If you pay any attention to major league baseball (or even if you don’t), you’ve probably noticed that a disproportionately large number of star players are from the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean nation that shares its island with Haiti. Is that a coincidence? Are Dominicans just naturally and inexplicably gifted at the game of baseball? Well, no and (probably) no. The explanation involves much more than just sports; to get the full story, a Vox investigative team dug into two centuries of history and economics that involve, among other things, the Atlantic slave trade, the Cuban revolution, the business of baseball, and sugar. This video report was published in July 2023.
Read it here.
EXPLORE, REFLECT, SPEAK UP.
1. What role did the Cuban revolution play in the rise of Dominican players in Major League Baseball? What intermediate steps were involved in the causal chain? Explain the sequence of events and their effects. Does the video explain the events clearly and fully? Point to elements or statements from the video to support your response.
2. In order to provide answers to the question in the title of the video, the narration has to jump back and forth in time, examining events in the 19th and 20th centuries before ending in the present day. What device does the video use in order to keep audiences from being confused? Is the technique effective? Why or why not?
3. LET’S TALK. Major league baseball is now an important engine of economic development in the Dominican Republic (DR). At the same time, due to disparities between the economies of the US and the DR, the development of Dominican ballplayers is a relative bargain for the lucrative corporation that is Major League Baseball. As the video mentions, a few prominent Dominican major league players are working to bring about “a system that works equally for players in both countries” (11:39). To what extent, if any, do you support their efforts? Discuss your responses to that question with a few classmates. Choose examples from the video as evidence to support your position. Remember that your primary goal in this conversation is to listen and learn, not to argue or persuade.
4. AND NOW WRITE. We are probably all familiar with the quests of baseball players from all parts of the world to play with a US Major League team—an American Dream that is often highlighted and applauded in movies and mass media. Major League Baseball’s motivation to find less expensive sources of players may not be so familiar. Write an essay in which you summarize the information in the video and make a personal response to any new information that you learned.
LetsTalkLibrary 