Baseball is the second most popular sport in America, commonly known as the United States national pastime. However, the sport isn’t just popular in America, it can be found played all over the world.
According to MLB.com, 238 of the 864 players were born outside the United States - roughly 27.5 percent. The Dominican Republic leads all foreign countries with the 82 players born outside the United states, followed by Venezuela with 63 players and Cuba with 23 players. About 25 percent of the 7,000 minor league players in the United States are Dominican too, and the numbers are continuing to grow.
About 40 percent live below the poverty line and 14 percent of the population is unemployed, so many Dominican children see baseball as a way out.
Children can be found playing baseball in the parks, streets, and local felids in the Dominican Republic at all hours of the day and night—with dreams of becoming a professional.
The MLB currently has 30 academies in the Dominican Republic to help players prepare for their professional careers. These academies offer English courses, and players participate in programs to help the adjust to life as a professional baseball player. They also encourage players to give back through club sponsored service projects that impact their local communities. Although the main focus of these academies is preparing prospects for their professional careers, they also help prepare prospects for life after their careers have ended.
While in Latino players in baseball increase, the number of Latino managers decrease. Currently, there aren’t any Latino managers in the MLB since the Braves fired Fredi Gonzales in May of this year. This is the first time the MLB has been without a manager of Hispanic descent since 1991.
In an effort to increase diversity in the sport, in 1999, then commissioner of the MLB Bob Selig, decided to implement the “Selig Rule” -- a rule that required every club to consider minority candidates “for all general manager, assistant general manager, field manager, director of player development, and director of scouting positions." Selig also asked clubs to provide him a list of their openings and to include a list of candidates, including minority candidates, to be interviewed.
Although players of Hispanic descent are common is baseball, it doesn’t rule out racism. Dirk Hayhurst, a national MLB columnist, reminisced on how differences in style of play in Latinos and Americans can easily turn into prejudice in the minds of white Americans in a column he published online. “When I started playing as a kid, my teammates, my neighborhood, my school districts—they were mostly white. I played with one black player in college and didn’t have a Latino teammate until I reached the minors.The Latino players carried themselves differently than the white players. They played a different brand of baseball. It was more emotional, more intense, flashier.
We were always taught to be humble. Don’t pimp home runs. Don’t talk to players on opposing teams like they are your friends. Don’t show emotion on the mound, infield or in the batter's box. If you did any of these things, it marked you as a person who didn’t play the game the right way—a phrase that would go on to justify many of baseball’s most ignorant behaviors.
But it would stick, unquestioned, unchallenged and undefined. It would become a separator, not just of minds, but of who deserved to be blessed by the luck and opportunity that life in pro baseball seemed to hinge on. When you don’t know who is going to make it to the top, you start to keep score on who deserves to, based on what you believe is the correct way to play.
You become selfish. And for many freshly drafted whites, selfish and worried about who deserves to go forward, the thinking is that these new Latin teammates—the ones that can’t speak the language, write a check or read a physical evaluation form, but can effortlessly showboat on the ball field—don’t deserve it. And the feeling will grow like a weed if it isn’t dealt with,” Hayhurst said.
Jorge L. Ortiz of the USA Today spoke with Carlos Gomez, then of the Houston Astros in an article about the unwritten rule in Baseball titled "Baseball's culture clash: Vast majority of brawls involve differing ethnicities". According to Ortiz, Gomez, a Dominican native, argue that he doesn’t try to disrespect opponents and notes that he never looks in their direction when celebrating a good deed. He’ll even tip his hat to an opposing pitcher who has done especially masterful work in getting him out.
“Why can a pitcher show you his emotions and you can’t show yours to him? Those are baseball rules from a different time,’’ Gomez told USA TODAY Sports in Spanish. “It gets to the point where, when you’re by yourself, you think, ‘What did I do? I didn’t do anything inappropriate.’ It’s a bit frustrating because all I’ve ever done is play the game with passion, with desire, with love, giving it my all, and a lot of people take it the wrong way.’’
Ortiz also interviewed Alan Klein, a professor of sociology at Northeastern University in Boston who has written two books on Dominican baseball. According to Klein, antagonism against a different ethnic group may be harbored within the clubhouse and come out against opponents on the field.
“I think that’s more likely to come from white players than from Latin players,’’ said Klein, speaking generally, not about any specific players. “There are white guys who celebrate exuberantly. But when the guy happens to have slightly darker skin, I think it becomes part of something larger. It’s not just a guy celebrating, it’s a Dominican celebrating.’’
