Dominican Republic Sports & Education Academy

The accelerated signings of Dominican baseball prospects, coupled with a record signing bonus by the Texas Rangers, appears to be an indication that Major League Baseball teams have increasing faith that efforts to curb age and identity fraud in the Dominican Republic are working.
The $5 million signing bonus given 16-year-old Nomar Mazara eclipses the $4.25 million awarded Michael Ynoa by the Oakland A’s in 2008, and was one of several $1 million-plus bonuses awarded young Dominican players after the July 2 date when 16-year-olds are eligible to be signed. The Rangers also signed Ronald Guzman, a 16-year-old outfielder, for $3.45 million. Among other notable Dominican signings reported:

• Elier Hernandez, OF – Kansas City Royals, $3.05 million
• Helsin Martinez, OF – Seattle Mariners, $2 million
• Adalberto Mondesi, SS – Kansas City Royals, $2 million
• Dawel Lugo, SS – Toronto Blue Jays, $1.3 million
• Enrique Acosta, SS – Chicago Cubs, $1.1 million
• Dorssys Paulino, SS – Cleveland Indians, $1.1 million
• Raymel Flores, SS – Boston Red Sox, $900,000
• Manuel Marcos, OF – Boston Red Sox, $800,000
• Miguel Andujar, 3B – New York Yankees, $750,000
• Adelin Santa, 3B – Detroit Tigers, $750,000
• Luis Reynoso, SS – Houston Astros, $700,000
• Miguel Gonzalez, RHP – Minnesota Twins, $650,000
• Dioscar Romero, RHP – Boston Red Sox, $600,000
• Francisco Miguel, OF – Cleveland Indians, $200,000

Rangers Ronald Guzman was among top Dominican signees

This does not include agreements reached with players from other countries including Venezuela, Columbia and Panama. International signing bonuses topped $100 million last year and speculation is that when signings are completed this year, they will exceed that total. All signings are subject to the approval of MLB’s Commissioner’s Office.

The signings appear to reflect calmer waters in the Dominican baseball ocean after more than a year of tempests that tossed the sport in the country, threatening to undermine its integrity. Widespread allegations of age and identity fraud made many teams cautious in their pursuit of Dominican prospects.

In the wake of the allegations, as well as reports of steroid use by prospects and money skimming charges, baseball launched a major reform movement, beefing up investigations into the fraud, and instituting several measures to curb it, including the use of fingerprints to positively identify prospects, a process advocated in the INFORMER two years ago.

Jorge Perez-Diaz

Jorge Perez-Diaz, a lawyer from Puerto Rico who now oversees the baseball reform movement in Latin America, told the Wall Street Journal that MLB teams have been subject to “an unreasonable amount of fraud and use of drugs” among Dominican prospects. “We needed to do this to make the industry sustainable here for the long-term,” he said.

My mind still boggles over handing a 16-year-old Dominican kid so much money without putting in place better programs to help them handle their new-found wealth.  Such large sums of money are life changing, but in the hands of the uneducated, as so many prospects are, it is tantamount to putting a loaded gun in their hands. Without supervision the results can be tragic.

Baseball will tell you that financial planning is provided these youngsters, but my belief is that it is insufficient in teaching them how to wisely protect their money, make sound investments for their future and that of their families, and prepare for a life without baseball, which is the fate of 98 percent.  The average signing bonus is around $100,000, and once an “agent” has taken his cut – usually around one-third – the “take home” is reduced.  I know of far too many Dominican prospects who have been handed more money than they can imagine, and within a short time are penniless, having spent the money as if it flowed from an eternal fountain, providing for family that has known only poverty and has been handed a taste of la buena vida.

The same happens to American athletes as well; teenagers suddenly transformed into millionaires, but most are better prepared to deal with the trappings of wealth.  When the DRSEA recently designed an educational program for a development academy here, we first conducted extensive diagnostic tests designed to determine the ability to do such simple things as interpret safety signals, use maps to identify home towns, locate information in television and movie listings, and identify driving regulations.  The majority had very limited ability to read and comprehend numbers, letters and simple words and phrases related to those needs, let alone manage money.

As baseball continues its reform movement, particularly with regards to education for prospects, I think it is critically important that teams provide more intensive financial advice, including budgeting, investments and long-range planning, helping them prepare for the day when a career in baseball is no longer an option – whether they are among the lucky few who have been handed millions or the majority whose riches, at best, are a few thousand dollars.  Wealth is subjective; managing it is not.

