american colonization of latin american baseball
TRANSCRIPT
Watching a Major League Baseball game, it is not hard
to notice the major impact Latin Americans have had on the
sport. There skills and personalities are contagious, you
can’t help but love the way Latin players play the game.
The 2013 World Baseball Classic was proof that baseball
has become a global sport with the Dominican Republic
defeating Puerto Rico in the gold medal, and Japan
defeating the Netherlands in the bronze, and it should be
noted that the Netherlands team consists mostly of Latin
American players from the Netherland Antilles. It was a
major event seeing the American’s fail at “America’s game”
on a global stage. It also shows how important Latin
America is to the game professionally, specifically the
Dominican Republic, and the lack of professional Cuban
players despite the immense amount of talent they have.
Baseball was introduced to the islands of Cuba and
Dominican Republic in the late 19th century. College kids
coming home from American schools, and American sailors
visiting the island introduced the game to the locals, at
which they quickly fell in love with the beauty of
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baseball. Latin American players quickly excelled at the
game, playing with such love and passion that had not been
seen in American baseball. Very soon after professional
leagues started to come to prominence in Cuba and the
Dominican Republic, and their style of play and impressive
skills began to take the notice of Major League Baseball
(MLB) scouts. As shown throughout history the United
States has had no problem exploiting other countries for
political and economic gains, and baseball is no
different. The impact of American baseball on the
Dominican and Cuba are extremely different, but despite
their differences colonization is evident in both
countries. Although Major League Baseball has controlled
the sport in both the Dominican Republic and Cuba since it
was first played professionally on the islands in the
1930s, the relationship between each country’s baseball
program and the United States is very different, with
Cuba’s Cold War history making it nearly impossible for
Cuban baseball players to play MLB while conversely young
Dominican players are under complete control of MLB
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beginning at age 16; these relationships, and the amount
of money MLB makes directly from these Latin American
players has had a colonizing effect on these countries.
In Cuba, American soldiers introduced baseball during
the time of U.S. occupation in Cuba. Author Roberto
Gonzalez Echevarria states that “during the years of U.S.
military rule following the Spanish-American War (1898-
1902), and other occupations of the island until the
thirties, particularly the one between 1906 and 1909, when
Cuba was again under U.S. control”1 was when baseball was
introduced and began to become popular in Cuba. In
Echevarria’s book he writes about Cuban and U.S. political
relations and says “baseball perhaps as good an index as
any of the complicated relationship between Cuba and its
mighty neighbor to the North”.2 From U.S. occupation of
Cuba in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the Cold
War, and rise of Fidel Castro and his openness to embrace
Leninism, which lead to support from the Soviet Union; all1 Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball, (New York, Oxford University Press, 1999), 112.2 Echevarria, 113.
3
of this had major implications for the relationship
between the U.S. and Cuba, and all of these implications
have been seen in the sport of baseball.3
During U.S. occupation of Cuba, the impact on
baseball by the U.S. was very strong. Every league was
effected in different ways due to the then close
relationship between the United States and Cuba. Cuba was
a Spanish colony at this time, and Cubans were determined
to become independent, and “in Cuba baseball gave a form
of opposition to Spanish Colonialism”.4 Baseball came to
Cuba at a time where it was critical to finding a national
identity. With Spanish colonial powers overstaying their
welcome, Cuba was prepared to become independent, and
luckily for the United States they used baseball as a tool
of their independence. It was no secret that the
relationship between the U.S. and Cuba had grown strong
through the 19th century going into the 20th century. Cuban
foreign trade had been expanding throughout the 19th 3 Echevarria, 114-121.4 Louis A. Perez Jr., Between Baseball and Bullfighting: The Quest for Nationality in Cuba, 1868-1898, Journal of American History, (Sept. 1994), Vol.81, Issue 2, 494.
