Dominican Baseball History

Baseball is known as Americas favorite pass time. A sport that has been around since the 18th century with a never lasting ending to the sport. The sport of baseball is not only played in America but as well as other foreign countries. There countries have such a rich cultural fan base, it is hardly possible to say that Baseball is only a “American sport.” A good amount of players in Major League Baseball consists of people from the Dominican Island. In this paper I argue that Dominican baseball players do not have the same opportunities a player form the United States. For decades the major league baseball has used the Dominican Republic as a pipeline for baseball talent (NSB,6). Over a quarter of Baseball players in the major leagues are …show more content…
However, when it comes to Dominican Republic, the MLB is a way to escape the poverty. Baseball is introduced at such an early age, it seems that the kids seem to be born with a bat and a glove by their side. Dominican Republicans have been seen as a very successful ethnicity with truly talent baseball prospects. The stakes for any Dominican Republican having a successful life living in the country, is extremely low. Since poverty is a never ending cycle for their country, many seem the sport of Baseball as another form of education, which is why it is advocated as such an early age. For many young gifted Dominican athletes, the sport of baseball is far more than any means of leisure, it is a road by which to escape dire poverty. For the most part Dominican players come to the Untied States and attempt to win a position playing for a major league team and earn far more considerable amount of money than they ever would ever have in their native country. The age in which a player is able to be drafted is at the age as a free agent is at the age of 16 (Badler,14). At this age, the teenager is stripped away from ever achieving a proper education. Instead the student is more focused on trying to get drafted into the professional American leagues with a high chance of being cut from the team. Dominican players give up everything, their adolescence, family and most importantly their education. You can see these young …show more content…
The struggles that overseas players face when coming to America simply diminishes any struggles American raised baseball players encounter. American born baseball players have great facilities in high school and in college. Unlike Dominicans they do not have the same opportunity to study in college and at the same time allow them to develop in such a demanding sport. In a documentary, it said that in their native lands these kids are playing on fields where the average player could not field a ground ball due to the horrible field conditions they are playing in. When comparing starting salaries the American starting salaries are much greater than foreign players. The average salary for a major league baseball player is 3 million, when the average a salary bonuses of Dominican players tends to be a little under $150,000 (Ruck, 10). Despite foreign players being equally skilled or even far better skilled, their starting salaries are not rationalized. Americans trying to make it into the major leagues for the most part have already received an associates degree or even higher. Perhaps not a full education but at least completing high school and a few years of college. From this perspective the American baseball player has multiple options to branch off if the baseball career does not succeed as planned. When the Dominican has dedicated his entire life to the