And while there is significant proof that Major League Baseball has made strides in addressing age and identity fraud, the problem has not been resolved, as evidenced by the recent suspension of Cincinnati Reds prospect Jonathan Correa for a year for lying about his age.

MLB determined the pitcher supplied an incorrect birth date when he signed in 2008.  Adding to his misdeeds is that after signing, Correa was suspended for 50 games for steroid use.

Las firmas aceleradas de contratos por prospectos peloteros dominicanos, las cuales incluyen un bono récord logrado por los Guardabosques de Texas, parece señalar que la fe creciente por parte de los equipos de las Grandes Ligas del Béisbol para frenar el fraude de edad e identidad en la República Dominicana es fehaciente y que tales esfuerzos salen bien.

El bono de cinco millones que se le dio a Nomar Mazara de 16 años de edad eclipsa los 4,25 millones otorgados a Michael Ynoa por los Atléticos de Oakland en 2008. Fue uno de varios bonos de más de 1 millón de dólares concedidos a un jugador dominicano después del 2 de julio, fecha desde la cual y en adelante los jóvenes de 16 años eran eligibles para firmar contratos. Los Guardabosques también firmaron a Ronald Guzmán, un  jardinero de 16 años, por 3,45 millones. Entre otras firmas de jugadores dominicanos figuran:

• Elier Hernández, Jardinero – Royals de Kansas City, $3,05 millones
• Helsin Martínez, Jardinero – Marineros de Seattle, $2 millones
• Adalberto Mondesi, Parador Corto – Royals de Kansas City, $2 millones
• Dawel Lugo, Parador Corto – Arrendajos Azules de Toronto, $1,3 millones
• Enrique Acosta, Parador Corto – Cachorros de Chicago, $1,1 milllones
• Dorssys Paulino, Parador Corto – Indios de Cleveland, $1,1 millones
• Raymel Flores, Parador Corto – Medias Rojas de Boston, $900.000
• Manuel Marcos, Jardinero – Medias Rojas de Boston, $800.000
• Miguel Andújar, Tercera Base – Yankees de Nueva York, $750.000
• Adelin Santa, Tercera Base – Tigres de Detroit, $750.000
• Luis Reynoso, Parador Corto – Astros de Houston, $700.000
• Miguel González, Lanzador Derecho – Mellizos de Minnesota, $650.000
• Dioscar Romero, Lanzador Derecho – Medias Rojas de Boston, $600.000
• Francisco Miguel, Jardinero – Indios de Cleveland, $200.000

Ronald Guzman, de los Rangers, fue uno de los Dominicanos firmado.

No se enumeran los contratos celebrados con jugadores de otros países, incluso Venezuela, Colombia y Panamá. Los bonos internacionales por firmar superaron $100 millones el año pasado y se especula que en cuanto se completen las firmas este año, sobrepasarán ese monto. Todas las firmas estarán sujetas a la aprobación de la Oficina del Comisionado de las Grandes Ligas

Por lo visto las firmas reflejan aguas más tranquilas en el océano pelotero dominicano al cabo de un año lleno de tempestades que lanzaron el deporte acá y allá, amenazando a minar su integridad. Unas alegaciones del fraude de edad e identidad hicieron que muchos equipos actúaran con precaución con respeto a su obtención de prospectos.

En vísperas de las alegaciones y los informes revelando el uso de esteroides y acusaciones del desfalco monetario, el béisbol lanzó un movimiento principal de reforma, fortaleciendo las investigaciones del fraude a la vez. También entabló medidas para contenerlo, entre ellas la utilización de huellas dactilares para acertar la identidad de prospectos, un proceso defendido en el INFORMER hace dos años.

Jorge Perez-Diaz

Jorge Pérez-Díaz, abogado de Puerto Rico que supervisa actualmente el movimiento de reforma en la América Latina, informó al Wall Street Journal que los equipos de Grandes Ligas han estado sujetos a “una cantidad excesiva de fraude y consumo de estupefacientes” entre los prospectos dominicanos. “Era necesario llevar a cabo esto para hacer la industria sostenible aquí a la larga,” dijo.

Me quedo patidifuso que se le pueda dar a un joven dominicano de 16 años tanto dinero sin implementar mejores programas que les ayuden a manejar su riqueza recién adquirida. Tales cantidades cuantiosas de dinero le cambian la vida a uno, y una vez llegadas en las manos de los

no instruidos, como la mayor parte de los prospectos, esto equivale a entregarles un arma de fuego cargada. Sin nadie que les supervise, los resultados pueden ser trágicos.