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century from “$18 million in 1792…. To $92 million in
1862”5, though trade contracts were made with Britain and
Spain, a majority was made with the United States. “By the
early 1880’s, Cuba had passed almost entirely into the
North American economic orbit. Nearly 94% of Cuba’s sugar
production was exported to the United States”.6 These
economic relations had been established years before the
Spanish-American War in 1898, which is precisely why
America felt the need to step in and defend Cuba.
American intervention was also a spread of the Monroe
Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine in 1823 was a foreign policy
to ensure the American continent should not be subject to
colonization from any European country, and any attempt at
colonization would be a direct threat to the United
States.7 American hegemony justified its colonial
interests in Cuba because Cuban’s were seen at this time
as backwards and in need of civilizing. Baseball was seen
as a way of spreading American exceptionalism to not only 5 Perez Jr., 496.6 Perez Jr., 496.7 Kelly Anne Butler, The Monroe Doctrine and U.S. Hegemony: Hemispheric Hegemony, Lecture given on January 30, 2014.
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Cuba, but also all Latin American countries.
Exceptionalism is the thought that the U.S. is “totally
unique” and they are “taming, transforming, and
civilizing”8 their neighbors to the south. In Louis Perez
Jr. article, he posts pieces of articles in baseball
magazines that had been widespread throughout Cuba in the
early 20th century and some of the things that were said
have very clear colonial terms used.
It is certain that the game does not belong to us. It has come to usfrom the North: more than sufficient guarantee that baseball will find a secureplace among us, for we recognize that from the North American people therecan come nothing that does not teach, that does not moralize, that does not
fortify- in a word, that does not serve to fulfill some of the initiatives of the greatlaw of progress that our neighbors have adopted. The American sport does notattract a multitude desirous of seeing blood; it attracts a public wishing to pay
homage to reason and justice, which serves to teach and moralize.9
This specific post is an attack against the Spanish sport
of bullfighting, which was the was the popular sport in
Cuba while it was under control of Spain. America had
convinced Cubans or perhaps convinced themselves that
baseball was a sport of democracy, and civilization and in
fact would be the sport to help unite Cuba. It is easy to
see why baseball was able to become such a popular sport 8 Butler, The Monroe Doctrine. 9 Perez Jr., 493.
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in Cuba; it was a sport that could be played by all
classes and races of people. It was a sport of equality in
some sense.
“The first thirty years of the twentieth were the
Golden Age of the sport in Cuba, an era when Cuban
baseball evolved in ways that would influence its history
to the present.”10 It was referred to the Golden Age
because of the Cuban baseball heroes that came from this
era such as Jose de la Caridad Mendez, and Adolfo Luque.11
During this time period Cuban baseball excelled both at
home and in the United States. Professional, semi-
professional, amateur and sugar mill leagues sprouted
throughout every province and city of Cuba. “This was an
era when Cuban baseball players competed regularly with
and against the best in the world, be they major leaguers
or stars from the Negro Leagues”.12 A benefit to American
hegemony was the availability for Cuban baseball teams to
compete against professional teams from the United States.
10 Echevarria, 113. 11 Echevarria, 114.12 Echevarria, 114.
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It helped professional Cuban players gain recognition
