I grew up in the Dominican Republic and something particular about the country is that baseball is so far integrated into the culture that you just "grow into it". Playing baseball as a kid was just like eating and breathing to me. Something else that's particular is the fact that women like the sport as well. I've yet to find a date that doesn't watch baseball one way or another.
@@TheKNIGHTELFMOHAWK But in Japan there's other sports where they thrive in as well, and have a huge following. Soccer is huge there, sumo is huge there, volleyball is huge there. It feels like DRC only has baseball.
Dominicans born in the states are big on baseball too. My mother in law is Dominican and a RBI baseball coach in NJ. Most players are Dominican, and they even fly kids from DR to play with and against.
I'm Puerto Rican and have been lucky enough to go and play baseball in the DR and watch a winter ball game there too. The environment was electric! This was back in the day when Miguel Tejada had won AL MVP in Oakland, so we're talking almost 25 years ago. But the fans were amazing, so into the game, knew every player's name, the women were into it, I mean it was amazing I'd never seen anything like it. The closest thing I can compare it to is going to a soccer game in Brazil.
@@Marjorie321 that sounds about right to me, it was around that year or maybe the year after we saw him. I still remember he hit a double to the CF-RF gap that sounded like a firecracker when he made contact. Got lucky enough to see Vladimir Guerrero Sr. when he was still young with the Montreal Expos too. That guy could hit anything, never seen anything like it either before or since
This is amazing! As a Dominican kid who grew up playing baseball in the DR I appreciate you guys doing this. To put it simply our parents care more about us doing well on the baseball field than at school. It’s part of our culture and probably one of the first thing you do as a kid after learning how to stand on your feet.
Kind of shocking you didn’t talk about the biggest issue with the academy system. It’s treated as a replacement for school, not just higher education like in the US but grade school too. The only reason the system works is because DR is so poor that it’s better to get an education in baseball than anything academic. That’s the real tragedy of the situation. EDIT: “so poor” includes a lot of the US too guys. It’s the same relationship that DR has with baseball as Mississippi & Alabama have with football. The baseball academy system is a damnation of the state of education across North & Central America, not an opportunity to express the superiority of the US. If anything the state of American sports shows just how bad life & opportunity really is stateside.
Great job, great video. As a Dominican, and as a fan of the sport, thanks for showcasing our country. There is much more to talk about, but this video is part of the spark of those conversations.
For a lot of Dominican families, its a way out of poverty & a way to support their extended family & communities. You're born into it and the love for the game runs in the family for decades. The way players train from the moment they can walk is amazing...which produces these amazing athletes into the pros.
Julio Rodriguez is arguably the most important player to join the Seattle Mariners since Ichiro did from Japan, 23 years ago. Julio has a position of power and respect as one of the most exciting young stars in baseball -I hope he'll join in the effort for fair treatment and pay to his Dominican brothers.
@@tke7749 nah, these owners bring in millions in revenue with every game that's played. they can DEFINITELY afford to pay the Dominican players fairly. fair pay = less yacht parties for the owners. that's it. they're just greedy.
@@matttomo15obody said the owners “can’t” pay them, though. Everything is competitive, so if they can invest cheaper for a greater return, that’ll always be the case whether we like it or not. It’s easy to exploit humans in dire situations.(like offering them anything that sounds life changing to the desperate)
I love that my latino people get the respect and acknowledge they deserve. I’m Mexican and we also love baseball in our country. But it is true that Cubans,and Dominicans are on another level when it comes to baseball.
@@vj7994 El nombre Latin o Latino en el nuevo mundo de America fue dado por el frances Napoleon y Michel Chavelier que llego a America del sur y se encontro con los europeos yl se sentia que estaba en europa, el fue el primero de llamar la parte del Caribe, Centro y Sur, Latino America. Aunque el espanol esta conciderado un lenguaje romance no significa que el que habla espanol es considerado Latino, para nada, somos hispanos de habla espanol y de de varias razas. El verdadero latino existe solo en ADN en Italia y mayorment el Romano de Roma.
I grew up in DR, and raise in the Heights, my brother was born in DR and play minor league for the Marlins, all I want is for him to earn what he deserve for all the hard work and training they do to be the best at the sport
This came out at a perfect time because the home run derby last night was Cuban players vs Dominican players. A Dominican won, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 🇩🇴
@@uliseshernandez3163Randy was born in Cuba. He escaped to Mexico and became a citizen because he enjoyed it there and they treated him well, but he’s Cuban. Born in Cuba
Hey did you guys know Mexico was in the final four on the baseball world championship beating out other countries like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
So happy that Epy Guerrero got his due. He signed so many great Dominican Blue Jays players. The Jays had 3 starting Dominican players in 1985, and set a record for having 6 starting Dominican players in 2013. Tony Fernandez, one of the greatest shortstops of all time, was signed by Epy Guerrero.
Thank you Vox for this beautiful and well-documented video, as a Dominican American living in the USA, I played baseball as a young kid, I feel very proud of what Dominicans bring to the table to the MLB business.
But why can't they put out something like a 30/45 minutes documentary? Maybe about baseball outside the US, like the Caribbean in general, Japan and Taiwan? There's so much to say! Is the attention span of the Vox audience that short that they think people wouldn't watch it? People today spend 2-3 hours watching podcasts on TH-cam (I only listen to them). This shows you this can't be the problem. I also highly doubt that it's a lack of financing. So if anyone from Vox is going to read this (well, I know the chances): People are open for longer uploads! Greetings from someone from Germany, who just found out about the beauty of baseball at 33.
American born however I played against cuban, Venezuelan, Puerto rican, and Dominican over my 20+ years of playing baseball. I must say those boys know how to play. They truly made Me become a great player.
