Baseball the American Pastime in the Dominican Republic

Baseball: The American Pastime in the Dominican Republic One hundred and forty years after American-influenced Cubans fled their home island during the Ten Years’ War and brought baseball to the Dominican Republic (D.R.), the sport is thriving in the impoverished nation. In the sport’s top professional league, Major League Baseball (MLB), more current players were born in the Dominican Republic than any other country besides the United States, where 29 of the 30 MLB teams are based (Gregory 2010). The Dominican, a nation of 9.7 million that lies 700 miles southeast of the port of Miami, produced 86 of the 833 major league players on the opening-day rosters of the 2010 Major League Baseball clubs, and about a quarter of all the 7,000†¦show more content†¦According to Gregory (2010, 2), â€Å"In 1980, nine players from the D.R. were signed to minor league contracts; on average, they received a signing bonus of $1,266. Last year, teams signed 396 Dominican players; their average signing bonus was $94,023. That’ s a huge improvement, but in a league where the average salary is $3.3 million, it signifies that the deep Dominican talent pool can still be tapped relatively cheaply.† That’s why by the year 2000, every MLB organization had opened a baseball academy or program in the D.R., and that’s why young Dominican men continue to flock to baseball, thus perpetuating Dominican interest in the American Pastime (Gregory 2010). Through MLB’s neocolonization of the Dominican, Gregory writes (2010, 2), â€Å"baseball has provided many real economic benefits to the Dominican Republic, plus immeasurable psychic delights to its citizens. But with these benefits comes a great social cost.† While the game of baseball has provided regional coherence between the U.S. and the Dominican, it has resulted in a systematic destruction of Dominican ideals across all of the nation’s demographics. As recent as last week, a wire report published in Dominican Today titled â €Å"Amid eternal woes, Dominicans turn to baseball† states â€Å"Amid rising crime, rampant corruption, shaky institutionalism and overall exasperation, Dominicans sigh in relief starting tonightShow MoreRelatedThe United States And The Dominican Republic2022 Words   |  9 Pagesmost heavily Dominican populated city in the United States. It’s ironic that the first non-native American to migrate to and reside on what is today New York City, was from Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Throughout history, Dominicans have migrated to the US in search of economic opportunity. This is the factor that influences nearly every immigrant group that migrates to the US in history. 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