among professional American players and coaches, which led
to Cuban players leaving Cuba to play professional
baseball in America.13 It also led to Major League teams
touring Cuba to play against their professional
teams14witch gave Cuban people who resented America’s
control of the island an opportunity to watch Cubans beat
Americans at their own game. African American baseball
players also began to flow to Cuba to play baseball
professionally. “The island had become a neutral zone
dominated by pleasurable activities where prejudices could
be suspended”.15The acceptance of black Americans in the
Cuban league became very important for the development of
Cuban baseball to North America. Bringing in American
teams, and black American players was a way for America to
spread its influence to Cuba, to show how the game is
supposed to be played the “American Way”. Unfortunately
for America, Cuba was better at baseball and dominated
13 Echevarria, 114-11714 Echevarria, 127.15 Echevarria, 139.
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American teams that came to play. It was “crucial in the
incorporation of baseball as a national game in Cuba.”16
These games showed that baseball was as much Cuba’s game
as it was Americas. The acceptance of African American
baseball players in Cuba, and the timing of the season
were ideal for black ball players looking to make more
money. It gave African Americans the opportunity for
winter employment, and to help develop their baseball
skills against legitimate competition.17 These African
American players coming to Cuba also offered an
opportunity for Cuban baseball to expand to the Negro
Leagues. Players were able to come and play professionally
in the Negro Leagues, but it was the idea of Cuban
Baseball that was sold to American audiences.18Teams such
as the Cuban Giants, and Cuban stars were created and
would travel around the United States to play professional
teams. The only thing about these teams was that they were
for the most part not Cuban, they consisted of African
16 Echevarria, 129.17 Echevarria, 139-141.18 Echevarria, 140-141.
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players who would go to Cuba to play winter ball and would
be put on these teams and be sold as Cuban to American
baseball audiences.19 In Echevarria’s book he says that
players even “jived in gibberish among themselves while on
the field to make people believe they were speaking
Spanish.”20 It is difficult to believe that American people
would be ignorant enough to believe these African players
were actually Cuban, and that the gibberish they spoke on
the field could be believed as Spanish. The African
American players were also using the Cuban name because of
the hatred towards blacks in America at this time. This
example shows the exploitation by American baseball of
Cuba. They were using the “myth” of Cuban baseball as a
way to gain revenue, and also as an example of America
globalizing the game of baseball. In the “Golden Age” of
Cuban baseball it is important to look at the use of
baseball to develop Cuban nationalism. It can be looked at
in the same way as mentioned before that baseball was used
to defy Spanish Imperialism, but now baseball was used in 19 Echevarria, 135-142.20 Echevarria, 120.
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Cuba to defy American occupation. It is ironic in the
sense that baseball was brought to Cuba through American
occupation, and now not only has Cuba developed better
baseball teams, it became a major factor leading up to
Cuban independence.
Following the “Golden Age” there was a period of
relative stability in the Cuban League from the 1930s to
1950s. Though organized baseball put new rules in place
which made it more difficult for Cuban players to go back
and play in Cuba following their seasons in the United
States, following the topic of my research paper it is
more important to look at the years from 1950 leading up
to the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the years following
the take over of Fidel Castro. “The 1949-50 season marked
the beginning of a decade of stability in the Cuban League
that was like no other before in its long history but that
led, ironically, to its demise with the advent of the
revolution”.21 ”Americanization was the general trend in
popular culture…”22and it was especially seen throughout 21 Echevarria, 298.22 Echevarria, 299.
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Cuba’s capital city of Havana. “The building of lavish
nightclubs such as Tropicana, Montmartre, and Sans Souci,
which, along with new hotels such as the Riviera, the
Capri, and the Hilton, were also gambling casinos,”23
Havana became a hotspot for middle class American
tourists. It was considered “the Las Vegas of the
Caribbean,”24and with that title came the same problems as
the Nevada city, “with gambling came organized crime and
an increase of government corruption”.25The streets of
Havana was not the only thing becoming Americanized in
Cuba, the Cuban League also at this time went through a
major process of Americanization, especially in respects
to media.
The modern programs of the Cuban League- flimsy pamphlets crudely printedon coarse paper during the years of La Tropical- now became glitzy
magazines, with pictures of each player, statistical information, and plenty ofadvertising. Albums for baseball stickers, such as the one put out for the 1945-46 season at La Tropical, were replaced with much more expensively produced,
glossier books. American baseball cards appeared in the stores, along withAmerican baseball magazines including the yearbooks of major-league
teams.26
23 Echevarria, 299.24 Echevarria, 299.25 Echevarria, 299.26 Echevarria, 299.
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Baseball became something of a spectacle in Cuba at this
time, whether it Cuba’s League, or Major League Baseball
in the United States. With the emergence of baseball in
popular culture it made it much easier for all citizens of
Cuba to follow their favorite baseball players, whether
they play for a Cuban team or American team. Baseball
became even more Americanized with the emergence of
television in Cuba, where games started being aired “with
moving pictures during the 1949-50 season”.27Soon after
this there were two channels in Cuba that would show
baseball games, and of course radio broadcast was still
available. “World Series games were beamed to Cuba at
first by having a plane, serving as a relay antenna,
circle over the Florida Straits”28, and recently after were
beamed directly. With the availability of American
baseball in Cuban homes the spectacle that was baseball in
America was on full display, and the Cuban League quickly
followed suit when it came to the promotion of baseball.
