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 players in the minor leagues hail from the small Caribbean nation (Gregory 2010). And these Dominicans are far from peripheral figures in the major leagues; in fact, they’re central to the success of an array of MLB franchises. Setting hitting and home run records in the 2011 postseason, native Dominicans Albert Pujols and Nelson Cruz have led their clubs, the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, respectively, to the pinnacle of the sport, the league’s seven game championship—The World Series. Many of the biggest names in MLB, including Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Adrian Beltre and Jose Reyes all call the Dominican home. But why has baseball, a sport that has declined in popularity at the hands of American football and basketball in recent decades, diffused so rampantly and successfully to the Dominican? As a process of culture change and neocolonialism, baseball diffusion to the Dominican provides a particularly interesting look at the divisive nature of the geographical forces of spatial flows and regional coherence.
After Cubans brought the game to the Dominican in 1891, the game grew most in popularity during the reign of General Trujillo from 1930 to 1963. In his sports sociology article “Baseball as
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 players in the minor leagues hail from the small Caribbean nation (Gregory 2010). And these Dominicans are far from peripheral figures in the major leagues; in fact, they’re central to the success of an array of MLB franchises. Setting hitting and home run records in the 2011 postseason, native Dominicans Albert Pujols and Nelson Cruz have led their clubs, the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, respectively, to the pinnacle of the sport, the league’s seven game championship—The World Series. Many of the biggest names in MLB, including Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Adrian Beltre and Jose Reyes all call the Dominican home. But why has baseball, a sport that has declined in popularity at the hands of American football and basketball in recent decades, diffused so rampantly and successfully to the Dominican? As a process of culture change and neocolonialism, baseball diffusion to the Dominican provides a particularly interesting look at the divisive nature of the geographical forces of spatial flows and regional coherence.
After Cubans brought the game to the Dominican in 1891, the game grew most in popularity during the reign of General Trujillo from 1930 to 1963. In his sports sociology article “Baseball as
Cited: Bautista, Tony (2011) “Amid eternal woes, Dominicans turn to baseball” Dominican Today English Edition October 14, online file at: http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2011/10/14/41282/print, accessed October 24, 2011 Gregory, Sean (2010) “Baseball Dreams: Striking Out in the Dominican Republic” Time Magazine Online July 26: 1-3, online file at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2004099-1,00.html, accessed October 22, 2011 Klein, Alan M. (1989) “Baseball as Underdevelopment: The Political-Economy of Sport in the Dominican Republic” Sociology of Sport Journal June 1: 95-112, online file at: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c7e515f1-b978-4ef2-8879-18f93c3a3530%40sessionmgr12&vid=4&hid=10, accessed October 20, 2011 Ruck, Rob (1991) The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic introduction pgs. xi – xx online file at: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kloGyBSEsRsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=baseball+dominican+republic&ots=60PHNePruq&sig=a6UFjovMRZXVJoxzuDQPXA69bzA#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed October 24, 2011 Wasch, Adam (2009) “Children Left Behind: The Effect of Major League Baseball on Education in the Dominican Republic” Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law September 1: 99-124, online file at: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c7e515f1-b978-4ef2-8879-18f93c3a3530%40sessionmgr12&vid=4&hid=10, accessed October 21, 2011