We went to Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 for a mission trip and WOW they love baseball like Argentina 🇦🇷 loves soccer ⚽️…. Kids play baseball there all day everyday they have a passion for the sport. Kids play in all conditions there. Now I see why they are so good they love❤baseball
I loved this perspective on how the sport made it's way to Cuba and the Dominican Republic but it was worth mentioning that the indigenous people of the Caribbean, Tainos, had a sport that was similar to baseball 'Batu', 'Batey', 'Batos'. Although, it was not the same it had a similar structure.
It was not similar at all. The only comparison you can make is that it’s a sport that uses a ball. That’s it. Nothing else was like the sport of baseball Not to mention many say that Batéy was just a simplified version of the Mayan game pok ta pok
As a Dominican baseball fan who knew all these Information, this video is an excellent recopilation, it can even be shown in schools if someone adds subtitles
I would like to see them explain and talk about the history of baseball for the other mayor Latino Country's in baseball like Puerto Rico and Venezuela
In spanish we usually call baseball “El Rey de los Deportes”, “The King of Sports”. The legend says spanish once asked cubans why didn’t the like fútbol, if it was “The sport of the king”, to what the cubans answered “Mi hermano, fútbol might be the sport of the king, but baseball is The King of Sports”. Or so the legend says…
@@LuisRivera-tz5hb Add Japan, Taiwan and in India everything is about cricket (check out the petty Olympic performances of this +1 billion people country). But about the rest you're right. Football is the absolute king of sports by faaaaaar!
When I moved to this country and started going to school, I remember being surprised that there were so many different sports that were offered. In DR, I only ever did baseball and running and the running was mostly for the baseball lol. I started playing baseball for as long as I remember before moving to the US. Till this day, I can still throw a mean curve ball
Japan to baseball is like Brazil to football and Dominican Republic to baseball is like France to football. High end quality talent playing in the big leagues!
😂Without a doubt, the Dominican Republic is the Brazil of baseball, Japan could be Germany. The magic and joy of Dominican baseball, with all due respect, is above that of Japan.
@@noliturs no the japanese baseball are like brazilian football. most wbc and world cup wins with high quality talents. the domincan republic are like france because they to have endless high quality talents all over baseball just like japan but the only difference is that japan has won more than the dom rep. as for the german's baseball quivalent, i'd say umm puerto rico? 🤷♂ usa is england, south korea is mexico and the rests are whatever....
@@1990Thunderboltthe Japanese have never faced the Dominicans and the closest they got to that was losing to Puerto Rico in the semi final and PR advanced to face DR in the final. If the Japanese go head to head with the DR they would lose
It's a easy explaination. Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by American english professor named Horace Wilson at Kaisel Academy. This was during meiji period where the Japan government appointed American foreigners to help modernization. America's baseball culture got spread to Japan and became popular.
The 30 for 30 podcast of the the ESPN show has a great episode on how Japanese players finally got a shot in the MLB after decades of being shackled by the gatekeeping contracts of the Japanese league. The interesting part is you'd expect the episode to highlight Ichiro, but the main character of their story is Hideo Nomo
Now I am curious as well why it wasn't the case in the Philippines. Here, basketball and boxing became way more popular than baseball starting in the 1970s.
Some historical inaccuracies in this video. The ambassador of the United States, James Mark Sullivan (1873 - 1935), was the one that brought baseball to the Dominican Republic. The first game was played in Monte Cristi. Also, there's no way Cuban plantation owners relocated to DR because slavery was already outlawed there and the only few places that slavery still existed to name a few at the time (1860) was in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Brazil.
Pretty sweet. Wow I watched this within 24 hours of being released. This episode was so important at such a crucial time. I love the class perspective that was woven in. I'm a Padres fan and a Chicano and pay attention to issues concerning race and class. I love seeing the Dominican players and the city loves them too. I think Machado is Dominican too. I thought it was interesting when I see ARod, Soto, Big Papi and Guerrero all talking Spanish on the national stage during the All Star game. Thanks Vox!!!
The second half of the century, Puerto Rico was the country that really picked up in terms of sending players to the majors. Dominican players have absolutely exploded since the 1990s however.
As a Japanese, I can say that baseball is part of life in Japan too. When the Japanese national team won the WBC, the whole of Japan went into a big fever. I think Ichiro and Otani are famous in America. However, many players who have reached the major league level want to play in the Japanese league. This is because the Japanese league is the highest peak for the Japanese people, and the passion and support of the fans is greater in Japan than in the United States.
I agree that Japanese baseball fans take baseball way more seriously and way more enthusiastic about it. They’re better and bigger fans than Americans are
From the late 1800 hundreds when Cubans brought baseball to the Dominican republic to early 2000, baseball used to be a truly passionate sport for Dominicans, Growing up in the 90s even men with wife a kids working 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday 10 to 12 hours a day, Used to play baseball on Sunday. Playing like They were trying win a world series'ring. Now is more like a business.
US army also brought baseball with them with they occupied DR in the early 1900s. Dominicans took to baseball and it eventually became an opportunity to get out of poverty. I’ve known and am related to a few Dominican baseball players. One made it, the rest only got as far as the minor leagues. The way basketball and football are popular in poor areas in the US, that’s baseball in DR. Basketball is the 2nd popular sport. There’s two good movies about the journey Dominican players have to make to get to the US. One is called Sugar and the other is a documentary called Pelotero.
@@toneriggz They didn't; how can they bring something that was already here? Because that's what you're implying with your comment, which doesn't make sense at all.