“The Cuban League became a part of Havana showbiz, with TV27 Echevarria, 300.28 Echevarria, 300.
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stars frequenting the Gran Stadium as much to be seen as
to watch the games”.29Players were also seen frequently on
television doing interviews. The commercial activity of
baseball increased in Cuba at this time also, with
eateries and shops starting to open at Gran Stadium.30
People became more excited about attending baseball games
where beer and cigars were readily available for purchase.
It also added extra excitement for attending these games
“by the presence of celebrities, including the ballplayers
and sometimes the boxers.”31The same things that attracted
Americans to the game of baseball are what developed the
Cuban League into a spectacle. It is tough to believe that
at the rise of the Cuban League to almost equal status to
American baseball, the end of this era would quickly mark
the demise of the Cuban League and U.S. and Cuba relations
all together.
The Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the rise of Fidel
Castro to power in Cuba is the single most important event
29 Echevarria, 300.30 Echevarria, 300.31 Echevarria, 300.
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when looking at the U.S. and Cuban relations in regards to
baseball. “There has never been a case in which a head of
state has been involved so prominently and for such a long
period of time in a nation’s favored sport as Fidel Castro
has been with baseball in Cuba”.32No one would have been
able to predict that after the 1960-61 seasons,
professional baseball would be over in Cuba.33 “Changes
seemed to be provisional, soon to be reversed when the new
regime collapsed or was forced to change its policies
drastically.”34Revolutionary leaders though had other
plans, “and in February 1961 the INDER (Instituo Nacional
de Deportes Educacion Fisica y Recreacion) was created. In
March it decreed the abolition of professional baseball,
and plans to hold a national amateur championship were
laid out”.35 “By pure chance, an Amateur World Series was
slated for Costa Rica in April 1961”.36The Olympic
committee in Cuba began to prepare hastily for the event
32 Echevarria, 352.33 Echevarria, 355.34 Echevarria, 355.35 Echevarria, 355.36 Echevarria, 355.
15
to field the best amateur Cuban team possible. Cuba was
able to assemble a team that overpowered the competition
at the Amateur World Series, and at the same time “the
revolutionary forces were repulsing the Bay of Pigs
invasion back home”.37These events happening simultaneously
strengthened the bond between baseball and the defense of
Cuba.
It seems that for Cuba particularly the abolition of
the professional Cuba League was a way of completely
breaking ties with the United States, and one can respect
Fidel Castro’s decision to do so. On the other hand, doing
this eliminated the opportunity for professional teams in
Cuba to compete against professional teams from the United
States. “At the same time, however, by abolishing the
Cuban League and making it treasonous to leave the island
to play elsewhere, many likely Cuban stars have been
prevented from competing against the best in the world and
realizing their earning potential”.38 Cuban players were
also denied the opportunity of becoming baseball heroes in37 Echevarria, 356. 38 Echevarria, 363.
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Cuba, because they did not get to play professionally. It
also denied the Cuban baseball fans the opportunity of
seeing their Cuban teams compete against America’s best,
which was a source of nationalism for the Cuban people to
see their teams defeat the American ones. This is not to
say that no Cubans were able to defect to play American
baseball but “for every defector there might be ten other
players who have yearned to leave but have not done so
because of the stigma attached to it, and because to do so
would mean to abandon their country forever, not to
mention their families, from whom they would be separated,
probably for good”.39 This shows the resentment still felt
towards America by Cuban baseball players. They have a
strong desire to become professional players in the
American leagues, and to chase after a lucrative contract,
but going to a place that corrupted Cuba for so long was
not worth leaving a country they loved and their family
behind.
