Baseball Recruitment Violations in Latin America and the Caribbean

Camden J. Armstrong History of Latin America Spring 2014

Latin American and Caribbean players have dominated Major League Baseball since the leagues creation, but the methods to get these players to America have been very controversial. The majority of baseball historians have concluded that the only reason why the MLB recruits in Latin America instead of in North America is because its cheaper to develop and recruit prospective athletes. Many MLB organizations have baseball academies all throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. These academies do not provide any type of schooling but instead focus on year round baseball training. Arturo J. Marcano wrote a story for NACLA Magazine about the many human rights violations against Latin American players. Arturo is an author whose work is solely focused on baseball in Latin America. He has written several books and articles on the topic of baseball in Latin America. Arturo is against recruitment in Latin America because he feels he has found through his research that there are many human rights violations affecting players during recruitment. Some of the human rights abuses that Arturo brings up in his article are English-only contracts, poor standards of living in Latin baseball academies and buscones ripping off young players.1 Buscones are street agents that shape young baseball players for a price, but when they sign contracts they take most of players signing bonuses. The MLB also has no responsibilities for buscone-player relationships, which makes it very easy for buscones to rip off prospects. Before the mid-1980s players were being offered contracts from MLB teams as young as 12 years old. In the 1980s the MLB adopted a rule that the MLB could
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Marcano, Arturo J. and David P. Fidler. Baseballs Exploitation of Latin Talent. NACLA Report on the Americas. Mar/Apr 2004, Vol. 37 Issue 5, p14-18. 5p.

only recruit players who were 17 years or older, but many teams have violated this rule and the Commissioners Office has not enforced the rule effectively since its creation. For example teams may not sign contracts with young players, but they scout and talk to players as young as ten years old. One way teams hide signing young kids is by signing them into their baseball academies. At the same time Arturo understands that Latin American players make up 28% of players on MLB rosters.2 The MLB has been Recruiting Latin American players since the 1940s so it would be detrimental to the MLB if they stopped recruiting out of Latin America, because there have been so many amazing players. Rob Rucks Baseballs Recruitment Abuses, again explains the many human right violations that the MLB commits, but he also explains how dependent the many Latin American countries are dependent on the MLBs interest in Latin American players. The MLB also would lose a lot of money because Arturo says that Latin American players sign for five to ten cents on the dollar compared to players in the US. MLB owners Joke that they would rather get 20 Dominicans for $5000. than 2 Americans for $50,000.3 The MLB actually invests $76 million dollars in the Dominican Republic alone, and if the MLB were to leave, the Dominican would lose a substantial amount of money in their economy because baseball is such a big industry there. Dominican players get paid so little, that some MLB owners joke that they would rather get 20 Dominicans for $5000 than 2 Americans for $5000. 4 American players are $9000 more than compared to Dominican players. The only
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Marcano. Ruck, Rob. Baseballs Recruitment Abuses. America Quarterly: Sports: Business, Integration, and Social Change. 2011. 4 Ruck 2

reason why baseball spread to the Dominican Republic was because of the growth of the US military and economic influence in the Dominican in 1902. There are many terrible things about baseball recruitment in the Dominican Republic and in other parts of Latin America, but at the same time there are also some good things. There are some baseball academies in the Dominican Republic that Ruck talks about in his article. They offer food, housing, running water, and even electricity, which for most of these players is a big improvement compared to their lives at home. Unfortunately only one out of every 40 players make it into the academies, but once they get in they are taught English, learn how to live as an American, and of course play baseball. Most of the players going to these academies are going so they can support their family and are trying to get them out of poverty. This is a lot of pressure to put on a 12-year-old boy. Many MLB teams fake players ages so they can hide potential stars from other MLB teams. Only 1% of players in baseball academies will make it to the MLB, so many of the boys have to go back to poverty once their baseball career is over. If a player doesnt go to a baseball academy sponsored by an MLB team, then they are stuck going to a Buscone run academy. Most of the time they are rundown and have terrible living conditions. There are more than 1000 Buscones in the Dominican Republic alone. Buscones have also been reported of using performance-enhancing drugs in their academies.5 Some academies require players that are 13 years old a to do a workout thats intended for a player that is 16-17. Many Buscones are known for scamming and taking players signing bonuses.
5Ruck