Fernando Tatis Jr said "If you're a boy, If you don't play baseball I don't know where you're from" For me that's DR baseball culture is consist of passion and pride, and for me the special ability especially from the Caribbean continent like DR and others is the "Reflexes" I mean the reflexes of of baseball player especially from DR and other country in Caribbean is unbelievable
No they really only got into the mlb cause black people quit playing why u think Latinos only have a presence in baseball and basketball and football are majority black
One thing I spotted that they forgot to include on the Astro’s team picture is mentioning one específico player… Mauricio dubon which he’s Honduran and idk how vox missed it!
2:53: ⚾ Baseball became a national entity in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, rooted in the working class. 5:24: 🇨🇺 The video discusses the impact of US-Cuba relations on Major League Baseball and the shift to recruiting talent from the Dominican Republic. 8:26: ⚾ Major League Baseball turned its attention to the Dominican Republic in the late 1950s, signing talented players and expanding quickly. 10:32: 💰 The MLB profits from signing Dominican players for cheaper contracts while making millions off of them. Recap by Tammy AI
I visited the DR in 2012. I'm from Boston and of course I had a couple of Red Sox shirts with me. When I wore those shirts people always wanted to talk about the Sox with me. Growing up here I had 2 baseball idols 1 was Luis El Tiante Tiant and the other was Juan Marichal.
are you surprised? vox knows nothing about sports which is why i click on their sports videos to see what they butcher like how they have the charlotte knights (white sox AAA) linked to the rangers, like just the first 30 seconds of the video was tell tale for "we are just quoting wikipedia"
Agreed; some historical inaccuracies in this video. The ambassador of the United States, James Mark Sullivan (1873 - 1935), was the one that brought baseball to the Dominican Republic. The first game was played in Monte Cristi. Also, there's no way Cuban plantation owners relocated to DR because slavery was already outlawed there and the only few places that slavery still existed to name a few at the time (1860) was in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Brazil.
To things in proper perspective, Dominican Republic has 18K square miles and West Virginia has 24K square miles. So DR is only 3/4 as big as WV but produces 11% of all major leaguers.
⚾First of all, I'm so glad to be able to meet and watch this video. I've always wanted to know more about baseball in Latin American countries🌎🇵🇷🇦🇷🇨🇱🇻🇪🇨🇴(also Mexico🇲🇽), such as Cuba🇨🇺, Nicaragua🇳🇮, Panamá🇵🇦 and the Dominican Republic🇩🇴. Basically, how they play it, its history there, their minds of ball-game , play-style, teams, players, stadiums🏟️, academies of the big league and cultures of it are really attractive and an interesting for me. And, in this year, Latin american baseball players play it very well dramatically. The national team of Cuba went to the semifinal of World Baseball Classic2023, and many Major Leaguers from there spend an awesome season, Mr. Camilo Doval🇩🇴, Mr. Adolis Garcia🇨🇺 Mr. Ronald Acuña Jr.🇻🇪, Mr. Luis Robert Jr.🇨🇺, Mr. Yordan Álvarez🇨🇺, Mr. Luis Arráez🇻🇪, Mr. Yandy Días🇨🇺, Mr. Julio Rodríguez🇩🇴, and other superstars.⚾🤩 So, I appreciate you for your video, anyway.❤️⚾👍🤩📱THE ALMENDARES BSEBALL TEAM⚾🇨🇺❤️ Saludos desde Japón⚾🎌
'Dominican' is also the term used to describe people from The Commonwealth of Dominica, in the lower Caribbean region [Windward Islands]. It's known simply as Dominica. No baseball here, just cricket!
The word "Dominican" while spelled the same in English is pronounced differently to distinguish between the two. Dominican (rom the Commonwealth of Dominica): This is pronounced as doh−mih−NIH−Kuhn with the stress on the second syllable from the end, which is typical of English pronunciation. Dominican (from the Dominican Republic): This is pronounced as doh−MIH−nih−kuh with the stress on the middle syllable. EDIT: Fixed it, had it backwards
The other thing is baseball and cricket batting skills are convertable enough that a pair of Jamaican cricket players became MLB outfielders in the 1980s in Rolando Roomes and Devon White.
As a Dominican, I find this video very good. However, although Baseball brings an important amount of dollars to the country, it is by no means one of the major drivers of the economy, neither is agriculture.
Dominican born players definitely bring in more than $400 million a year. DR players are half the league and they’re more than half the talent in the league.
Every neighborhood has at least one field…every boy plays some form of the game…every day you can see boys doing exercises in the streets, beaches, parks…running, homemade weights, dragging old tires with ropes, playing the game. Most large companies have plays next to their factories for kids to use… the entire country loves the game…and for many boys the dream is the MLB
Pretty solid video. Just two notes, it’s not the MLB, it’s just MLB. The other small mistake is that the Charlotte Knights and Texas Rangers have never been affiliated with each other
Im born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Baseball is what you do without thinking about it. Playing “bitalla” or “el que apara la batea” etc was just a thing to do. Second nature. I wasn’t a baseball fan bc I thought it was a boring game and I always leaned more towards full contact sports (rugby, boxing, American football, soccer), but I was so used to playing baseball with my friends and cousins that I tried out for it in college just to have fun and even without having touched a ball in over a decade… I made the starting roster. And I could play almost any position. People thought I was a protege and I was just like “nah… I’m just Dominican”. And I didn’t take it seriously to make it far anyways. But that’s how ingrained baseball is into the culture.
the baseball appreciation & integration into Dominican culture seems very much the same as basketball is in the Philippines. former colony, one sport gets really big & ingrained into the culture. the difference being there are hardly (if any) any Filipinos in the NBA (those who grew up in the Philippines & have their skills developed at home). although we do have mixed heritage players like Jalen Green & Jordan Clarkson...