El béisbol les hará saber a Uds. que la planificación financiera se les provee a estos jóvenes, pero yo creo que carece de enseñarles cómo proteger su dinero de manera prudente, cómo realizar inversiones inteligentes para su futuro y el de sus familias, y prepararse para la vida fuera de la pelota, lo cual es el destino para un 98 por ciento. El bono promedio es alrededor de $100.000, y una vez que un agente haya sacado el suyo, el cual suele ser aproximadamente un tercio, sus ingresos netos son reducidos. Conozco demasiados prospectos dominicanos a quienes se les han dado más de lo que son capaces de manejar, y dentro de un plazo corto quedan sin nada, habiendo gastado la plata como si hubiera fluido de una fuente eterna, manteniendo una familia que únicamente conoce la pobreza y a la cual se le ha dado un primer contacto con la  riqueza.

Lo mismo les sucede a los atletas norteamericanos también; los adolescentes transformados de repente en millionarios, pero la mayor parte son mejor equipados para tratar con el boato de la riqueza. Cuando la DRSEA diseñó un programa educativo últimamente con el objetivo de establecer una academia para el desarrollo aquí, llevamos a cabo primero unos exámenes diagnósticos diseñados a determinar la habilidad de realizar tareas sencillas, tales como la interpretar señales de seguridad, utilizar mapas para identificar pueblos natales, localizar datos en la cartelera de cine y de televisión, e identificar los reglamentos del tránsito. La mayoría tuvo una capacidad muy limitada de leer y comprender números, letras y palabras sencillas y frases relacionadas con esas necesidades, y aún menos manejar el dinero.

A medida que el béisbol sigue su movimiento de reforma, con énfasis en los estudios para los prospectos en particular, creo que es imprescindible que los equipos les proporcionen más consejos sobre la planificación financiera, incluso cómo presupuestar, invertir y planificar a largo plazo. En fin, ayudarles a prepararse para cuando su carrera pelotera no les sea una opción, que se encuentren entre los pocos dichosos a quienes les han brindado millones o entre aquella mayoría cuyas riquezas que, al máximo, llegan a unos cuántos miles de dólares. Mientras que la riqueza es subjetiva, manejarla no lo es.

Además, como existen suficientes pruebas que apoyan los esfuerzos realizados por Grandes Ligas para tratar el fraude de edad e identidad, el problema no se ha resuelto. Esto se reflejó en la suspensión reciente del prospecto Jonathan Correa de los Rojos de Cincinnati por haber mentido referente a su edad.

Las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol determinaron que el lanzador entregó una fecha de nacimiento incorrecta al firmar en 2008. Una fechoría siguió otra para Correa, cuando después de firmar fue suspendido por 50 partidos por consumir esteroides.

Traducido por Arthur Calvano

Henry Louis Gates

About a year ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the United States’ pre-eminent African American scholars, strolling in Columbus Park near my home.  He told me he was working on a documentary on blacks and Latinos; he has written about the uneasy relationship between the two, so I was very interested in what the documentary would reveal, particularly given my circumstances in the Dominican Republic.

I got to watch parts of his documentary series, Black in Latin America, where he looked at race and black culture in the Caribbean and South America, including the Dominican Republic, and he is now writing a book of the same name to expand on the series.  But recently an excerpt from the book appeared and gave me great pause as Gates declared that Dominicans are in denial with claims that they are anything but black.

He begins with this premise – “The most important question that this book attempts to explore is this: what does it mean to be “black” in these countries? Who is considered “black,” and under what circumstances, and by whom in these societies, the answers to which vary widely across Latin America in ways that will surprise most people in the United States.

“Few people (in the Dominican Republic) self-identify as black or Negro; rather, a wide majority of Dominicans –  most recently 82 percent in a federal census – designate their race as indio, while only 4.13 percent designate themselves as black. And I wanted to understand why.”

What surprised me is Gates would try to force-feed a racial ID on a country with a history older than the United States; people sometimes forget that Christopher Columbus landed here, and never set foot in any part of what is now the USA.

Columbus Park in Santo Domingo

I do agree with him that the “African American Experience” is shared by the Dominican Republic and the United States,  including the history of slavery in which both became melting pots of Europeans, Africans and native people. Santo Domingo can actually claim the dubious distinction of being the first city in the New World to bring slaves from Africa, in 1502.  Between then and 1866, 11.2 million Africans were “imported” to the Americas.  Of those, only 450,000 were destined for what would become the United States of America.

