In the Dominican Republic, baseball is an important part of the country’s culture and history. As stated in the video “The Education Crisis Crippling Dominican Baseball Players,” there are four guiding principles to the Dominican Republic: God, country, liberty and baseball. In the book Not my father's game: Immigration, Major League Baseball and the Dominican Republic, an informant, a Dominican American named Pedro states, “When I was growing up, that’s all we had. I remember being five or six and we would roll up paper or a rock for a ball…baseball is much bigger the past 15 years because players come here. Players there don’t make much money. They do it because they love it. But the dream is to make it here.” As a whole, the country shows
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The sport heavily relies on Latin American, particularly Dominican, talent. To begin to understand the importance of baseball, one should know the early phases of baseball imperialism and its history in the Dominican Republic. In the late 19th century, there were U.S. efforts to occupy and control other countries and the belief was that the function of baseball was to “follow the flag around the world.” A.G. Spalding, one of baseball’s great stars and entrepreneurs equated the game with U.S. cultural and political supremacy, aiding the cause of Manifest Destiny. The game initially spread through U.S. military and economic presence, as well as marine invasions in Central America and the Caribbean. As stated in the MLB.com website, “While it is thought by many that baseball was first introduced to the Dominican Republic by United States Army soldiers stationed there, it was actually its Caribbean neighbor, Cuba, which brought the sport to the shores of the country.” It was in Cuban ports in the 1860’s where Cubans learned the elements of the game, which they rapidly disseminated to other Caribbean islands, including the Dominican Republic in 1891. Although baseball was becoming very popular and widespread throughout Cuba in …show more content…
“Having struggled, until recently, in obscurity to refine the game, Dominicans have a claim on the American national pastime. They have poured their love into their own players, gladiators who have triumphed in the United States. Each title won by a Dominican in the major leagues has been, in a manner of speaking, a coup for his compatriots at home, struggling to get by.” U.S. major league teams are followed in the news and Dominicans playing in the United States are tracked by its citizens. Their neighbors and fans hang on every word these successful Dominicans utter, for each time one of the Dominicans succeeds, it intensifies the efforts of thousands in the Dominican Republic to make the supreme effort - giving up education and work - to become a baseball player. To demonstrate how widespread the baseball dream is, a small random sample taken by me in the city of San Pedro de Macoris found that 100% of the men questioned were good friends "with, or related to, someone who signed a baseball contract with an American team. “For decades, the MLB has used the Dominican Republic as a pipeline for baseball talent, encouraging young boys to drop their education in pursuit of a near impossible dream.” In the video, it is stated that out of 100 young Dominican players who get picked to play in
The sport heavily relies on Latin American, particularly Dominican, talent. To begin to understand the importance of baseball, one should know the early phases of baseball imperialism and its history in the Dominican Republic. In the late 19th century, there were U.S. efforts to occupy and control other countries and the belief was that the function of baseball was to “follow the flag around the world.” A.G. Spalding, one of baseball’s great stars and entrepreneurs equated the game with U.S. cultural and political supremacy, aiding the cause of Manifest Destiny. The game initially spread through U.S. military and economic presence, as well as marine invasions in Central America and the Caribbean. As stated in the MLB.com website, “While it is thought by many that baseball was first introduced to the Dominican Republic by United States Army soldiers stationed there, it was actually its Caribbean neighbor, Cuba, which brought the sport to the shores of the country.” It was in Cuban ports in the 1860’s where Cubans learned the elements of the game, which they rapidly disseminated to other Caribbean islands, including the Dominican Republic in 1891. Although baseball was becoming very popular and widespread throughout Cuba in …show more content…
“Having struggled, until recently, in obscurity to refine the game, Dominicans have a claim on the American national pastime. They have poured their love into their own players, gladiators who have triumphed in the United States. Each title won by a Dominican in the major leagues has been, in a manner of speaking, a coup for his compatriots at home, struggling to get by.” U.S. major league teams are followed in the news and Dominicans playing in the United States are tracked by its citizens. Their neighbors and fans hang on every word these successful Dominicans utter, for each time one of the Dominicans succeeds, it intensifies the efforts of thousands in the Dominican Republic to make the supreme effort - giving up education and work - to become a baseball player. To demonstrate how widespread the baseball dream is, a small random sample taken by me in the city of San Pedro de Macoris found that 100% of the men questioned were good friends "with, or related to, someone who signed a baseball contract with an American team. “For decades, the MLB has used the Dominican Republic as a pipeline for baseball talent, encouraging young boys to drop their education in pursuit of a near impossible dream.” In the video, it is stated that out of 100 young Dominican players who get picked to play in