@@MorningThief_ yeah ive heard cricket is popular in Australia and i have some idea of the sport due to jomboy hehe. I do support any sport except basketball
I grew up in the Dominican Republic and something particular about the country is that baseball is so far integrated into the culture that you just "grow into it". Playing baseball as a kid was just like eating and breathing to me. Something else that's particular is the fact that women like the sport as well. I've yet to find a date that doesn't watch baseball one way or another.
Don't forget about vitilla.
Wow... I'd love to have a girlfriend who was into Baseball... I can't imagine that...
I feel like it’s the same for Japan. Like baseball is huge in Japan
@@TheKNIGHTELFMOHAWK But in Japan there's other sports where they thrive in as well, and have a huge following. Soccer is huge there, sumo is huge there, volleyball is huge there. It feels like DRC only has baseball.
Dominicans born in the states are big on baseball too. My mother in law is Dominican and a RBI baseball coach in NJ. Most players are Dominican, and they even fly kids from DR to play with and against.
I'm Puerto Rican and have been lucky enough to go and play baseball in the DR and watch a winter ball game there too. The environment was electric! This was back in the day when Miguel Tejada had won AL MVP in Oakland, so we're talking almost 25 years ago. But the fans were amazing, so into the game, knew every player's name, the women were into it, I mean it was amazing I'd never seen anything like it. The closest thing I can compare it to is going to a soccer game in Brazil.
Facts
This is a real comment that add value to the conversation
Miguel tejada won the MVP in 2002. But you are right, l used to know the names of each player of each team.
@@Marjorie321 that sounds about right to me, it was around that year or maybe the year after we saw him. I still remember he hit a double to the CF-RF gap that sounded like a firecracker when he made contact. Got lucky enough to see Vladimir Guerrero Sr. when he was still young with the Montreal Expos too. That guy could hit anything, never seen anything like it either before or since
🇵🇷👍
This is amazing! As a Dominican kid who grew up playing baseball in the DR I appreciate you guys doing this. To put it simply our parents care more about us doing well on the baseball field than at school. It’s part of our culture and probably one of the first thing you do as a kid after learning how to stand on your feet.
It's like basketball and football in America depending on where you live for Black Americans.
I went to DR back in 2014. As the plane landed, I looked out the window and saw nothing but baseball fields.😂
Literally
😂😂 I was thinking about that as well. Must be fun asf to have the stadium be available to everybody
Sounds like heaven
😂
I can confirm that🤣🤣
Kind of shocking you didn’t talk about the biggest issue with the academy system. It’s treated as a replacement for school, not just higher education like in the US but grade school too. The only reason the system works is because DR is so poor that it’s better to get an education in baseball than anything academic. That’s the real tragedy of the situation.
EDIT: “so poor” includes a lot of the US too guys. It’s the same relationship that DR has with baseball as Mississippi & Alabama have with football. The baseball academy system is a damnation of the state of education across North & Central America, not an opportunity to express the superiority of the US. If anything the state of American sports shows just how bad life & opportunity really is stateside.
Interesting 🤔
vox act like they really know it all and leave out crucial stuff classic
I mean every country except for the US and Canada treat there sports like that. Soccer/football, eu basketball and cricket is the same
Americans.
D.R. so poor?
Don't even look to Haiti, the country Next to D.R...
Great job, great video. As a Dominican, and as a fan of the sport, thanks for showcasing our country. There is much more to talk about, but this video is part of the spark of those conversations.
yea I'm also Dominican
For a lot of Dominican families, its a way out of poverty & a way to support their extended family & communities. You're born into it and the love for the game runs in the family for decades. The way players train from the moment they can walk is amazing...which produces these amazing athletes into the pros.
Julio Rodriguez is arguably the most important player to join the Seattle Mariners since Ichiro did from Japan, 23 years ago. Julio has a position of power and respect as one of the most exciting young stars in baseball -I hope he'll join in the effort for fair treatment and pay to his Dominican brothers.
He definitely will. I mean he bought his hometowns first ambulances
Julio!!! should’ve made this cut, cmon! Superstar. GO M’s
a big reason why there is so many DR players is because how cheap they can pay them.. fair pay = less DR players, sorry to say
@@tke7749 nah, these owners bring in millions in revenue with every game that's played. they can DEFINITELY afford to pay the Dominican players fairly. fair pay = less yacht parties for the owners. that's it. they're just greedy.
@@matttomo15obody said the owners “can’t” pay them, though. Everything is competitive, so if they can invest cheaper for a greater return, that’ll always be the case whether we like it or not. It’s easy to exploit humans in dire situations.(like offering them anything that sounds life changing to the desperate)
I love that my latino people get the respect and acknowledge they deserve. I’m Mexican and we also love baseball in our country. But it is true that Cubans,and Dominicans are on another level when it comes to baseball.
No hablamos latín y no somo del Lacio Italia, así que no somos latinos y no necesitamos la aprobación estadounidense para ser alguien.
@@AlejandroDaniel531???hablas español que es una lengua romance así que eres latino.
@@vj7994 El nombre Latin o Latino en el nuevo mundo de America fue dado por el frances Napoleon y Michel Chavelier que llego a America del sur y se encontro con los europeos yl se sentia que estaba en europa, el fue el primero de llamar la parte del Caribe, Centro y Sur, Latino America. Aunque el espanol esta conciderado un lenguaje romance no significa que el que habla espanol es considerado Latino, para nada, somos hispanos de habla espanol y de de varias razas. El verdadero latino existe solo en ADN en Italia y mayorment el Romano de Roma.