Black slaves left their indelible mark on the Dominican Republic, staging the first slave rebellion in 1522, and today the faces of so many Dominicans bare evidence of that African ancestry.   In fact, 90 percent of Dominicans have some level of African bloodlines.

But the Dominicans I know do not consider themselves as black – at least not as I define myself, and others in the United States characterize themselves.  As Gates indicates, they call themselves indio, referring more to the color of their skin as being reflective of a total ancestry and not a single one, as being the indigenous people of the country.

I have personally seen Dominican siblings with the same mother and father; one sister fair-skinned with blond hair and blue eyes, the other dark complexion with curly, black hair.  In the U.S., one would be identified as white; the other black, with no familial connection.  Here, the genetic makeup of the nation produces so many such exotic combinations that they are commonplace.

In the United States, Barack Obama is identified as our black president; in reality, his mother is white, his father African. He is tabbed with a racial identity that is born of centuries of labeling people with even a drop of African blood as black, whether the person accepts it or not.

Gates would have Dominicans accept the same pigeonhole, and when you look at so many of the people here  –  they do look like him and me –   you understand his perspective.  It just doesn’t fit in this case.

César Gerónimo in his playing days

My friend, César Gerónimo, a former big leaguer, has described to me his early days in America, playing baseball in the rural South, and being identified as “black,” and enduring the racial epithets that went with that. But he also had the double identity of being “Latino,” he said, further marginalizing him in a country that loves to marginalize along racial and cultural lines.

There have been numerous occasions in my time here that people have insisted that I must be Dominican, or at least my lineage somehow connected to the country.  I know now that they base their assumption on my complexion and the freckles that run in my family, concluding, quite correctly, that there are some people of non-African ancestry who climbed my family tree.

I think that rather than Dominicans being in denial that they are black, they refuse to classify themselves by just one race, to ignore the genetic sancocho that makes them uniquely Dominican, further united by culture, language and geographical proximity.

“Yo soy Dominicano,” is what they proudly declare. And that is as it should be.

The Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2011 is an eclectic group to say the least, honoring oddball Dennis Rodman, Lithuanian Arvydas Sabonis, ABA pioneer Artis Gilmore, Harlem Globetrotters legend Reece “Goose’ Tatum, and Tex Winter, architect of the triangle offense.

But the top of the class, in my opinion, is Thomas “Satch” Sanders, a standout with the Boston Celtics who entered the Hall in recognition for “significant contributions to the game of basketball.”

I was privileged to get to know Satch when we both worked at the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University.  I, of course, knew of his fame on the basketball court, but I got to know the man, for which I am truly fortunate.

Satch was always the voice of reason at the Center, able to see both sides of any argument.  He never raised his voice or lost his demeanor; he was always cool, calm and collected.  Satch favored bow ties, which loaned him both sartorial and professorial splendor.

He never bragged about his playing days, but did give us insights to the environment he and others endured.  He told us how he was initially offered a $5,000 contract to play with the Celtics; he was able to negotiate it up to $8,000, a regal sum in those days, but necessitating the need to work in the off season.

Satch Sanders during his playing days

Satch told us how teammate Bob Cousy, “Mr. Basketball” of the Celtics, was once offered $5,000 for a personal appearance.  When The Cooz turned down the offer, Bill Russell, who went on to become the first African American coach in the National Basketball Association, was offered the same opportunity – for $500.  Russell rejected the offer like he rejected opponents’ jump shots.

Satch also told us about the entire team rebelling when black players were provided inferior accommodations to those of their white counterparts, leading to improved uniformity in those conditions.

Satch spent his entire 13 year career with the Celtics and was part of eight championship teams in 1961-66, 1968 and 1969. In NBA history, only teammates Russell and Sam Jones won more championship rings during their playing careers. He ended his career in 1973.

Despite playing in an era when black players were at best under appreciated, Satch bore no ill will.  He coached the Celtics briefly and also had a stint as the basketball coach at Harvard.  After his coaching career, Satch helped create the NBA’s Rookie Transition Program, aimed at helping players adjust to life in professional basketball, and established the league’s player programs division.

As I watched the Basketball Hall of Fame inductions, my eyes welled with tears when Satch strode to the podium, humble in his thanks for the honor bestowed him.  No one deserved it more.