Dominican Republic Sports & Education Academy's second annual "Making A Difference In The Dominican Republic" event honors MLB executive Lou Melendez

This Friday, June 29, The Dominican Republic Sports and Education Academy (DRSEA) will host its second annual gala in New York City, and honor longtime MLB executive Lou Melendez. The event is co-hosted by the DRSEA, along with the Juan Pablo Duarte Foundation, the New York Dominican Officers Organization, and Dominicans on Wall Street.

Melendez is retiring after 29 years with Major League Baseball. He spent 17 years as a lawyer in the MLB Labor Department, and the last 12 years as vice president of international operations. In that capacity he opened the MLB office in the Dominican Republic in 2000, and since then has worked with player education and community outreach in the Dominican Republic.

Melendez will be a panelist for the event's discussion on Dominican baseball, as will DRSEA co-founder Charles S. Farrell, along with several other panel guests.

Mr. Farrell has worked with diversity and equity in sports for many years. He is a founder at Sports Perspectives International and directed Rainbow Sports, a division of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. He has testified before Congress on racial equity in sports and been published many times on the issue. Mr. Farrell first worked with MLB on Dominican baseball in 2000 and then again in 2004.

In a phone conversation with the Dominican Baseball Guy, Mr. Farrell recalled those first conferences and why he decided to start the DRSEA. “The first question that prospects asked was ‘how do I open a bank account?’ After that my partner Harold [Mendez] and I came up with the concept for an academy, and our end goal was that education is the critical thing.

“We figured we could use these guy’s baseball skills to get them into colleges, and even if they did not make it in baseball, they would have the education and could return to the Dominican Republic and be leaders of their communities.”

Mr. Farrell moved to the Dominican Republic in 2008 to work full time on getting the DRSEA off the ground. “We developed an education program for the DRSEA that includes English, math, history, but also critical thinking and the ability to analyze information effectively. The culture shock [for a Dominican player coming to the US] in itself can be horrendous. Anything you can do to help educate them to help make decisions on their feet is a positive.”

Farrell feels that MLB and baseball investors have the responsibility to help educate their Dominican prospects. “Any entity that invests $125 million into a community has a responsibility to do something positive. They are getting a lot out of the country, so I think education is the least they can provide for the players. And only the Pirates have a mandatory education program for Dominican prospects.”

Farrell hopes MLB teams continue to improve educational aspects fo their development programs, but he is not going to wait around on the teams.  The DRSEA plans to provide high level high school educations to Dominican baseball prospects. The goal is to open in September. The DRSEA plans to share facilities with a local school and a local baseball academy until they raise enough money to have their own facilities.

Farrell wants kids to realize that both baseball and education are options:

We are looking for that kid whose objective is to get an education AND play baseball. That’s really our goal is to develop top-notch college players, and if they reach a level where they can play professionally then fine. We want them to have the option like US high school players that get drafted. They can choose to go strait to the minor leagues, or they can say ‘I want to go to college and play and get my education and then go to the professional ranks.’ Isn’t it great to have that option?

Farrell is excited about the possibilities DRSEA can bring to Dominican youth ballplayers. He is also ready for the event in New York on Friday: “It is a two-fold event, to have a moment to honor Lou Melendez, and a critical discussion about what is going on in Dominican Baseball.”

The mission of the DRSEA is "to educate young and gifted student athletes in the Dominican Republic, help develop their baseball skills and give them the tools to success in life on and off the field." The DRSEA aims to prepare boys to have the opportunity for college scholarships through its educational programs. Please visit the DRSEA website for more info on the conference and/or to make a donation.

Dominican players in Astros system learning English

This is becoming a trend.  As every single team now has a Dominican baseball academy where they send recent signees from the Dominican Republic and other Latin countries, lately it seems that most MLB teams have cultural development programs to educate these players in English and American cultural mores.

The Astros are perhaps one of the most advanced organization when it comes to developing Latin baseball players.  They have been in Latin America for several decades and were one of the first teams to open an academy in Venezuela, before moving their Latin operations to the Dominican Republic.  Two years ago, the team opened a brand new facility in Santo Domingo, the Capital of the Dominican Republic.

Doris Gonzalez was recently hired as Astros’ coordinator of player acculturation and language development. In this position she creates programs to educate Dominican and Latin players in English and in life skills.  According to Gonzalez:

These kids have not experienced a lot of things that we are so used to on a day-to-day basis over here because some of them come from extreme poverty,” she said. “I feel like this program is to not just teach basic English, but to create a complete program that is going to help these players feel part of the culture.

Players are required to attend classes daily and are fined if they do not attend, just like if they miss practice.  While these programs are new and players may have been resistant in the past because they wanted to focus exclusively on baseball, the current generation of player understands the need to develop skills that will help them after their playing career is over. 

According to Edison Frias, a Dominican pitcher in the Astros system, "it helps us not just in baseball, in sports, because baseball isn’t permanent."

Dominican teen reflects on Dominican baseball and his new life in America

A group of immigrant high school students in Boston recently wrote essays reflecting on their new lives in America. One of those to write an essay was Edwin Soto, a Dominican Republic native.

Soto loves his new life in Boston and he loves baseball. However, according to Soto, the Dominican Republic "is the way it is" because of baseball:

All of those kids, they drop out of high school, and they think that if they play baseball that means that they’re going to make it. And that’s not the reality.