@@mannyrodriguez5453no importa nosotros hablamos un idioma de romance. Un idioma derivado por el latín de los romanos
@@AlejandroDaniel531tu eres europeo para ser latino? Somos hispanos americanos que hablamos español (latin) busca bien o preguntale a un español .
I grew up in DR, and raise in the Heights, my brother was born in DR and play minor league for the Marlins, all I want is for him to earn what he deserve for all the hard work and training they do to be the best at the sport
This came out at a perfect time because the home run derby last night was Cuban players vs Dominican players. A Dominican won, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 🇩🇴
Plátano power 💪🏼
Correction: Dominican Vs Mexican player, ✅
@@uliseshernandez3163Randy was born in Cuba. He escaped to Mexico and became a citizen because he enjoyed it there and they treated him well, but he’s Cuban. Born in Cuba
He is a Mexican national treasure
Hey did you guys know Mexico was in the final four on the baseball world championship beating out other countries like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
Baseball is a lifestyle in DR, believe or not I'm half Japanese and half Dominican that's all we did as kids.
Bro, if you have that mixture and you aren't into Baseball, I'm pretty sure the fabric of time itself would rip.
Well I played for about 2 years when I was a kid and got bored of it, last time I watched baseball was in 2013 when the Red Sox won@@DekaiDekaiDekai
@@DekaiDekaiDekaijajaja
So happy that Epy Guerrero got his due. He signed so many great Dominican Blue Jays players. The Jays had 3 starting Dominican players in 1985, and set a record for having 6 starting Dominican players in 2013. Tony Fernandez, one of the greatest shortstops of all time, was signed by Epy Guerrero.
Thank you Vox for this beautiful and well-documented video, as a Dominican American living in the USA, I played baseball as a young kid, I feel very proud of what Dominicans bring to the table to the MLB business.
But why can't they put out something like a 30/45 minutes documentary? Maybe about baseball outside the US, like the Caribbean in general, Japan and Taiwan?
There's so much to say! Is the attention span of the Vox audience that short that they think people wouldn't watch it?
People today spend 2-3 hours watching podcasts on TH-cam (I only listen to them). This shows you this can't be the problem.
I also highly doubt that it's a lack of financing.
So if anyone from Vox is going to read this (well, I know the chances): People are open for longer uploads!
Greetings from someone from Germany, who just found out about the beauty of baseball at 33.
American born however I played against cuban, Venezuelan, Puerto rican, and Dominican over my 20+ years of playing baseball. I must say those boys know how to play. They truly made Me become a great player.
"This is the Major Leagues Rafi, we are all from the Dominican Republic."
😂 A man of culture I see.
Just watch out for the celebration slapassss
😂😂😂😂😂
We went to Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 for a mission trip and WOW they love baseball like Argentina 🇦🇷 loves soccer ⚽️…. Kids play baseball there all day everyday they have a passion for the sport. Kids play in all conditions there. Now I see why they are so good they love❤baseball
República Dominicana es un paraíso hermoso, vi un libro de fotografías en Amazon sobre este país lleno de preciosas fotos!
I loved this perspective on how the sport made it's way to Cuba and the Dominican Republic but it was worth mentioning that the indigenous people of the Caribbean, Tainos, had a sport that was similar to baseball 'Batu', 'Batey', 'Batos'. Although, it was not the same it had a similar structure.
It was not similar at all. The only comparison you can make is that it’s a sport that uses a ball. That’s it. Nothing else was like the sport of baseball
Not to mention many say that Batéy was just a simplified version of the Mayan game pok ta pok
Should put football in Dominican Republic
@@JERSEYBOYPLAY2HARDnah they’re not big enough baseball rules
As a Dominican, I say the MLB and American People Always Welcome in DR :) ; Baseball is our passion
Some of them don’t like us so don’t bother inviting
AS DOMINICAN MY SELF WEJUST PLAY BASEBAIL WE DONT KNOWHOW TO WRITE OR READ WE JUSY PLAY BASEBAWE LOVE
As a Dominican baseball fan who knew all these Information, this video is an excellent recopilation, it can even be shown in schools if someone adds subtitles
I would like to see them explain and talk about the history of baseball for the other mayor Latino Country's in baseball like Puerto Rico and Venezuela
No
Luego
Venezuela would be interesting
In spanish we usually call baseball “El Rey de los Deportes”, “The King of Sports”.
The legend says spanish once asked cubans why didn’t the like fútbol, if it was “The sport of the king”, to what the cubans answered “Mi hermano, fútbol might be the sport of the king, but baseball is The King of Sports”. Or so the legend says…
No one call baseball the king of sports, liar
@@neyou6940 Are you mexican? I don't think so. Here it is commonly referred as it. So until you come to Mexico, shut up.
That’s only in the Caribbean😂 you and everyone knows “the king of sports” is soccer all over the world
@@LuisRivera-tz5hb Add Japan, Taiwan and in India everything is about cricket (check out the petty Olympic performances of this +1 billion people country).
But about the rest you're right. Football is the absolute king of sports by faaaaaar!
We are proud of our players, baseball is the most popular sport in the country. Gracias a esos jugadores por poner nuestra bandera en alto 🇩🇴🇩🇴💪💪
When I moved to this country and started going to school, I remember being surprised that there were so many different sports that were offered. In DR, I only ever did baseball and running and the running was mostly for the baseball lol. I started playing baseball for as long as I remember before moving to the US. Till this day, I can still throw a mean curve ball
I liked the neo-colonial comparison of Dominican players to natural resources waiting to be extracted and manufactured. Truly brilliant.
I like the way they ignored african genetics
@@NAT-turners-Revenge what do you mean?
