From "The Dominican Baseball Factory" (ProPublica).
१४ सप्टेंबर, २०२६
"I’d long been told that the Dominican Republic’s wildly successful baseball industry was plagued with abuse and exploitation — that for decades..."
"... Major League Baseball has presided over a massive unregulated system that treats tens of thousands of Dominican boys like commodities. But when I began making calls last year, I expected those most involved to defend it. Instead, trainers — the men integral to the industry as instructors, surrogate parents and agents — virtually all told me they felt forced to participate in a system that is broken and costly...."
From "The Dominican Baseball Factory" (ProPublica).
From "The Dominican Baseball Factory" (ProPublica).
पोस्ट्स
२५ टिप्पण्या:
"Baseball been berry, berry good to me."
- Chico Escuela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HK_lBOkli8
OMG! It’s unregulated!
Productive as hell, but damn it, unregulated!
Somebody please regulate this shit.
BUT! without Dominican boys.. WHO WILL PICK OUR COTTON?
Funny thing... in modern day America, we consider snobbery to emanate from the upper crust, not the lower classes.
What am I missing here? You got this one backwards, ann. You think you are better than everyone. Not the deplorables turning up their noses at you... your class of people are the snobs.
It's a rough grinding mill in the Dominican. But is it really all that different from the NCAA/NFL football"industry"? The college players--at least some of them are cashing in with NIL deals. But something less than 1% of NCAA college football players will ever play a down in the NFL.
Slapass! (Key and Peele)
Skeptical Voter -- yes, I was just about to say... the NFL has a similar system. It's called the NCAA...
Creighton University has an outpost in the DR. Students, faculty and alums provide health care. Not a single DR baseball player has gone to Creighton. I can't figure it.
“But he had a talent “gifted by God,” as an early trainer put it, with the skills — speed, arm, glove, contact hitting — treasured by scouts”
…guys, check your reports or I’m gonna point at Pete again…
It seems to me that the big problem here is the apparent absence of law (and lawyers!) in the DR. The article did not mention any legal actions or remedies available in the DR (just suits brought in the US). It seems like an enterprising and creative Dominican lawyer could do well while doing good.
And it could be a lot worse. These kids could live on the other side of the island in Haiti.
Also throwing shade on my man Big Papi es no bueno.
Wow, so there's a corrupt nation with poor, ignorant people on an island in the Carribean? Who knew?
You want regulation, look to Curaçao. "Curacao has produced more MLB players per capita than any other nation, including the Dominican Republic and Venezuela—traditional baseball powerhouses. As of 2025, Curaçao has 42 former or current MLB players, with an estimated 1 in 100 island residents having played professionally."
"Not a single DR baseball player has gone to Creighton. I can't figure it."
Pretty sure being in Nebraska has something to do with it.
Baseball is huge in Venezuela, too. Just wait till the oil revenue starts doing some good and they start eating regular. Venezuela's recovery is one of my bigger hopes on the world scene right now.
Seems like part of the problem may be that 16 is too old to set as the age a potential future star must get to before he is signed by a MLB team. If the kid's talent is obvious to everyone by age 14, then it empowers the local agents and loan sharks to rip off the kid's family for two years. The kid will be beholden to the agents and moneylenders to start to reap any financial rewards from playing baseball. Eliminate the age minimum and the kid's family can get the money directly from team -- it can go straight into their bank account -- and the kid won't need to borrow against a future signing bonus. If MLB wants to do more, they can simply stop dealing with agents in the DR. Hire them as scouts if they are actually good at spotting future major leaguers.
No ai narrator. So I ask ai to do it's thing.
"This is ultimately a story about:
Poverty weaponized by hope
A billion‑dollar pipeline built on children
A system everyone agrees is broken but no one has fixed
A teenager whose dream became a trap.
What Dogma and Pony Show said... 👆🏽
*"Curacao has produced more MLB players per capita than any other nation, including the Dominican Republic and Venezuela—traditional baseball powerhouses. *
And just won the Little League World Series, too.
Soccer and Rugby have developmental leagues associated directly with a specific team - so, e.g, you could be on the Manchester United under-12 team or the Harlequins under-18 team. I don't know why more sports don't do that. CC, JSM
Part of it is because the professional soccer and rugby teams started as amateur sports clubs and so had this sort of thing in place before they became professional. CC, JSM
"Baseball is huge in Venezuela, too. Just wait till the oil revenue starts doing some good and they start eating regular. Venezuela's recovery is one of my bigger hopes on the world scene right now."
Per a chart in the article, it seems that, as of 2026, MLB is signing about as many players from Venezuela as from the Dominican.
How many Dominican die during Summer practice as in USA NCAA College Football?
More importantly, why are kids from the DR and Venezuela so good at baseball?
Jim at said...
“[Curacao] just won the Little League World Series, too.”
How many of them had to shave before taking the field?
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