Summary: The Importance Of Baseball In The Dominican Republic
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In “Welcome to the Dominican Republic: baseball mecca” found in the Chicago Tribune, the importance of baseball in the Dominican Republic is discussed. In San Pedro de Macoric, Dominican Republic small children are seen playing in fields, practicing in order to achieve their dream of being in major leagues. Children who play want to succeed and leave the country in order to leave poverty behind. The article says that the players here go as far as dropping out of school in order to be able to play more, which can explain why they are four times more likely than players in the United States to end up being in major leagues. In 2013, there were 510 players from the Dominican Republic who were signed to Major League Baseball teams. Besides the…show more content… In the reading “Manifestations of Popular Culture”, baseball in the Dominican Republic is talked about as being a huge part of the culture. It even explains in reasons why baseball has become so culturally significantly important to Dominicans as it says, “most Dominicans know at least someone who has ‘made it’ in the U.S. major leagues” (321). Baseball in the Dominican Republic is so widespread that the majority of Dominicans know someone who was able to achieve becoming a professional player. Just like the article said, the Dominican Republic is the second most prolific country of baseball in the world and more and more players are being signed to major leagues in the United States. In the reading “Writing on the Wall”, major Dominican players Pedro Martinez, Jose Reyes, and Alex Rodriguez are mentioned. The reading states that players from the U.S. are heading to head towards countries such as the Dominican Republic to play Winter League. These players do this as a way of, as the reading says, “raising the profile of Major League Baseball in those countries from which the next generation of superstars will be drawn” (200). This also reminds me of the training facilities brought up in the article that are being opened by Major Leagues in order to scout more players to bring to the United States. The profiling and facilities are working, since the Latino population within major leagues has increased to 27 percent and keeps on