If young ball players in the Dominican Republic do not make it in baseball, then they really have no other options because most drop out of school to pursue baseball. To the contrary, American baseball players can play throughout high school and then college, and if they do not make it to the professional ranks then at least they have an education and can pursue other career options. In his essay, Soto says that he knows many boys from his home town that dropped out of school to pursue baseball. He wishes them well, but knows the odds are long.

While Soto does not plan to pursue a baseball career, he appreciates everything that the United States has given him as a knew immigrant. Soto says Americans do not necessarily appreciate the fact that they have hot water and electricity whenever they want it.  The Dominican Baseball Guy understands his thinking on this.  I had electricity maybe 6 hours per day during my time following the Gigantes in 2009 and took cold showers everyday in my small apartment...I was just happy to have running water.

He also says that most Dominicans think that the United States is just New York.  The Dominican Baseball Guy does not know how many times he has had that conversation with Dominicans in the Dominican Republic: O, you are from the United States, so you are from New York? --> No, I come from another state called Texas. --> O, so you are from New York. --> Yea, whatever, I am from New York.

So, The Dominican Baseball Guy can relate to Soto and other Dominican immigrants. Soto hopes to attend college and perhaps be a firefighter.  He is certainly wise beyond his years in understanding the implications of being an immigrant and of Dominican baseball players pursuing baseball careers.

Dominican baseball academies: place to learn baseball and English too

Most followers of the Dominican Baseball Guy, or Dominican baseball in general, know that the Dominican baseball academies of the MLB teams are an important part in the development of Dominican prospects.  Every team now has an academy in the Dominican Republic.

The original point of the Dominican baseball academies was to develop the baseball skills of young Dominican players.  And the academies have done a pretty good job at that over the last twenty plus years.

But recently the need to teach young Dominican players life skills and English has been moved to close to an equal field with the players developing their on-field game.  The Dominican Republic and MLB recently signed an agreement that put forth the steps and the infrastructure necessary to educate young players on English and cultural differences between the Dominican Republic and the United States.  The agreement also allows for the creation of vocational programs to teach Dominican prospects other job skills in case a career in baseball does not work out.

So, the government of the Dominican Republic and MLB seem to be moving in a good direction in regards to educating their Dominican prospects.

More evidence that MLB and their teams are making an effort to better prepare their Dominican players for a life after baseball: a Northeastern University student recently served as an intern with the Red Sox in their Dominican baseball academy, and worked as an education consultant.

Roberto Lavin served as a translator, English teacher, and cultural consultant for the Red Sox Dominican prospects.  According to Lavin, learning English was a focus for all the Red Sox prospects, but especially for catchers:

“The Red Sox would always talk about how essen­tial Eng­lish is for all posi­tion players, but to a catcher, Eng­lish is really a neces­sity,” he explained. “I worked closely with young catchers, tutoring them fre­quently and sim­u­lating catcher-​​pitcher mound interactions.”

But the focus was not only on learning English.  Cultural anthropologists, such as the Dominican Baseball Guy, know the importance of learning about a culture before someone is thrust into a new country and culture full force.  Dominican prospects face culture shock and may have ethnocentric views that inhibit their assimilation into a new culture.  That is where education consultants such as Roberto Lavin serve an important role in the Dominican academies.  Eddie Romero, the Red Sox director of international scouting spoke to this:

“Roberto did a ter­rific job of assisting our young Latin players in not only learning Eng­lish, but also in preparing them for the Amer­ican cul­ture once they got to the States,” said Eddie Romero, the Red Sox director of inter­na­tional scouting.

The Dominican Baseball Guy feels that MLB teams have made a great effort in these regards.  The majority of teams now have a coordinator of cultural immersion for Latin players.  And most prospects that spend some time in a Dominican baseball academy are more prepared to live in the United States, and/or work in a field outside baseball, than they were before entering the academy.  While the teams could spend more money and hire more staff in these areas, the league has come a long way in this regard and seems to be on the right track to grow these programs, as the international presence of the game grows.

Dominican Republic and Major League Baseball sign deal on education of Dominican baseball players

The education of prospects has long been a dilemma for Major League Baseball.  This issue only became more complicated when teams started to expand their operations internationally.  Until recently teams generally had no formal educational component to the development of their players.

Slowly, the league and the teams have started to implement programs to educate their players in formal education, as well as off-field issues.  At this point it is mainly language classes and some cultural orientation classes.  Dominican baseball players are some of the most hard hit in this lack of education for several reasons.

Many Dominican players are signed before they even finish high school.  Even if they remain in school, the primary and secondary educational systems in the Dominican Republic leave a lot to be desired.  Lots young Dominicans discontinue their formal education after grade school and enter the workforce, whether they are playing baseball or not.  So, it would not be uncommon for players to eschew schooling in favor of more baseball practice.

But, the fact is the majority of Dominican baseball players signed to an MLB team will not make the major leagues.  So, some sort of education is very beneficial to the whole of Dominican baseball players in the teams Dominican baseball academies.  Even if they make it to play in Major League Baseball, formal education will help them future in business transactions, etc.

The Dominican Republic and Major League Baseball just signed an agreement that will move this bar of education even further than it has been set in recent years.  The new agreement includes Major League Baseball, the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Labour, the Dominican National Institute of Technical and Vocational Training, and the Cyber Park technology free zone.

The program will provide education for players in the Dominican baseball academies, and will create a registry of those enrolled in the academies. It will include English classes and other formal education, but also vocational training. It is a good step, and will give Dominican baseball players other options, should their baseball careers not work out.