According to Rob Ruck there have been many attempts to change the way MLB recruiting works in different countries, but none of them have been successful. Since 1989 there have been 44 attempts to repeal the anti- trust exemption.6 The MLB is exempt from the Sherman Anti Trust Act, which allows the MLB to do whatever they want when recruiting players in different countries without being punished by legislation. Before 2001 most MLB contracts were in English, which made it hard for players in Latin American countries. It wasnt until 2001 when the MLB started to translate contracts into Spanish. Ruck says the league did that so teams could trick players and give them low paying contracts. Latin American baseball players are some of the best ball-players to ever be apart of the MLB. According to Kyle Tana, of all the Silver Sluggers given to the best offensive player at each position in the American and National Leagues, half of them have been Latino players.7 About 10% of the MLB is solely players from the Dominican Republic. Imagine how much of the MLB is made up of players from all the Latin American countries. In the 2011 All-Star game Latino players accounted for 40% of the players nominated.8 There were even 86 players in the MLB that played on opening day that were from Latin American countries, and 1 billion dollars in salaries are paid to Latin American players. Without Latin American players the MLB would be nothing, and thats how Kyle Tana feels in his article. He also thinks that because all the great things Latin American Players do for the MLB, Tana, Kyle. Realities Behind Americas Favorite Pastime: The Dominican Republics Cheap Labor Bazaar For the Major Leagues. Www.coha.org. N.p., 20 Apr. 2010. 8
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in return MLB teams should be a little bit more gracious and the teams should give back to players communities. When Kyle Tana talks about Buscones in his article, he brings up facts and stories that are really scary to think about. He talks about this one player that was signed by the Washington Nationals. The Nationals thought they were getting this 17-year-old super star, but instead got this 21-year-old who falsified his documents.9 This happens fairly regularly since buscones like to falsify their players documents so they will be more appealing to teams. There is one man that Tana talks about in his article named Alderson who wants to start youth leagues in the Dominican Republic in order to displace buscones. He also wants to get drug testing done and fingerprint kids as young as 15 to create a database to verify age and identity for players.10 Most historians think that Latin American players are being mistreated, but there are some historians who think Latin American players have it better than American players. Jeffery S. Storms is one historian that thinks that Latin American players have it great because Latin American players can sign contracts at 17, while American players must wait until they graduate from high school.11 Another thing that benefits Latin American players is that they dont have a draft, which allows them to get several offers from different teams instead of being stuck with one team, which is what many American players face. Storms also says in his article that many Tana 11 Storms, Jeffrey S. "El Monticulo ("The Mound"): The Disperate Treatment of Latin American Baseball Players in Major League Baseball" Univ. of St. Thomas Journal of Law & Public Policy. 2014.
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players would rather stay in the worst slums of New York than go home, because most players homes in Latin America are believe or not worse than living in the worst slums in America. Even though Storms thinks they have some advantages over American players, there are some things that are disadvantages of being a Latin American player. Like buscones take 30% of a players salary, while an American agent will only take 3-5%.12 That means that buscones get one-third of every single players salary, which leaves them with very little money compared to American players who get almost all of their money. In an ESPN article, TJ Quinn tells us about the growing concern about MLB rules in Latin America. There have been many players out of Latin America, but the largest signing bonus to a Latin American player was 5 million to a Dominican named Nomar Mazara. Teams in the MLB can only spend 3 million dollars each year on international amateur free agents.13 Thats a very small amount of money in the baseball world, because in the MLB 3 million is one of the smallest salaries for players. So when teams go to look at players in Latin America they are only signing and giving bonuses to a small amount of players that they think will someday be a big contributor to their team. At the same time MLB teams may sign as many players as they want as long as all the bonuses are under 10,000.0014, which is almost twice the money they would make at home in a year. Many Latin American players are afraid of a World Wide Draft because of what happened to Puerto Rico. Ever since Storms Quinn, T.J. "Concern over MLB rule in Latin America" www.espn.go.com. 1 March 2012. Web. 4 March 2104.
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they were added to the draft, there have been less major leaguers coming out of Puerto Rico. This is because of how hard it is to get drafted when put in a pool of American players. Vanessa Marie Zimmer in her article talks about how players get tricked out of their money by buscones and agents. Many teams have been known to hide prospects as young as 14 years old at training facilities in the middle of nowhere and then prevent the children from signing with another team or allowing them to sign with a agent who is going to try to get more money for the player.15 An example of this is a player getting cheated out of money was when a player named Aybar was founded by a Buscone name Soto. Soto developed Aybar at the age of 13, when Aybar signed with the Dodgers the team released the first part of his bonus. The Dodgers sent $490,000 to Soto who deposited the check and then sent 35,000 to the American agent who negotiated the contract and then Soto sent a tiny $6,250 to Aybar and his family.16 Aybar got a little more than 1% of his contract. He basically was playing baseball for free and didnt get anything for his hard work. Zimmer doesnt just talk about the negatives in her article, but she also brings up the many positives that Latin American recruiting brings to the local communities. In the Dominican Republic alone the MLB creates 1,200 jobs.17 The MLB also pays 76 million dollars to the Dominican Republic economy through paying players salaries. Zimmer, Vanessa Marie. "Dragging Their Devotion: The Role of International Law in Major League Baseball's Dominican Affairs" Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights. 2005. 16 Zimmer 17
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After reading the various articles and books on Latin American players in the MLB, the historians and authors feel that there are many Human Rights injustices to the young player prospects. There are a few that feel the MLB has been beneficial to economic development for these countries. It is widely disputed whether it would be difficult to create some simple guidelines and rules to protect these hopeful players without jeopardizing the industry in these Latin countries. If these simple changes could take place it would bring even more money into the economy and prevent Buscones from reaping all the financial benefits. The players would be protected and there would be less uncertainty. It has been discussed that the MLB should incorporate some limits and rules for salaries, Draft and working with Buscones. It seems that the MLB is not promoting any of these changes because they are fearful that they will lose revenue. It is so inexpensive for them to recruit and sign these players and therefore allows them to keep their budgets low.

Bibliography Internet Tana, Kyle. Realities Behind Americas Favorite Pastime: The Dominican Republics Cheap Labor Bazaar For the Major Leagues. Www.coha.org. 20 Apr. 2010.Web. Quinn, T.J. "Concern over MLB rule in Latin America" www.espn.go.com. 1 March 2012. Web. 4 March 2104. Periodicals Marcano, Arturo J. and David P. Fidler. Baseballs Exploitation of Latin Talent. NACLA Report on the Americas. Mar/Apr 2004, Vol. 37 Issue 5, p14-18. 5p Ruck, Rob. Baseballs Recruitment Abuses America Quarterly: Sports: Business, Integration, and Social Change. 2011. Storms, Jeffrey S. "El Monticulo ("The Mound"): The Disperate Treatment of Latin American Baseball Players in Major League Baseball" Univ. of St. Thomas Journal of Law & Public Policy. 2014. Zimmer, Vanessa Marie. "Dragging Their Devotion: The Role of International Law in Major League Baseball's Dominican Affairs" Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights. 2005.