons.

Wilton left Montreal in 2000, but Al-

vino stayed with Vladimir Sr. for the rest

of his career, including stops in Texas,

Baltimore and Anaheim, where even the

Angels’ owner, Arte Moreno, who is

Mexican-American, partook of Alvino’s

feasts.

Alvino assumed that she was done

cooking for ballplayers in 2011, when

Vladimir Sr. ended his major league ca-

reer. But by 2016, Vladimir Jr., whom she

had helped raise, was playing profes-

sionally, and Alvino was back to her rou-

tine. She lived with him at every level of

the minor leagues, from spring training

in Dunedin, Fla., to Class AAA Buffalo.

Guerrero joked last year that she would

go with him to China if he somehow

ended up there.

“As long as I have strength in me, I

have to give that strength to them,” Al-

vino said of her grandchildren. “So I’ve

dedicated myself to this.”

To this day, Alvino refuses any money

for her efforts, even to cover the cost of

supplies. Guerrero, who asked his

grandparents to live with him in Toron-

to, took pride in becoming part of the

food-sharing tradition.

“I needed to keep doing it,” he said.

Her support is not just culinary. She

attends every home game and encour-

ages him to keep an even temperament,

rolling her eyes when she catches him

complaining to the umpire.

“She always tells me to respect the

game and to respect my teammates,”

Guerrero said.

That motherly nature fuels her cook-

ing. She does all the chopping, stirring

and cooking as a labor of love, even

when her knees hurt.

She recently joked that the players

she has fed over the decades are part of

her brood, along with her own 23 grand-

children and six great-grandchildren.

“I didn’t expect her to still be cooking,

but it was gratifying to see that she still

does,” said the Minnesota Twins slugger

Nelson Cruz, 39, who first tried Alvino’s

cooking when he was 25 and who has fol-

lowed her example, taking meals to the

park for his team and the visitors.

“When we came to Toronto this year, I

had her food. It’s still the same good food

that I ate in 2006.”

On a recent morning, Alvino cooked

15 pounds of goat, two pounds of red

beans and 10 pounds of rice. She speaks

just enough English to order most of

what she needs from the store near her

grandson’s apartment, which is just a

few blocks from Rogers Centre. During

a long homestand, the refrigerator in the

kitchen and a small one in the living

room, which is on loan from the Blue

Jays, are stuffed.

Many have sought Alvino’s recipes,

including the Blue Jays’ clubhouse chef,

but she has no formal ones.

“The only thing I measure is the rice,

so it’s not undercooked,” she said as she

poured it, along with oil and water, into a

large pan.

Her secret is the sauce (sofrito) for

her beloved stewed beans. She started

with a purée of cilantro, onion, garlic,

celery and oregano, which she got from

the Dominican Republic because, she

said, it tastes better. She added tomato

paste, seasoning blends, chicken stock

powder and sugar, giving the beans a

hint of sweetness that she believes sets

them apart.

“It’s amazing,” Blue Jays second

baseman Cavan Biggio, 24, who is from

Texas, said of Alvino’s cooking.

“The best,” added Rafael Devers, a

Dominican 22-year-old Boston Red Sox

third baseman who likened Alvino’s

cooking to his mother’s and grandmoth-

er’s.

Everyone knows that Alvino is the

backbone of the Guerrero family. When

the Blue Jays have wanted Guerrero to

lose weight — last winter he was listed

at 6-foot-2, 250 pounds — they talked to

her.

“The boss,” said Blue Jays Manager

Charlie Montoyo, who is from Puerto

Rico and made sure to meet with her on

a trip to the Dominican Republic after he

was hired.

During spring training, Alvino said,

Guerrero lost 12 pounds after she fed

him mostly smoothies, multigrain toast

and grilled meats, fish and vegetables.

Yet during the six-month regular sea-

son, his diet — and those of the players

receiving the special meals — matters

less since he burns so many calories

practicing and playing.

Although players from all countries

eat her food, Alvino always checks with

her grandson to see how many Domi-

nicans are on the opposing team. On a

recent weekend, there was just one —

Domingo Santana — on the visiting Se-

attle Mariners.

Players do not have to request a meal:

Guerrero brings it to the park himself,

and clubhouse assistants take it to the

visitor’s clubhouse.

It can seem as if every Dominican

player knows of Alvino or has a tie to her.

The New York Yankees pitcher Luis

Severino, 25, said his family’s cook in

New York is Alvino’s daughter-in-law.

Before one game in Toronto this season,

Alvino’s delivery to the Yankees’ club-

house was devoured so quickly that Sev-

erino requested a special order through

the daughter-in-law. He received it the

next day.

“When we’re together as a family,

she’s always cooking,” said Ketel Marte,

25, an Arizona Diamondbacks utility

player who is married to one of Alvino’s

granddaughters.

There is only one rule for those receiv-

ing Alvino’s food at the stadium: Wash

and send back the plastic container.

When Severino’s didn’t come back after

one game, Alvino sent another the next

day plus a note on top: “Return the con-

tainer.”

Grandma’s stewed goat is the talk of the majors

A LVINO, FROM PAGE 1

Above, Altagracia Alvino checked the goat stew she prepared for her grandson Vladimir Guerrero Jr., top right. When she finished, it

was packed into plastic containers, right, to be taken to the stadium for Guerrero’s Blue Jay teammates and the visiting team.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TARA WALTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

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