I would very much like you all to watch this video. This video is what our discussion is all about and is the inspiration to why I started this blog. It is called The Dominican Pipeline. Without giving the video away, it essentially shows how white, American, venture capitalists go to the Dominican Republic to find cheap baseball players. They start up baseball camps without providing "up-to-standard" living, food, etc. Virtually, they are looking to thrive financially at the expense of the Dominican baseball players; the players earn nothing in return. As an aid to this post, I have also added a paper that I wrote on The Dominican Pipeline for my Sociology of Sport class. You can find the paper as another post on today's date. Please feel free to comment on any of the material.
Link to the Video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/18/sports/baseball/1248069342534/the-dominican-pipeline.html?scp=1&sq=pipeline&st=cse
I don't think that it is there care or concern that those kids get good education or whatever else they might say they "want" them to get. As you said in your post and paper, it's all at the expense of the players. They are not receiving anything for their efforts, which is sad. It seems like it is just another tool for the white administrators of baseball to keep down the up and coming class. I think that that's what they're afraid of. They're afraid of this class overtaking the game that has traditionally been white America's pastime.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to see what the facilities and food/everything would be like if this video/camps were done in America. I bet you buildings would be made of marble and prime rib would be served everyday.
Oh, I just saw your introduction too...I am a 52 year old, white, female, baseball fanatic.
ReplyDeleteBLH:
ReplyDeleteThank you for joining and commenting and for your line of comedy. It’s nice to keep a light mood on the subject! I think it’s hard to say whether or not they truly care about the kids/players’ education and/or personal lives. However, as history shows, as well as the surface implications of the video, I think that you are indeed correct in your assumptions. The white “investors,” as they call themselves, enter this investment having nothing to lose. They are buying these kids as if they are commodities at very cheap prices. It basically works like the black market where products can be found at prices that are not regulated by government. On the other hand, the players (property of their investors) have almost everything to lose. Sure, they can gain some money here and there if they make it to the big leagues (highly unlikely), but if not, then what? They gave up schooling. They gave up friends, family, etc. They gave up life. In order for this business to be ‘successful’ and ‘positive,’ it must be for a true ‘positive’ as the video mentions.
Moving away from the video itself, I enjoyed your point referring to the Latino population as being the ‘up and coming class’ in professional baseball. I’ve never heard of this point before and it struck me to do a little research. I went to a few different websites to look for data on the most popular surnames of the United States and the Dominican Republic (Latin America) where I found the three most common surnames for each; they are as follows: United States – (1) Smith, (2) Johnson, and (3) Williams. Dominican Republic – (1) Rodriguez, (2) Martinez, and (3) Gonzalez (Milb.com, 2011). My objective was to compare the United States’ most popular surname with the Dominican Republic’s most popular surname and so on, but that was almost even unnecessary. Here are my findings:
There are 33 Smith’s in professional baseball compared to 121 Rodriguez’s; 39 Johnson’s compared to 79 Martinez’s; and 20 Williams’ compared to 86 Gonzalez’s. My point about it being unnecessary is that there is almost three times the amount of the third most popular Dominican surname as the number one most popular United States surname. Aside from the obvious, I found this statistical information to be astonishing. While I knew that there was a discrepancy between the populations of baseball, I had no idea it’d be to this extent. I’ll admit that the validity this information holds in relation to my argument is questionable; yet, it still can be used as evidence to your thoughtful point.
Milb.com. (2011, April 26). Retrieved from http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp
Most common surnames in the U.S.. (2011, April 26). Retrieved from http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm
The white businessman in this video are clearly exercising that money is power in society. The young Dominican players basically have no say so in the matter. Just because they are Dominican does not mean they are destined to play baseball but that’s not what white men in power see. They see the young kids as a just a business opportunity. I personally feel if they are going to exploit them based on their ethnicity and lack of money (because no one is going to stop them) they could at least provide better housing. It is not like they don’t have the money for it. Also the trainers not wanting to talk about education is a joke. These kids deserve a fair shot at an education or play baseball if that’s what they want to do. No one should be able to basically "own" them and make them do something.
ReplyDeleteI am 25 year old male who pays fairly close attention to baseball. I don't play I just follow it.
Kevin:
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your response to my analysis. I just recently found a journal article that fit so perfectly into what we are talking about with regards to the white businessman, their belief of money equaling power, and the exploitation of Latin Americans in terms of baseball. As Regalado (2000) put it, “The attraction of Latin America, of course, was not only the possibility of recruiting cheap talent, but also the availability of potentially skilled players in regions where labor laws accommodated Major League Baseball (MLB) owners” (p. 9). He goes on to say that promises of fame and fortune are virtually made to Latino players (naïve?) that turn out to be nothing more than empty promises. Furthermore, he says that the business of baseball recruiting in Latin America is essentially set up the same as the capitalistic business practices of the United States (p. 9). This is where we can vividly see the exertion of capitalistic power and the dominance of social class structures. MLB owners know that Latin American players are willing to give up everything for the game (please see interview with Jason Stephens for a more in depth explanation). With this knowledge, owners utilize their social positioning of hierarchical power. One of the main reasons the MLB owners go to Latin American countries is strictly due to what Regalado mentions; that the labor laws are virtually non-existent. They are not required to uphold certain standards of living that sometimes we take for granted over in the States. Work hours, however defined, are of little importance, which can call for gruesomely long days. I cannot help but compare it to the way we treated African Americans during the slave era where they were required to work in the field from sunrise to sunset with little or no pay. It seems as if we figured, ‘Sure, you can take our Africans away. We’ll just move on to Latinos.’ This is why Regalado and I use the term ‘cheap labor.’ Owners view them as property or machines and as such, exploit and denigrate their potential value.
Regalado, S.O. (2000). "Latin players on the cheap:" Professional baseball recruitment in Latin America and the neocolonialist tradition. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 8(1), Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20644754
nice use of Regalado. I like how your analysis is integrated throughout and the different resources you use.
ReplyDelete