@@NAT-turners-Revengewhat are you talking about
@@NAT-turners-RevengeJapan is way better than us Dominicans at baseball? Do they have African genes?
@@Krepo4he can’t even explain what he meant. What a moronic statement
Japan to baseball is like Brazil to football and Dominican Republic to baseball is like France to football. High end quality talent playing in the big leagues!
😂Without a doubt, the Dominican Republic is the Brazil of baseball, Japan could be Germany. The magic and joy of Dominican baseball, with all due respect, is above that of Japan.
@@noliturs no the japanese baseball are like brazilian football. most wbc and world cup wins with high quality talents. the domincan republic are like france because they to have endless high quality talents all over baseball just like japan but the only difference is that japan has won more than the dom rep. as for the german's baseball quivalent, i'd say umm puerto rico? 🤷♂ usa is england, south korea is mexico and the rests are whatever....
@@1990Thunderboltthe Japanese have never faced the Dominicans and the closest they got to that was losing to Puerto Rico in the semi final and PR advanced to face DR in the final. If the Japanese go head to head with the DR they would lose
Proud Dominican over here!
That was a great video! I'd be curious to know also how the sport made it to Japan and became so big.
Read "You gotta have wa" by Robert Whiting
It's a easy explaination. Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by American english professor named Horace Wilson at Kaisel Academy. This was during meiji period where the Japan government appointed American foreigners to help modernization. America's baseball culture got spread to Japan and became popular.
Even in South Korea, baseball is as popular as soccer there drawing thousands and thousands of fans.
The 30 for 30 podcast of the the ESPN show has a great episode on how Japanese players finally got a shot in the MLB after decades of being shackled by the gatekeeping contracts of the Japanese league.
The interesting part is you'd expect the episode to highlight Ichiro, but the main character of their story is Hideo Nomo
Now I am curious as well why it wasn't the case in the Philippines. Here, basketball and boxing became way more popular than baseball starting in the 1970s.
Some historical inaccuracies in this video. The ambassador of the United States, James Mark Sullivan (1873 - 1935), was the one that brought baseball to the Dominican Republic. The first game was played in Monte Cristi. Also, there's no way Cuban plantation owners relocated to DR because slavery was already outlawed there and the only few places that slavery still existed to name a few at the time (1860) was in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Brazil.
Pretty sweet. Wow I watched this within 24 hours of being released. This episode was so important at such a crucial time. I love the class perspective that was woven in. I'm a Padres fan and a Chicano and pay attention to issues concerning race and class. I love seeing the Dominican players and the city loves them too. I think Machado is Dominican too. I thought it was interesting when I see ARod, Soto, Big Papi and Guerrero all talking Spanish on the national stage during the All Star game. Thanks Vox!!!
Of course, Machado is Dominican, ex Yankees fan here and San Diego fans right now. Lol
29 American teams + 1 Canadian
The second half of the century, Puerto Rico was the country that really picked up in terms of sending players to the majors. Dominican players have absolutely exploded since the 1990s however.
Roberto Clemente
Get over it lloricua.
Thank you for connecting the dots of this incredibly interesting history! Great video!
Because baseball is our favorite sport. We played for the love of the game.
Shoutout to Vox for the piece. Luis Aloma was my abuelo. An absolute baller on and off the field
Genial, two things I love, baseball and my culture :)
As a Japanese, I can say that baseball is part of life in Japan too. When the Japanese national team won the WBC, the whole of Japan went into a big fever. I think Ichiro and Otani are famous in America. However, many players who have reached the major league level want to play in the Japanese league. This is because the Japanese league is the highest peak for the Japanese people, and the passion and support of the fans is greater in Japan than in the United States.
True
JAPAN IS NOT COOL OR HIP PLACE
The DR is too poor and small to have a league as enticing as the US or Japan.
I agree that Japanese baseball fans take baseball way more seriously and way more enthusiastic about it. They’re better and bigger fans than Americans are
@@rickc.9664we got a League for years its call lidom
Is so refreshing and so nice to watch your work guys, that even an unexpected topic can become super enjoyable.
From the late 1800 hundreds when Cubans brought baseball to the Dominican republic to early 2000, baseball used to be a truly passionate sport for Dominicans, Growing up in the 90s even men with wife a kids working 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday 10 to 12 hours a day, Used to play baseball on Sunday. Playing like They were trying win a world series'ring. Now is more like a business.
Loved this episode! Is it possible to know more about the history of baseball in other Latin American countries like Colombia or Venezuela?
US army also brought baseball with them with they occupied DR in the early 1900s. Dominicans took to baseball and it eventually became an opportunity to get out of poverty. I’ve known and am related to a few Dominican baseball players. One made it, the rest only got as far as the minor leagues. The way basketball and football are popular in poor areas in the US, that’s baseball in DR. Basketball is the 2nd popular sport.
There’s two good movies about the journey Dominican players have to make to get to the US. One is called Sugar and the other is a documentary called Pelotero.
The Cubans brought it; did you even watch the video? Our oldest professional baseball team (Licey) was founded years before the Americans invaded.
@@ulisesjorge Did you? She also mentions the US occupation.
@@toneriggz yes but you missed the point, the Cubans brought it way before.
@@diddypablo2006 I didn’t miss any point. Hence why I used the word “also”. You missed “also”.
@@toneriggz They didn't; how can they bring something that was already here? Because that's what you're implying with your comment, which doesn't make sense at all.
As a baseball fan now I get it!!
Anyway they are so talented
Cuba too😅
@@redacted5035 I know I know🤣
I meant everyone
As a country baseball means the world to us is more than just a sport .
