Abstract
This essay investigates the early stages of the Major League Baseball (MLB) pipeline by focusing on the Dominican academy system. Once an international player is signed to a professional contract, they report to the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic. All 30 teams have an academy located on the island, where they house, feed, train, and educate players on American culture. I argue that MLB maintains a neocolonial system by having a system of insufficient education, discrimination, and surveillance based on Haitian nationality, and by communicating the American dream to its prospects. MLB controls its prospects economically and culturally in these instances, which is strictly neocolonial. I analyze, with attention to internal discourse and reference to neocolonial literature, how MLB justifies and maintains this system, rhetorically.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.Academies . (n.d.). http://mlb.mlb.com/dr/academies.jsp
2.
Anzil
F.
(n.d.). Chart of the week: The rise of Latinos in Major League Baseball . https://visme.co/blog/mlb-demographics/
3.
Bass
A.
(2014 ). State of the field: Sports history and the ‘cultural turn . Journal of American History , 101 (1 ), 148 –172 . https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jau177
4.
Bautista
J.
(2015 , April 02 ). The cycle . https://www.theplayerstribune.com/jose-bautista-dominican-baseball-prospects-mlb
5.
Baxter
K.
(2006 , March 1 ). Teams are teaching players more than just English . http://www.espn.com/mlb/latinosrise/columns/story?id=2332945
6.
Billings
A. C.
Black
J. E.
(2018 ). Mascot nation: The controversy over Native American representations in sport . University of Illinois Press .
7.
Black
J.
(2012 ). A clash of Native space institutional place in a local Choctaw-Upper Creek memory site: Decolonizing critiques and scholar-activist interventions . American Indian Culture and Research Journal , 36 , Article 3 .
8.
Board
E.
(2013 , November 07 ). The Dominican Republic’s discrimination against Haitians . https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dominican-republics-discrimination-against-haitians/2013/11/07/9066d436-4236-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html?utm_term=.56a16e2f4979
9.
Bretón
M.
Villegas
J. L.
(1999 ). Away games: The life and times of a Latin baseball player . University of New Mexico Press .
10.
Brewster
B.
(2017 , April 6 ). Why Dominicans are dominating baseball . https://treadathletics.com/dominican-domination/
11.
Buescher
D.
Ono
K. A.
(1996 ). Civilized colonialism: Pocahontas as neocolonial rhetoric . Women’s Studies in Communication , 19 (2 ), 127 –153 . https://doi.org/07491409.1996.11089810
12.
Burgos
A.
(2007 ). Playing America’s game: Baseball, Latinos, and the color line . University of California Press .
13.
Butterworth
M. L.
(2010 ). Baseball and rhetorics of purity: The national pastime and American identity during the war on terror . University of Alabama Press .
14.
Callis
J.
(2018 , May 27 ). 2018 Draft bonus pools, pick values . https://www.mlb.com/news/2018-mlb-draft-bonus-pools-pick-values/c-269930084
15.
Castillo
M.
(2016 , April 13 ). Faces of a divided island . https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/12/world/dominican-republic-haiti-immigration/index.html
16.
Clevenger
S. M.
(2017 ). Sport history, modernity and the logic of coloniality: A case for decoloniality . Rethinking History , 21 (4 ), 586 –605 . https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2017.1326696
17.
Couthard
G. S.
(2014 ). Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition . University of Manitoba Press .
18.
Dale
M.
(2017 , April 14 ). Dominican baseball players expected to show up on the field and in the classroom . https://kjzz.org/content/460367/dominican-baseball-players-expected-show-field-and-classroom
19.
Davis
S.
(2017 , March 16 ). 5 things we learned about the lack of Haitian-Dominicans in MLB . https://www.vibe.com/2017/03/haitian-dominicans-in-mlb/
20.Dominican Summer League . (n.d.). http://dominicansummerleague.com
21.
Dorsey
D.
(2015 , July 01 ). Miguel Sano: From the Dominican Republic to baseball’s major leagues . https://www.news-press.com/story/sports/2015/07/01/miguel-sano-dominican-republic-baseballs-biggest-stage/29599513/
22.
Eden
S.
(2017 , June 20 ). Los prospectos perdidos de Cuba . http://espndeportes.espn.com/especial/_/id/3331927/en-busqueda-de-un-sueno-los-prospectos-cubanos-de-mlb-terminan-en-el-exilio
23.Education Initiative . (n.d.). http://mlb.mlb.com/dr/education_initiative.jsp
24.
