Dominican Republic
Synopsis
Over the last 100 years, baseball in the Dominican Republic has become much more than a national pastime. Children are practically born into itmany born with a natural talent. During the last decade, the baseball industry has consistently expanded in the Dominican Republic. All major league teams have training camps there, to scout and train players with professional potential. From the time they are little, Dominican boys are enticed by the dream of a professional career in baseball. Many perceive this as their only opportunity to escape a life of poverty. The problem is there is no emphasis placed on educating these young boys. Boys drop out of school as early as 10, 11, and 12 to practice baseball full time. While this is great for the boys that "make it," becoming baseball stars with million-dollar major league contracts, the reality is that ninety-eight percent don't. Sadly, these 18- and 19-year-old young men return home to their communities, uneducated, unskilled, and destined to a life of poverty.
Education
In the Dominican Republic (from 1996–2005) the primary school net attendance rates were high—84% boys and 88% girls—with nearly all children entering school. Of those who entered primary school in 2000, 69% of boys and 89% of girls reach the fourth grade, making male retention an issue. Secondary school net attendance rates are less than half the primary net attendance rates- 27% boys and 39% girls. Children in urban areas attend secondary school by up to 15% more than rural kids.
Developmental Programs
Developmental programs are baseball training programs that are designed to get baseball players, as young as 10 years old, ready to be signed by major league academies. These programs are run by one of the 5,000 buscones (independent scouts, who find, feed, and train the players) in the Dominican. The buscones are often corrupt and accused of exploiting these young boys, by taking sometimes as much as 50% of a ballplayers signing bonus if the ballplayer gets drafted by an academy, although the legal limit is 30%. It is estimated that only 2 to 5 percent of all kids that play in a program ever get signed by an academy.
Academies
Academies are official farm teams for major league organizations located in the Dominican Republic. Boys must be at least 16 and a half years old to get signed by an academy. The academies will often pay players a bonus between $5,000 and $25,000 (US) to sign the contract. These signing bonuses can sometimes be more than $2,000,000; however large contracts are extremely rare with only one player ever receiving more than 2 million. While in the academies, all the baseball players receive the same monthly salary, ranging from $600 to $1,000 depending on the organization. Once MLB signs a player in the Dominican Republic, the players have seven levels to get through (DSL, Rookie League, High Rookie League, Low Class A, High Class A, Double A, Triple A) before making it to U.S. MLB.
MLB
After the United States, the Dominican Republic has the second-highest number of baseball players in MLB, making Dominicans the largest number of foreign professional baseball players. At the start of the 2006 season, there were 744 players on opening rosters, of which 76, or 10.22%, were from the Dominican Republic.
At the end of 2005 there were 1,556 Dominicans under contract in Major League teams. At the end of 2006 there were already 3,200 Dominican players, or a 105% increase. Ronaldo Peralta, the MLB representative in the DR, said that MLB invests about US$84 million to train ball players in the DR, and their operations generate over 2,000 jobs. Of the 30 MLB teams, 29 have academies in the DR. In 2006, 508 Dominicans were harvested by Major League Baseball academies in the DR. This is 26% more than the 403 recruited in 2005.