Take a look at this baseball team.
They're the 2022 World Series winners.
The Houston Astros.
“...Kyle Tucker.”
“This time they finished the job!”
More than half the players on this team
aren't from the United States.
13 of them in this photo are from Latin America.
But one country in particular
stands out with six players on this team...
The Dominican Republic.
In fact, a number of Dominican players
are on some of the best teams
in Major League Baseball across the country.
Overall, they make up more than 10%
of all players in the league.
By far the most in the pool of foreign born players.
So what's so special about baseball in the DR?
And why do so many of its players end up in the US?
“Yes, there's no doubt about it.”
“Baseball is king.”
Baseball has a very long history in the US.
A college student scribbled something
about playing “baste ball” way back in 1786...
and that's considered the first mention of the game in the country.
Over time, college campuses became home to baseball...
while professional teams started shaping up across many states.
By 1901, a couple of wealthy Americans
organized these teams into two professional leagues:
the National League and the American League.
Together, they would eventually become known as
Major League Baseball or the MLB.
Since the 1900s, teams have been playing against each other
until the best from each league ends up in the World Series.
The first World Series was a hit right away.
It brought in over 100,000 attendees...
and tens of thousands of dollars.
Over the next few years...
millions of fans bought tickets to these games...
and baseball executives started building
massive stadiums to make room for them.
By the early 20th century...
baseball became a very profitable industry.
And it became known as America's favorite pastime.
But during all that time, baseball was becoming
the favorite pastime over here in the DR, too.
And it got there via Cuba.
The game first arrived here in Havana in the 1860s...
mostly through elite Cuban students who attended college in the US...
and brought the game back home with them.
Some of them set up teams that started playing each other.
Eventually, the sport spread through affluent Cubans in Havana...
to the working class around the country.
If it’s a company...
and the owner of the company is the one playing the game
they might encourage their workers to play the game as well
so that a game can be played.
For the game to become a national entity...
it has to be rooted in the working class.
Over the years
baseball became such a big part of the country's identity...
that Cubans took their favorite sport
with them wherever they went.
That happened in the 1860s...
when many slaves revolted against the wealthy...
especially sugar plantation owners
who fled in search of a new place to set up shop.
They ended up nearby...
in the Dominican Republic.
And they brought baseball with them.
Once again
the sport first took off with an affluent crowd in the capital...
before taking hold over the workers in the east...
especially the city of San Pedro de Macorís
where Cuban ex-pats had set up their sugar refineries.
What these refinery managers and owners did
was they created incentives for their workers.
Namely, that if you can beat a nearby refinery next Saturday
well, you just don't have to work.
Games between refineries here became huge spectacles...
and a pastime for Dominicans everywhere.
When you have the economic incentive...
wedded to a tremendous...
fan base and passion...
so that after the game, people argue about who played what...
and who was excellent, who wasn't
they’re creating a baseball culture.
Back in the US and Cuba
baseball continued to thrive.
Teams in the US
played more and more games throughout the country...
making baseball a million dollar industry.
While in Cuba
it became the most popular sport for a very different reason.
For many, many years
when Spanish colonial rulers tried to squash Cuban identity...
including their love of baseball
Cubans pushed back.
Instead of giving up the sport...
they turned it into a symbol of pride and nationalism.
After the Spanish-American War, Spain left Cuba
and the US occupied the country for four years.
That's when Americans learned more about Cuban baseball talent...
and the MLB soon realized they could get skilled players
on cheaper contracts than some American players.
So they started signing Cuban players.
By the late 1950s...
the MLB had signed 49 Cubans
and players like Minnie Miñoso
and Luis Alomá had become household names.
But after decades of US military interventions in Cuba...
the two countries broke relations in 1961...
after the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro's rise to power.
“This was the scene of turmoil in the capital of Havana...
as the climax of revolution was reached.”
That put the MLB's entire operation at risk...
because they couldn't rely on Cuban talent anymore.
There had to be something monumental that broke that trend.
Once that trade embargo happened...
then that talent had to be picked up from elsewhere
and that was an opening for the Dominican Republic.
No question that that played a big role.
The US and the DR had a very rough relationship at first.
In the early 20th century
The DR owed a significant amount of money to Europe...
and that created the possibility of a European military intervention.
But the US didn't want European forces near its borders...
so it sent troops to occupy the DR.
The occupation was brutal and lasted eight years.