Elias
R.
(2016 ). Baseball and the American Dream: Race, class, gender, and the national pastime . Routledge .
25.
Elk
M.
Moreno
K.
(2018 , March 29 ). Baseball, Latino America’s pastime, faces new challenges in age of Trump . https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/mar/29/baseball-latino-trump-mlb
26.
Foucault
M.
(1977 ). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison . Pantheon Books .
27.
Ghosh
P.
(2014 , January 24 ). Huge salaries and a poverty-stricken country: The economics of baseball in the Dominican Republic . http://www.ibtimes.com/huge-salaries-poverty-stricken-country-economics-baseball-dominican-republic-1546993
28.
Gordon
I.
(2013 , March 4 ). Education still on deck at Dominican academies . https://www.theinvestigativefund.org/blog/2013/03/04/education-still-deck-dominican-academies/
29.
Gregory
S.
(2010 , July 26 ). Baseball dreams: Striking out in the Dominican Republic . http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2004099,00.html
30.
Hall
S.
(1992 ). Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies . In
Grossberg
L.
Nelson
C.
Treichler
P.
(Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 277 –286 ). Routledge .
31.
Hanlon
R. S.
(2013 ). School’s out forever: The applicability of international human rights law to Major League Baseball academies in the Dominican Republic . https://www.mcgeorge.edu/documents/Publications/261_10Hanlon.pdf
32.
Holden
J.
(2018 , July 28 ). MLB investigations unit brings more questions than answers in integrity fee debate . https://www.legalsportsreport.com/22345/mlb-investigations-integrity-fee/
33.
Juffer
J.
(2002 ). Who’s the man? Sammy Sosa, Latinos, and televisual redefinitions of the “American” pastime . Journal of Sport and Social Issues , 26 (4 ), 337 –359 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0193732502238253
34.
Kanfer
F. H.
(1979 ). Personal control, social control, and altruism: Can society survive the age of individualism? American Psychologist , 34 (3 ), 231 –239 . https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.3.231
35.
Khalid
S.
(2016 , October 08 ). Haitian athletes help their island home . https://theundefeated.com/features/haitian-athletes-help-their-island-home/
36.
Klein
A.
(1989 ). Baseball as underdevelopment: The political-economy of sport in the Dominican Republic . Sociology of Sport , 6 (2 ), 95 –112 . https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.6.2.95
37.
Klein
A.
(1991 ). Sugarball: The American game, the Dominican dream . Yale University Press .
38.
Klein
A.
(1995 ). Culture, politics, and baseball in the Dominican Republic . Latin American Perspectives , 22 (3 ), 111 –130 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X9502200307
39.
Klein
A.
(2006 ). Growing the game: The globalization of major league baseball . Yale University Press .
40.
Klein
A.
(2008 ). Progressive ethnocentrism: Ideology and understanding in Dominican baseball . Journal of Sport and Social Issues , 32 (2 ), 121 –138 .
41.
Klein
A.
(2014 ). Dominican baseball: New pride, old prejudice . Temple University Press .
42.
Lagesse
D.
(2016 , April 03 ). Baseball is a field of dreams —And dashed hopes—For Dominicans . https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/03/472699693/baseball-is-a-field-of-dreams-and-dashed-hopes-for-dominicans
43.
Lang
M.
(2015 ). Written out of their own story: The rhetorical colonialism of journalistic practice . Communication Studies , 66 (1 ), 85 –102 . https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2013.867408
44.
Li
D. K.
Murray
M.
(2018 , December 19 ). Cuban baseball players will no longer have to defect to join MLB . https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/cuban-baseball-players-will-be-able-sign-mlb-contracts-without-n950106
45.
Loomba
A.
(2007 ). Colonialism/postcolonialism . Routledge .
46.
McCullough
J. B.
(n.d.). Baseball republic . https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/baseball-republic/
47.
Miller
M.
(2016 , July 12 ). Behind America’s pastime are some murky labor practices . https://tcf.org/content/commentary/behind-americas-pastime-murky-labor-practices/?agreed=1
48.
Payne
K.
(2016 , November 28 ). El béisbol en República Dominicana significa pasión y esperanza . https://www.mlb.com/es/news/el-beisbol-en-republica-dominicana-significa-pasion-y-esperanza/c-209793066
49.