39 Echevarria, 363.
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In the post-revolution era of baseball in Cuba we see
the development of baseball academies. This gave the Cuban
government complete control over the game, and the young
kids in the country. “This turns the game into a
profession at an early age”40, which is strange since the
Revolutionary government abolished the professional game
in 1961. The main purpose of the baseball academy is to
develop young talent to put together the best amateur team
possible to compete in events such as the Olympics.
“Within that structure, the practice of sports in which
international play could become an arena for ideological
confrontation with capitalist powers was arranged as a
funnel of achievement”.41 Unfortunately for Cuba, no other
countries followed baseball at the amateur levels, and the
best players from around the world did not attend these
tournaments because they were playing in the minor or
major leagues. There is no fame at the amateur level
whether it be in Cuba or the United States, which took
away some of the lore that Cuban baseball had held for 40 Echevarria, 364.41 Echevarria, 365.
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centuries.42This is the state we see baseball in Cuba
today. Cubans still have a great love and passion for the
game, but with ties in America now ceasing to exist Cuban
baseball has become a shadow of itself. It would be easy
to blame Fidel Castro, and call him a tyrant, and some
blame surely needs to be put on him and his revolutionary
government. Fidel did however accomplish what a majority
of Cubans had wanted for years and that was a split from
the United States. With Major League Baseball having a
complete stronghold on the sport and the economy world
wide, Cuban baseball never stood a chance of maintaining
its significance when Cuba was put under an embargo by the
United States.
The History of Baseball in the Dominican Republic
was much like Cuba. Americans, and also Cubans that left
to the Dominican during the Spanish-American War brought
it to the island.43 The Dominican Republic and the U.S.
42 Echevarria, 367.43 Alan, M. Klein, Culture, Politics, and Baseball in the Dominican Republic, Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 22, No. 3, The Dominican Republic: Social Change and Political Stagnation, (Summer, 2005), pp. 111.
19
were able to keep a good relationship throughout the 20th
century, with the Dominican Republic becoming one of the
original members of the United Nations due to it being an
ally of the American army. Looking at Major League
Baseball as a tool of colonization for the United States,
it is important to look at baseball in the Dominican after
Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. With the embargo put
in place, and with the assassination of the Dominican
dictator Rafael Trujillo who at the time did not like
sending his best players to play in the MLB, it opened up
the flow of Dominican talent to the Major Leagues.44 The
major attraction of Latin American talent, specifically
the Dominican was that the players came cheap. “A
legitimate college prospect in the United States typically
signs for something in excess of US$150,000, his Dominican
counterpart will sign for approximately US$4,000”.45 This
gave MLB scouts the opportunity to sign multiple players
with equal or better talent in the Dominican at the same
price as one American. Age was also a factor in developing44 Klein, 116.45 Klein, 116.
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the Dominican into a baseball hub for American teams. “Age
restrictions, too, were loosely obeyed. Anxious to offset
competition, consideration of youth in a period that well
predated ‘rights of child’ mandates was not a factor in
the recruitment process”.46 Quickly every MLB team had
scouts and representatives flock to the Dominican
Republic, to exploit the promise of young, inexpensive
talent. With the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers
opening up the first baseball academies in the late 1970s47
in the Dominican, it would change the face of baseball in
Latin America.
The baseball academy era in the Dominican Republic is
not comparable to the baseball academies set up by Fidel
Castro in Cuba. Castro set up his academies to bolster the
Cuban National baseball teams. Where the Dominican is
different is that the MLB owns their baseball academies
and have complete control of who joins the academy and who46 Samuel O. Regalado, “Latin Players on the Cheap”: Professional Baseball Recruitment in Latin America and the Neocolonialist Tradition, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, Symposium: Baseball in the Global Era: Economic, Legal, and Cultural Perspectives, (Fall, 2000), pp. 17. 47 Klein, 119.