But something unexpected happened during the occupation.
Dominicans played baseball games against the US troops...
and often beat them.
Many of the local players
especially around the San Pedro Sugar Mills area...
where a lot of the fighting took place
were against the occupation.
So these games took on a new meaning.
What is interesting is that
the game is not so much beating the Americans...
but that as a result of beating the Americans
they get more pride in their own game.
By the 1930s, after the occupation ended...
Professional teams in the DR were getting bigger.
And it became an arena
where players from the sugar mill teams...
could showcase their talents on a national stage.
But even the best Dominican players
many of whom were of black African descent...
didn't end up with the MLB at that time.
Because in the US, baseball leagues were segregated.
So instead of trying to make it in the US...
the professional league in the DR
brought over talented American baseball players
from the Negro League who were also left out of the MLB.
Players from this league ended up playing in the DR
during their offseasons for extra income...
like Satchel Paige
who was paid thousands of dollars
for playing on Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s
professional team.
These Dominican professional league games
drew thousands of spectators who wanted to watch
Negro League players, as well as the Dominican players
who are now receiving more attention.
So by the late 1950s
after the desegregation of baseball in the US...
the MLB turned its full attention to the DR.
They found a new pipeline for talent.
It was an extension of the neocolonial relation.
Major League Baseball was finding cheap resources...
signing it on the cheap, taking it to elsewhere
to get refined and consumed in another place.
By the 1960s, the MLB was expanding quickly.
They added more teams that meant they needed more players.
They signed outstanding Dominican players like Ozzie Virgil
the Alou Brothers and Juan Marichal...
who brought thousands of fans to the MLB games.
Soon, the MLB wanted more Dominican players...
but they quickly realized
they needed local scouts to spot talent.
That's where popular scouts like
Epy Guerrero and Ralph Avila came in.
Epy created the country's first baseball academy in the 1970s
to train young talent.
Then in 1987, Ralph created an academy
that was directly linked to an MLB team in the US:
the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The LA team invested millions in this academy.
Together, they created a formal process
for Dominican players to end up on MLB teams.
It goes something like this:
Dominican scouts identify new talent throughout the country.
Then they hold tryouts where players showcase their skills.
The most impressive players
get a contract to train with the academy.
If a player makes it through training...
they either sign a professional contract
to continue training with a minor league team in the US...
or make it to an MLB team.
Only a small percentage of the trainees
actually achieve the MLB dream.
But that's what happened with former pitcher Ramone Martinez...
who went straight from the academy to playing for the LA Dodgers.
“And Ramone Martinez
no hitting the Marlins seven to nothing.”
Soon, other big teams set up academies that help them spot
and train major players like Robinson Canó
and Albert Pujols, who eventually became All-Stars.
This pipeline of talent worked so well for the MLB
that there are now 30 academies in the DR.
One for each of the 30 MLB teams in the US.
Since the beginning of the academy system...
the MLB has signed hundreds of Dominican players.
And the leading cities for this talent pipeline
are the same as the ones where the sugar mill games
were once played.
With San Pedro right at the top.
The system has created an opportunity
for top Dominican players to end up with the MLB.
And they make millions now.
But no matter how far the Dominican players go...
the MLB still signs them for less than some American players.
So this is still a way for them
to make massive profits in the US
while giving foreign-born players cheaper contracts.
The DR makes money off the academy system, too.
The scouts helped negotiate better contracts for the players
but keep a massive cut for themselves at every turn.
Overall, Dominican players
bring in about $400 million per year in the Major League.
And they send about half of that home.
Plus, the academies bring in about $125 million a year, create more jobs...
and the MLB spends millions maintaining them.
There's no question that after agriculture and tourism
baseball has become the third leading source of revenue
for the country as a whole.
Before the Dominican players who helped generate so much of their profit...
the system has a long way to go.
Some Dominican All-Stars are starting to push for that change.
They're using their fame in the MLB to ask for a system
that works equally for players in both countries.
To them, baseball is as much Dominican as it is American.
They are so passionate about the game.
They have such a deep history for the game.
An understanding of the game.
They're actually in positions of control.
So it's a battle between who controls the game.
Hey everyone.
I'm Rajaa, the producer of this episode of Vox Atlas.
Thank you so much for watching.
There's so much we couldn't get to
but this video is just a start.
If you want to learn more about
what players go through in these academies...
we added a couple of great resources in our description as well.
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