Regalado
S.
(1998 ). Viva baseball! Latin major leaguers and their special hunger . University of Illinois Press .
50.
Rojas
E.
(2015 , July 01 ). Baseball academies thrive in the Dominican Republic . http://www.espn.com/blog/onenacion/post/_/id/710/baseball-academies-thrive-in-the-dominican-republic
51.
Ruck
R.
(2011 ). Raceball: How the major leagues colonized the Black and Latin game . Beacon Press .
52.
Sanchez
J.
(2015 , July 2 ). Nats sign int’l free agent Soto for $1.5 million . https://www.mlb.com/news/nationals-sign-dominican-outfielder-juan-soto/c-134216106
53.
Sanchez
M. W.
(2017 , August 20 ). Top Yankees prospect puts birth certificate drama behind him . https://nypost.com/2017/08/20/top-yankees-prospect-puts-birth-certificate-drama-behind-him/
54.
55.
Schmidt
M.
(2010 a, March 10 ). Baseball emissary to review troubled Dominican pipeline . https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/sports/baseball/11dominican.html
56.
Schmidt
M.
(2010 b, May 7 ). Dominican prospects will face strict rules . https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/sports/baseball/08drugs.html
57.
Schmidt
M.
Schwarz
A.
(2009 , July 21 ). Baseball’s use of DNA raises questions . https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/sports/baseball/22dna.html
58.
Schoenfeld
B.
(2017 , March 14 ). Out at home . http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18900471/the-complicated-state-haitian-dominicans-mlb
59.
Schwartz
J.
(2018 , May 1 ). Yankees magazine: Rocket man . https://www.mlb.com/news/estevan-florial-ready-to-make-name-for-himself-c274705446
60.
Schwarz
A.
(2009 , July 22 ). A future in baseball, hinging on DNA . https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/sports/baseball/23dna.html
61.
Segura
M.
(2010 , March 18 ). Alderson outlines plans for improving MLB’s Dominican operation . https://www.si.com/more-sports/2010/03/18/alderson-dominican
62.
Serazio
M.
(2019 ). The power of sports: Media and spectacle in American culture . NYU Press .
63.
Sharp
R.
(2019 , March 26 ). Dominican players face difficulties on the road out of poverty and into MLB . https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2019/03/26/dominican-players-face-difficulties-on-the-road-out-of-poverty-and-into-mlb/
64.
Sherman
J.
(2016 , February 23 ). How a new identity made one Yankees prospect a rising star . https://nypost.com/2016/02/23/how-a-new-identity-made-one-yankees-prospect-a-rising-star/
65.
Shome
R.
(1996 ). Postcolonial interventions in the rhetorical canon: An “other” view . Communication Theory , 6 (1 ), 40 –59 . https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00119.x
66.
Shome
R.
Hedge
R. S.
(2002 ). Postcolonial approaches to communication: Charting the terrain, engaging the intersections . Communication Theory , 12 (3 ), 249 –270 . https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00269.x
67.
Sibley
S.
(1997 ). “Let them eat cake”: Globalization, postmodern capitalism, and the possibilities of justice . Law & Society Review , 31 (2 ), 207 –235 .
68.
Stephen
E.
(2019 , October 31 ). Juan Soto was the breakout star of the MLB playoffs . https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2019/10/31/20941289/juan-soto-world-series-nationals-champagne
69.
Stuckey
M. E.
Murphy
M. J.
(2001 ). By any other name: Rhetorical colonialism in North America . American Indian Culture and Research Journal , 25 (4 ), 73 –98 . https://doi.org/10.17953/aicr.25.4.m66w143xm1623704
70.
Vorkunov
M.
(2016 , May 23 ). Mets hope Dominican prospects pick up another tool: Diplomas . https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2016/05/23/mets-hope-dominican-prospects-pick-up-another-tool-diplomas/84786182/
71.
Wetmore
D.
(2015 , September 5 ). The story of how the Twins landed top prospect Miguel Sano . https://www.wctrib.com/sports/3834987-how-sano-landed-minnesota
72.
York
G.
(2017 , April 27 ). ‘I told myself not to cry’: South Africa’s Gift Ngoepe makes MLB history . https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/i-told-myself-not-to-cry-south-africas-gift-ngoepe-makes-mlb-history/article34840567/