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gets to leave and be a professional baseball player. The
baseball academies of Cuba were the decline of U.S. Cuban
relations in the sport of baseball. Whereas the academies
in the Dominican can be looked at as the moment where MLB
took over complete control of baseball on the island.
Individual teams would open academies in an effort to
refine their young, talented Dominican players.
Anthropologist Andrew Klein said “The development of
academies is very reminiscent of the ways in which nearby
sugar refineries operate in that raw materials are
obtained cheaply, locally refined (at a reduced cost), and
shipped abroad, except in the case of academies it is
young men that are produced rather than sugar cane”.48 It
is difficult to compare the production of sugar and
baseball players, with the production of sugar having such
a dark history, but the comparison that Klein uses is
believable and in many ways true. A main reason for
establishing the academies was for teams to narrow down
the talent they had found in the Dominican. Each MLB team
48 Klein, 119.
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was only granted 24 work visas49 to import foreign players.
These academies ensured they took the best 24 players in
their academy to the United States, and left out dozens of
other baseball players with hopes they could be in the 24
from the next year. “By law, these young men are supposed
to be at least 17 years of age, but, since birth
certificates are often nonexistent, youngsters can easily
lie about their age or borrow another person’s birth
certificate”.50 This has become a major problem with the
MLB in the Dominican, with many young Dominican kids
trying to get a head start on their baseball careers. It
may seem like an advantage for Dominican kids to have the
opportunity to gain recognition from MLB clubs through
academies, but why are they not treated as equals to
American kids. This aspect of the academy era is prominent
in looking at the MLB as a colonizing business. The
academies became extremely important to MLB teams and
their chase for the World Series. “In 1886, DeVoss argued
that to a large extent, a team’s ability to compete for a 49 Klein, 119.50 Klein, 119.
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pennant today is determined by its scouting organization
in Latin America”.51 With the importance of Dominican
talent, and the number rising of players coming to the
MLB, “it makes it easier for MLB to sell television
broadcasting rights and licensed merchandise in the native
countries of MLB players”.52 MLB was benefitting from all
aspects of the academy, and could now also be seen as
‘globalizing’ the game, which it is tough to say the MLB
is global when a majority of revenue is going directly to
the United States.
The method of using baseball academies is very
controversial because it is something that would not be
allowed in the United States. The MLB has developed a
system now to exploit the kids of the Dominican Republic.
Many of the kids who go to these academies are very poor,
and have not had the advantage of growing up like many
children in America do, and the MLB takes advantage of
51 Arturo J. Marcano, and David P. Fiddler, The Globalization ofBaseball: Major League Baseball and the Mistreatment of Latin American Baseball Talent, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, (Spring, 1999), pp. 519.52 Marcano and Fiddler, 520.
24
this. They offer a way out for Latin American players, and
the opportunity to one-day play professional baseball.
“MLB teams systematically discourage Latino baseball
prospects from retaining agents.”53, this makes it easier
for baseball clubs to exploit these young players, with no
protection from an agent to negotiate with teams Latino
players have no choice but to take what ever is offered to
them, even if it is substantially lower then what American
kids sign for. Marcano and Fiddler give an explanation to
why they think it is so easy for these Dominican kids to
fall into the trap of a baseball academy.
I looked around at the training complex and its two or three flawlesspractice fields, where it seemed not a blade or unruly grass existed. It was thenI really understood. What must a child, raised in squalor and deprivation- wholoves baseball with every ounce of his fiber- feel or think when he sees this for
the first time?... Maybe he loves this game because it represents a joyousescape from the indigent reality of his daily life or maybe because it was a way
out.54
Regalado even goes as far is in his article saying
that “scouts virtually kidnapped players to prevent
interlopers from interfering with their catches”55 and that53 Marcano and Fiddler, 532.54 Marcano and Fiddler, 532.55 Regalado, 18.
25
academies acted as “hideouts because the scouts didn’t
want their kids seen by other scouts. It almost seemed
like they were concentration camps”.56 The academies do
little to prepare Dominican teens for life in America.