Fernando Tatis Jr said "If you're a boy, If you don't play baseball I don't know where you're from" For me that's DR baseball culture is consist of passion and pride, and for me the special ability especially from the Caribbean continent like DR and others is the "Reflexes" I mean the reflexes of of baseball player especially from DR and other country in Caribbean is unbelievable
No they really only got into the mlb cause black people quit playing why u think Latinos only have a presence in baseball and basketball and football are majority black
"OWED A LOT OF MONEY TO EUROPE" HMM WONDER HOW THAT HAPPENED
Whities be whiting everywhere they go
Im BANKing on you getting a response to this inquiry
Loans weren’t paid back
It’s called dedication and commitment ✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿
Probably for the same reason many MLB players come from California and Florida. They have good weather 12 months a year
Ding. Ding. Ding.
I am very familiar with the baseball industry in DR and this video is 100% accurate.
It’s just that we’re always on top 🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴
Dominicana y Liceísta hasta la tambora, que viva el Béisbol Dominicano y que viva la República Dominicana 🇩🇴
🐅🐅🐅🐅🐯
🦅
Because we are very talented 🇩🇴 and thanks to the major leagues for giving my Dominicans and open door to shine!
Indeed african genetics
@@NAT-turners-Revenge 👍🇩🇴
What a beautifully made video. Thank you for sharing this information and the history of it.
It makes me happy to see Dominicans in the spotlight for a bit😊
My kid ain’t going to school he gonna practice baseball his whole life like these guys
One thing I spotted that they forgot to include on the Astro’s team picture is mentioning one específico player… Mauricio dubon which he’s Honduran and idk how vox missed it!
Well he’s not Dominican so he’s irrelevant to this video
Baseball in DR isn't only a sport is a feeling, we love Baseball
2:53: ⚾ Baseball became a national entity in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, rooted in the working class.
5:24: 🇨🇺 The video discusses the impact of US-Cuba relations on Major League Baseball and the shift to recruiting talent from the Dominican Republic.
8:26: ⚾ Major League Baseball turned its attention to the Dominican Republic in the late 1950s, signing talented players and expanding quickly.
10:32: 💰 The MLB profits from signing Dominican players for cheaper contracts while making millions off of them.
Recap by Tammy AI
I visited the DR in 2012. I'm from Boston and of course I had a couple of Red Sox shirts with me. When I wore those shirts people always wanted to talk about the Sox with me. Growing up here I had 2 baseball idols 1 was Luis El Tiante Tiant and the other was Juan Marichal.
A dominant country indeed
I used to play there in the Dodgers organization Campo de las Palmas . Love the DR!!
You forgot Mauricio Dubon (Honduras) and Martin Maldonado (Puerto Rico) in the latino breakdown graphic of the Houston Astros.
are you surprised? vox knows nothing about sports which is why i click on their sports videos to see what they butcher like how they have the charlotte knights (white sox AAA) linked to the rangers, like just the first 30 seconds of the video was tell tale for "we are just quoting wikipedia"
You are right, but the topic is why there so many DR players in mlb not Latin player as a whole…
@@estilhernandez2705 if they higlight urquidy and altuve, then they should highlight them too, they also forgot yainer diaz
I love this video and point it out the passion we have for baseball in DR 🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴 and a shout out to lose tigueres de licey 🐯🐯💙💙
Very interesting video. It would have been nice to hear directly from experts on the topic who are actually Dominican.
Agreed; some historical inaccuracies in this video. The ambassador of the United States, James Mark Sullivan (1873 - 1935), was the one that brought baseball to the Dominican Republic. The first game was played in Monte Cristi. Also, there's no way Cuban plantation owners relocated to DR because slavery was already outlawed there and the only few places that slavery still existed to name a few at the time (1860) was in the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Brazil.
Thank you for this support to The Dominican Republic..
To things in proper perspective, Dominican Republic has 18K square miles and West Virginia has 24K square miles. So DR is only 3/4 as big as WV but produces 11% of all major leaguers.
Yes now cause black people quit playing
They didn't start to really get Latin players intill most black people quit playing
You have to consider that the DR has 11 million people and West Virginia doesn’t reach 2 million people
@@Shel230 Most of them have african genetics 😁
@@NAT-turners-Revenge is that information relevant in this conversation?
7:45 That is not Trujillo, that is Jose Enrique Aybar the person in charge.
⚾First of all, I'm so glad to be able to meet and watch this video. I've always wanted to know more about baseball in Latin American countries🌎🇵🇷🇦🇷🇨🇱🇻🇪🇨🇴(also Mexico🇲🇽), such as Cuba🇨🇺, Nicaragua🇳🇮, Panamá🇵🇦 and the Dominican Republic🇩🇴. Basically, how they play it, its history there, their minds of ball-game , play-style, teams, players, stadiums🏟️, academies of the big league and cultures of it are really attractive and an interesting for me. And, in this year, Latin american baseball players play it very well dramatically. The national team of Cuba went to the semifinal of World Baseball Classic2023, and many Major Leaguers from there spend an awesome season, Mr. Camilo Doval🇩🇴, Mr. Adolis Garcia🇨🇺 Mr. Ronald Acuña Jr.🇻🇪, Mr. Luis Robert Jr.🇨🇺, Mr. Yordan Álvarez🇨🇺, Mr. Luis Arráez🇻🇪, Mr. Yandy Días🇨🇺, Mr. Julio Rodríguez🇩🇴, and other superstars.⚾🤩 So, I appreciate you for your video, anyway.❤️⚾👍🤩📱THE ALMENDARES BSEBALL TEAM⚾🇨🇺❤️ Saludos desde Japón⚾🎌
Look up the video about Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson playing in the Dominican Republic by KiskeyaLife. It's unbelievable that story.
