The relationship between Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Dominican Republic (D.R.) has been discussed since the advent of the academy system in the 1970s. The influence of a billion dollar corporation that has invested itself in a profit motive through developing MLB-caliber players on the island is a cause for concern for those invested in the D.R’s history. The island was colonized first by the Spanish in 1492 and remained under Spanish rule until 1800. The successful slave revolution in Hait from the French, which shared the island of Hispanola with the D.R, was critical to the achievement of Dominican independence in the early 1840s.
The history of intervention and subjugation in the region created tension by the time the United States began its six year occupation of the nation, which lasted from 1916 to 1924. This previous incident with the United States is important for establishing the Dominican attitude towards the interest of Americans in the island. By the time the United States Marine Corps arrived on the island, the sport of baseball had already garnered national attention within the D.R. As the MLB took off, scouting efforts in Latin America began with more vigor. Early scouting efforts did little to prepare Dominican players for the changes that came with playing in the MLB, and this lack of infrastructure to support the development of players led to many Dominican players in the 1960s falling out of the league.
This is where the academy system began to emerge. Epy Guerrero, Latin American scout for the Toronto Blue Jays, was an important actor in the establishment of these Dominican training camps where young boys could be provided education, training, and cultural adjustment preparation ahead of moving to the United States.
However, the influence of multibillion dollar corporations like the MLB is concerning to those familiar with the sway other huge countries and empires have had on the nation. In academic literature focusing on the progression of Dominican MLB development, the implications of the asymmetrical power dynamics is a common theme. The MLB is profit-motivated and some of the issues presented in academic research on the subject reflect that motive in important aspects like player safety and economic security. Alan Klein, who has published multiple books on the subject, has been an important figure in calling attention to the MLB’s shady activity since the academy system has taken off. Patrick C. Gentile directly addresses the influence of neocolonialism as it exists in the MLB’s academy system, pointing to player safety and exploitation as a direct example of its implementation. Finally, Samuel O. Regalado, a professor of history at California State University, examines the economic relationship of the parties in a recent piece for the Indiana Journal of Global and Legal Studies. All three authors address the impact of neocolonialism in the relationship between the MLB and the DR and through investigating their conclusions, more strides can be taken for accountability and player safety in a system motivated almost exclusively by profit.
Alan Klein has spent his academic career chronicling the advancements made in Dominican baseball. The national pride associated with the sport has only grown as more players make it to the Majors and Klein has been there the whole way to watch as the academy system has grown out of its good intentions and into an exploitative arrangement. He has written multiple books on the subject, with each subsequent publication reflecting new developments in the relationship between the MLB and the DR. “Dominican Baseball: Old Pride, New Prejudice” was published in 2014 and in it he reflects on changes in the way things operated since his 1993 book “Sugarball: The American Game, the Dominican Dream” which was one of the earliest substantive works on the subject. “Dominican Baseball” chronicles how the streamlining of the academy system is part of what has caused the comparisons to neocolonialism that exist, and in that regard Klein says that the “MLB is no different from any other capitalist enterprise that seeks resources abroad.” Consideration of that quote in the context of Dominican history and systemic challenges faced by Dominican players – among them the lack of eligibility for the MLB draft and the prevalence of verbal agreements between teams and underage Dominican players.
The academy system is considered neocolonial by Patrick Gentile as well, who uses the concept to explain how the MLB’s profit motive impacts player safety and education in the academy system. Through discussion of the medical review practices the MLB uses in the academies – age verification, school records, and bone scans are all provided to the MLB – he builds on the argument that the MLB is focused on the player’s potential value as well as his condition. Gentile provides explanations for the concepts of neocolonialism and postcolonialism before demonstrating their presence in the MLB today, specifically in the DR. More concentrated investment in the production of Dominican players has also gradually created a stricter system. The author’s argument is that the MLB perpetuates the academy system as a way of generating profit and that an important aspect of the system as it exists today is the power that the MLB can exert at all levels. The international investment of the MLB, like in the DR, is an effort to make the dream of playing for the league seem more attainable, though only 3-5% of players in Dominican academies ever make it to the pros.
The MLB’s development in the region also comes with entering the geopolitics of Latin America. The island of Hispanola is occupied by both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and Haitian-Dominican players often feel the brunt of the MLB’s enforcement. Haitian discrimination is an aspect of the issue that other authors who are concerned with the neocolonial dynamics have not addressed. Gentile explains how the issue has proliferated and the role of colorism in how the MLB conducts its academies.
Finally, Samuel Regalado’s 2000 article “Latin Players on the Cheap”: Professional Baseball Recruitment in Latin America and the Neocolonialist Tradition is an early critique of the economic relationship between Major League Baseball and the Dominican Republic. It traces the influence of private corporations in the island and chronicles how attitudes of seeing the island as an investment is problematic. This attitude extended to players as Major League Baseball scouts became a more consistent presence on the island. While the 1960s saw some of the earliest Dominican players reach the MLB, they were treated like ‘commodities’ by scouts who saw Latin America as a way to continue laissez-faire policies and had no orientation to the United States before moving there.
Over the course of the 20th century, the MLB refocused its international investments in Latin America. Cuba was the primary provider of Latin American players for most of the century, and the Dominican academy system is the result of increased MLB investment in development of Dominican players from the 1980s well through today. Regalado discusses the academy system as a more discreet way of avoiding uncomfortable questions about ethics in the treatment of prospective players, citing an example of the 1975 MLB draft where the average United States player received $60,000 compared to $5,000 Latino players were signed for. Regalado uses baseball as a flashpoint of a larger argument about how American capitalism contributes to racial discrepancies, and links that concept with neocolonialism.
All three authors discuss the Dominican baseball academy system in the context of neocolonialism but highlight different aspects of the relationship. Together, they create a well-rounded critique of American capitalism and race with their intersection in sport. Sports inspire a lot of national pride, players from the Dominican Republic who play in the MLB are proud of where they came from. The current relationship between the MLB and the DR reflects a struggle of identity with economic influence. Players become superstars when 3-5% make it out of a system in their home country that is subject to the safeguards of a corporation.
Gentile, Patrick C. 2022. “MLB’s Neocolonial Practices in the Dominican Republic Academy System.” Journal of Sport & Social Issues 46 (3): 269–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723521991404.
Klein, Alan. 2014. Dominican Baseball: New Pride, Old Prejudice. Temple University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvrdf3rq.
Regalado, Samuel O. 2022. “‘Latin Players on the Cheap’: Professional Baseball Recruitment in Latin America and the Neocolonialist Tradition.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 8: 13.