With most of these teens growing up in poverty, going to
the United States is a massive culture shock.57This is one
of the main reasons so many Dominican baseball players
never make it past the Minor Leagues, they have not been
prepared for what American baseball and society would
bring them. Scouts and the other people in charge are not
worried about how these teens will fall into American
society, but more so if they turn out to be top tier,
cheap baseball players. The academy has turned into less
of an educational and productive institution to an
American labor camp.
As we now see the American game has had a major
impact on both Cuba and the Dominican Republic, but in
very different ways. Cuba and the U.S. had very strong
56 Regalado, 18.57 Alan M. Klein, Sugarball: The American Game, the Dominican Dream, (New Haven, CT, Yale UP, 1991), pp. 73.
26
ties from the start of the 20th century until 1959, and it
could be seen on the baseball field. During this time
period Cuba was the hub of Latin American baseball, and
was side by side with American baseball in terms of
status. The game in Cuba was Americanized, and they fell
into the trend of American media, and advertisement, with
even the Cuban League becoming a very American style of
baseball when it came to the relationship between baseball
and its fans. With the rise of Fidel Castro American
baseball was nothing more than a thing of the past in
Cuba. With the embargo set in place, and Castro’s
socialist government the professional game was abolished
and ties were cut between the two countries. It is seen in
the numbers the impact the revolution had on American
baseball and Cuba as well. On 2012 opening day rosters in
the MLB only 11 players come from Cuba.58 To compare to
that, there are 95 players from the Dominican Republic on
58 Opening Day rosters feature 243 players born outside of the U.S., http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120405&content_id=27953108&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb, accessed, March 21, 2014.
27
Major League rosters.59 These high numbers of Dominican
players is strictly because of the academy program. With
essentially every big league team having an academy,
refining talent has become essential to the prominence of
MLB teams. Baseball in the Dominican has become exactly
that of Cuban baseball prior to 1959. Every aspect of the
game in the Dominican is now Americanized. The MLB calls
this globalizing baseball, but the process that is used is
deceitful, and remnant of American colonial traditions.
One can only hope that stricter laws will be put in place
to protect these young Latin American players, and one-day
baseball could be considered a global game. Rest assured
you can be certain that MLB teams are awaiting Cuba and
U.S. relations to go back to the way they were, giving the
MLB another country to exploit for baseball talent.
59 Opening Day rosters feature 243 players born outside of the U.S., http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120405&content_id=27953108&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb, accessed, March 21, 2014.
28
Alan, M. Klein, Culture, Politics, and Baseball in the Dominican Republic,
Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 22, No. 3, The Dominican
Republic: Social Change and Political Stagnation, (Summer,
2005), pp. 111-130.
Alan M. Klein, Sugarball: The American Game, the Dominican Dream,
(New Haven, CT, Yale UP, 1991), Print.
Arturo J. Marcano, and David P. Fiddler, The Globalization of
Baseball: Major League Baseball and the Mistreatment of Latin American
Baseball Talent, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol.
6, No. 2, (Spring, 1999), pp. 511-577.
Kelly Anne Butler, The Monroe Doctrine and U.S. Hegemony:
Hemispheric Hegemony, Lecture given on January 30, 2014.
Louis A. Perez Jr., Between Baseball and Bullfighting: The Quest for
Nationality in Cuba, 1868-1898, Journal of American History,
(Sept. 1994), Vol.81, Issue 2, pp. 493-517.
Opening Day rosters feature 243 players born outside of the U.S.,
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?
ymd=20120405&content_id=27953108&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb,
accessed, March 21, 2014.
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Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, The Pride of Havana: A History of
Cuban Baseball, (New York, Oxford University Press, 1999),
Print.
Samuel O. Regalado, “Latin Players on the Cheap”: Professional Baseball
Recruitment in Latin America and the Neocolonialist Tradition, Indiana Journal
of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1, Symposium: Baseball in
the Global Era: Economic, Legal, and Cultural
Perspectives, (Fall, 2000), pp. 9-20.
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