'Dominican' is also the term used to describe people from The Commonwealth of Dominica, in the lower Caribbean region [Windward Islands]. It's known simply as Dominica. No baseball here, just cricket!
The word "Dominican" while spelled the same in English is pronounced differently to distinguish between the two.
Dominican (rom the Commonwealth of Dominica): This is pronounced as doh−mih−NIH−Kuhn with the stress on the second syllable from the end, which is typical of English pronunciation. Dominican (from the Dominican Republic): This is pronounced as doh−MIH−nih−kuh with the stress on the middle syllable.
EDIT: Fixed it, had it backwards
@@ulisesjorge my point was not on the pronunciation of the COUNTRIES, but the PEOPLE from the countries. They are BOTH called DOMINICANS!
@@ulisesjorge you got those pronunciations exactly backwards.
The other thing is baseball and cricket batting skills are convertable enough that a pair of Jamaican cricket players became MLB outfielders in the 1980s in Rolando Roomes and Devon White.
They are also less than 100k people, nobody cares
im dominican and growing up here and playing baseball is as common as playing tag or hide and seek.
As a Dominican, I find this video very good. However, although Baseball brings an important amount of dollars to the country, it is by no means one of the major drivers of the economy, neither is agriculture.
tourism outweighs everything haha
@@ericmoralesfishingOOO. NOT TOURISM SORRY. NUMBER ONE SOURCE IS TRADE ZONE. NUMBER 2 IS REMITTANCE. THEN 3 AGRICULTURE, THEN 4 IS TOURISM.
Hasta lagrima me saco este documental 🇩🇴😢
Please make a video why in Japan and South Korea baseball is so big too
Wao, tremendo vídeo histórico, debe realizar la segunda parte, me encanto
"This is the MLB, we are all from the Dominican Republic"
🇨🇺🫱🏻🫲🏽🇩🇴 we have to say thank you to our Cubans brothers for the game of baseball ⚾️
Brotherhood to the end
The United States versus the Dominican Republic it’s a battle to who controls the game… Japan 🇯🇵 enters the chat 💬 😅
Fantastic! Please more sports on Vox Atlas!
The one on France’s soccer stars in the banlieus and Gazprom on soccer shirts we’re both very good 🎉
Because they’re amazing!!
Dominican born players definitely bring in more than $400 million a year. DR players are half the league and they’re more than half the talent in the league.
They are 11% of the league.
If you fly over the DR you’ll see it. Baseball fields everywhere
Every neighborhood has at least one field…every boy plays some form of the game…every day you can see boys doing exercises in the streets, beaches, parks…running, homemade weights, dragging old tires with ropes, playing the game. Most large companies have plays next to their factories for kids to use… the entire country loves the game…and for many boys the dream is the MLB
Vox talking about important real world topics!
Pretty solid video. Just two notes, it’s not the MLB, it’s just MLB. The other small mistake is that the Charlotte Knights and Texas Rangers have never been affiliated with each other
Kinda like Brazil in soccer except a much smaller country.
I can't believe it. I have been thinking about this over last 2 weeks, and now you make a new video about it. How can it be true?)
The US imports success
Success it generates by replacing education with baseball.
Imports success and exports terror 😂
This is missing a whole lot, but I enjoyed what you put out. Thank you.
One mistake you guys made, the Charlotte Knights are affiliated to the Chicago White Sox, not the Texas Rangers.
Yeah, they've been affiliated with the Orioles, Marlins and Cleveland as well. Never Texas.
Im born and raised in the Dominican Republic. Baseball is what you do without thinking about it. Playing “bitalla” or “el que apara la batea” etc was just a thing to do. Second nature. I wasn’t a baseball fan bc I thought it was a boring game and I always leaned more towards full contact sports (rugby, boxing, American football, soccer), but I was so used to playing baseball with my friends and cousins that I tried out for it in college just to have fun and even without having touched a ball in over a decade… I made the starting roster. And I could play almost any position. People thought I was a protege and I was just like “nah… I’m just Dominican”. And I didn’t take it seriously to make it far anyways. But that’s how ingrained baseball is into the culture.
the baseball appreciation & integration into Dominican culture seems very much the same as basketball is in the Philippines. former colony, one sport gets really big & ingrained into the culture. the difference being there are hardly (if any) any Filipinos in the NBA (those who grew up in the Philippines & have their skills developed at home). although we do have mixed heritage players like Jalen Green & Jordan Clarkson...
How i wish our fellow Filipinos see baseball same with DR. Its more fun to watch and play baseball than basketball though its a matter of opinion.
@@Lime-uu4qj I can see myself getting into baseball, but right now, I prefer cricket. Living in Australia for more than 2 decades will do that.
@@MorningThief_ yeah ive heard cricket is popular in Australia and i have some idea of the sport due to jomboy hehe. I do support any sport except basketball
The difference is that Filipinos never make it to the NBA for the most part. They are just big fans.
The Philippines used to be good in baseball but basketball surpassed it. The reason is probably because the equipment use in baseball are expensive.
Now do one on Japan please!
Japan is far from this. You got good players its not close yet.
Great video
Great job guys in covering sports in this way?
Cause we them boys 🇩🇴
This reminds me of the the key and Peele skit ..🤣🤣🤣
Link
And we’re soo damm good at it 😌🇩🇴
Proud to be 🇩🇴❤️🔥
The first Dominican player reached the major leagues in 1954...❤ so we Dominicans are a established household name in the majors league!
My usual comment: Atlas is the best thing Vox produces. Looks like you've taken over from Sam and you're doing a fantastic job
I love baseball