Anyone interested in the future of Dominicans in Major League Baseball might cast a worried look at one of the most talked-about prospects for the 2010 season, a young left-handed Cuban pitcher named Aroldis Chapman. Left-handers are always in demand, and Mr. Chapman has thrown his fastball at a burning 100 miles per hour. Anything he throws faster than 95 seems virtually unhittable. But he rarely throws that fast and is usually at about 90. He has a pretty good slider and a very slow curve. In other words, he has not mastered many pitches for a starting pitcher. He also has control problems, and some days has trouble finding the strike zone. He also has back spasms, was sent down to the minors before the season even opened and began the season on a Triple-A team.
So why is everyone in baseball talking about him? Why were half the ball clubs in the major leagues interested in him, and why did the Cincinnati Reds pay $30 million for him? The answer, at least in part, is because he is Cuban—so not only does he come from a fabled baseball tradition, but he is also a defector, which is a popular political story.
The history of Cuban baseball is almost as long as the history of baseball itself. And despite a half-century embargo—or maybe because of it—Cuba still has a cachet that no other country can match in the American major leagues. That includes the Dominican Republic, which has produced the largest group of foreigners in major league baseball, at more than 470 players.
The Dominicans have John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro to thank for their place in the major leagues. The first American baseball games probably took place in the 1830s. Cubans have been playing on their island since at least 1866, and are the only foreigners who have consistently played in American major league baseball since the 1870s. They played winters in Cuba and summers in the U.S. The first Cuban player, and the first Latino, in the major leagues was Esteban Bellán, who played third base. From a wealthy Havana family, he learned baseball while studying at Fordham University in New York and later became one of the organizers of the sport in Cuba.
Dominicans have been playing baseball since the 1880s, after it was imported by American and Cuban sugar executives. By the late 1890s, when Dominicans had reached a level where they might play in the U.S., the major leagues—as well as the minor—had adopted an unofficial policy of not letting blacks play. This limited Cuban participation, though a few lighter-skinned athletes "passed." A number of white Cubans had distinguished major league careers, such as Dolf Luque, called "the pride of Havana," a right-handed pitcher with an incredible 21-year run in the majors.
But only 15% of Dominicans are white and most of those belong to a wealthy upper class that rarely turns to professional athletic careers. While Dominican baseball became some of the best in the world, it was confined to playing in Latin America.
All that changed in 1947 when Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cleveland Indians signed Larry Doby. Once black players were in the majors the search was on for more black talent. As of 1948 there had already been 32 Cuban major leaguers, so Cuba was a logical place to look. In 1949 Minnie Miñoso, the speedy outfielder nicknamed "the black comet," moved from the Negro League to the Cleveland Indians, and became the first black Latino player in the major leagues.
The first Dominican to play in the majors was Osvaldo Virgil, who made his debut in 1956 and was known to baseball as Ozzie Virgil. He had been discovered not in the Dominican Republic but in the Bronx by the great Cuban scout, Alex Pompez, who had found Mr. Miñoso and many other Cuban stars.
The next Dominican was Felipe Alou, a power hitter who played both infield and outfield. He dreamed of becoming a doctor but dropped out of medical school in 1958 because he desperately needed the $200 the Giants offered him. He went by Rojas Alou, Felipe Rojas Alou or Felipe Rojas, but the scout that recruited him did not understand and called him Alou. All the Rojas boys—Felipe, his brothers Matty and Jesus, and his son, Moisés, all major leaguers— changed their last names to Alou rather than contradict the Americans. In 1992 Felipe Alou became manager of the Montreal Expos, one of the first Latino managers in major league baseball.
There was a steady trickle of Dominicans into the majors in the 1950s and early '60s, including pitcher Juan Marichal, to date the only Dominican in the Hall of Fame. Dominicans probably would have remained a trickle if Kennedy and Castro had gotten along better. But then Eisenhower banned the import of Cuban sugar and the Soviets stepped in to buy it. From 1962 to 1963, Kennedy, angry about the Soviet Union's increasing role in Cuba, laid down embargo measures cutting off economic relations between the two countries.
By the time of the embargo, 96 Cubans and only 12 Dominicans had played major league baseball. It was no longer possible for a Cuban to work in the U.S. and return to Cuba. No longer could a baseball player play in the Cuban leagues in the winter and the major leagues in the summer.
Now, for a Cuban to play in the U.S. he had to defect, denounce his country, desert his family and neighbors and never return. Few Cubans were willing to do this. Even today, with the tantalizing possibility of earning millions in the major leagues, few Cuban players have been willing to defect as Aroldis Chapman did in July 2009 while playing for the Cuban national team in the Netherlands.
The 60 Cubans who have come to play in the major leagues since the embargo represent a fraction of the Cuban players with major league talent. Those who have come have had to face a major adjustment. In the Cuban leagues a player spends his entire career on his hometown team. The fans are his family and friends. When the team plays an away game, the local fans climb into the beds of trucks and take the bumpy ride across the island to the game.
The Cubans disappeared from the major leagues just as the demand for players—including foreign players—was greater than ever. Beginning in 1961, as baseball switched from rail transportation to planes, the leagues expanded. In the 1970s the free agent, a player who could turn to the highest bidder, was created along with a restrictive system of drafting players. Foreign players are not included in the draft and so teams are allowed to sign as many foreigners as they are willing to pay for.
All of this would have sent top scouts—many of them Cuban, such as Rafael Avila for the Dodgers—to Cuba. Instead they went to the Dominican Republic. And Dominicans became top scouts as well. In the 1970s and '80s intense scouting operations in the Dominican Republic grew into large training academies, and soon major league clubs were maintaining an extensive presence in the Dominican Republic.
Today, more than 400 Dominican teenagers sign with the major league system every year, and Major League Baseball is handing out more than $40 million annually in signing bonuses in the Dominican Republic. Major League Baseball says that it generates $76 million in business annually in the Dominican Republic, and that its teams spend $14.7 million on academies that directly and indirectly provide 2,100 jobs in the country.
But baseball is hungry for top players and the major leagues have created an organization called Major League Baseball International, which hunts the world for players. So far programs in many places, such as Germany and Great Britain, have not yielded much. They have had greater success in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea—where baseball has been played for almost as long as in the Dominican Republic—as well as a number of Latin American countries. Currently there is great excitement about Nicaragua.
The entire international equation could be changed once again by Cuba. It seems a matter of time until the U.S. embargo ends and Cuban players, like Dominicans, will be able to spend part of the year at home and part in the major leagues.
Despite little contact with the major leagues these past 50 years, Cuba has maintained extremely high standards of baseball, producing some of the best players and some of the best teams in the world. Major League Baseball seems certain to welcome them. It remains uncertain where the Dominican Republic would be without a Cuban embargo.
By MARK KURLANSKY
The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303720604575170171909416204.html?KEYWORDS=cuba+baseball
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