"The Cycle" - Jose Bautista, The Players Tribune

[TwistedLogic]

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I'm trying to hand the phone to my teammates and they’re looking at it like it’s a bomb. I go to toss it to one of them and

he puts his hands up.

 

“No, no.”

 

I go to hand it to another guy and he shakes his head. I look around the room and all five guys are looking at me like I’m

crazy.

 

I’m finally like, “Will somebody just order this freaking pizza?”

 

Nobody wanted to take the phone. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was my first night at extended spring training

in Bradenton, Florida, after getting drafted. I had spent all day signing paperwork, so it was about 7 p.m. and the cafeteria

was closed. I started walking to my car to go grab some fast food when I heard a familiar sound coming from one of the

dorm rooms: Spanish with the Dominican accent. I popped in to introduce myself and started talking with the guys. One of

them mentioned he was starving. I’m like, “Didn’t they feed you guys?” They explained to me that the last meal is at 5 p.m.

and they always got hungry again at night. These were young minor leaguers making next to nothing. They didn’t have a

car, so they had gotten really good at hoarding extra stuff from the cafeteria at dinner and taking it back to the dorm room

— bananas, PB&J sandwiches, Snickers bars, whatever.

 

Since I was the new guy and I had just signed my first deal, I thought it would be nice for me to order pizza for everybody.

This was 2001, so no online ordering. I found a place in the phone book and I was like, “Alright, I don’t know what toppings

you guys like on your pizza, so you call it in and order whatever you want.”

 

That’s when the guys started looking at me funny. I dial the number and I’m trying to hand the phone off. Blank stares.

 

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Finally, one of the guys said, all embarrassed, “Man, we don’t speak English. You better call or it’s going to take all

six of us passing the phone around to know enough English words to order.”

 

That was a reminder of just how tough it is for Latin American players to overcome the language barrier and make

it in Major League Baseball. If you’re reading this as an American with a good job, imagine you’re 17 years old again,

just starting to chase your dream. Only you’re in China. You’re away from everyone you know. You have three years

to prove to people you can make it in your job. Oh, and all your managers speak Chinese. They give you a room

with three other Americans and the only thing in it is toilet paper.

 

And you don’t even speak enough of the language to be able to order a pizza.

 

I really enjoyed Andrew McCutchen’s piece about what it’s like to grow up as a low-income kid chasing his Major

League dreams in America. It was really interesting to me that he looked at kids growing up in the Dominican with

envy, because they were able to sign pro contracts at 16, and get the money their families so desperately need. It

inspired me to talk about what it’s like on the other side of the coin.

 

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I was extremely fortunate to grow up middle class in Santo Domingo, but I was in the minority. Most of the kids I

grew up playing with were from extreme poverty. Their houses often had dirt floors. They couldn’t afford basic

necessities like three meals a day, let alone baseball cleats. In the Dominican Republic, the whole dream of going

to college, getting a good paying job and working for 40 years is just that — a dream. It’s not reality. In Third World

countries, those options don’t exist for most people. You hear that sob story a lot though, right? You’re almost blind

to it. And when those poor kids go on to sign a professional baseball contract, it’s like winning the lottery. The rea-

lity is a lot more complicated.

 

So here’s how it goes down if you’re a talented kid in the Dominican Republic: At age 12 or 13, you’ll be recruited

to play at one of the many baseball academies across the country. “Academy” makes it sound like a school. Most

of them are more like baseball farms. Your family signs a piece of paper for consent and you’re pulled out of school

to go train at sparse facilities in the middle of nowhere. They’re not regulated. They’re private institutions run by

guys called “buscones” — part trainers, part agents. You sleep in these big empty rooms filled with bunk beds. You

do two things: You play baseball and you sleep. There are no books, no computers, maybe one old TV. Before you’re

a teenager, your education is over. You are almost brainwashed to think of nothing but baseball.

 

If this sounds depressing, then you’re coming at it from a First World perspective. These kids wouldn’t have it any

other way. They have one way out. They’re the lucky ones. They still have a small chance at a better life. By age 16,

they’re eligible to be signed by a MLB franchise, as Andrew mentioned in his piece. For most guys, even the smallest

signing bonus alone can change families’ entire lives, relatively speaking. A person with a four-year business degree

who works as a bank manager in the Dominican might make $1,500 a month. As a minor league prospect, you can

make $1,500 or more. Once you move to an official MLB training facility in the Dominican, your life improves. You

sleep in a college dorm-style room with maybe four or five other guys instead of 10. There’s usually a computer lab

with Internet and a video game system. You also start getting fed the right way. You get three square meals a day

and proper weight training instruction, which in the DR means you’re better off than most kids your age.

 

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But what those kids don’t get is an education. MLB has made major strides in the last 10 years in building facilities

in my country, but every year, hundreds of prospects fizzle out of baseball and head back into the real world with

nothing to show for the thousands of hours they’ve devoted to this game.

 

The statistics are eye-opening. Less than half of those signed to academy contracts in the Dominican make it to

America to play rookie ball. Only 25 percent make it to Class A. Only about 3 percent will ever take an at-bat in the

Major Leagues.

 

This is the proposition presented to many Dominican families: Have your child give up school at age 12 for a 3 percent

chance to play in the Majors. And they do it happily and willingly. Because there is no other choice. Can you imagine

walking into a sixth grade PTA meeting and presenting that choice to American parents?

 

I can already hear the people on Twitter shouting, “So what? I’d beg for the opportunity to do that for free.”

 

And those people are totally right. Those kids feel the same way. In my 30 years playing baseball, I have never heard

a single guy say, “You know what? That was unfair. Somebody forced me into this life. This isn’t what I wanted to do.”

 

It’s their only way out.

 

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But here’s the difference between you and them: Most of those kids are released back into the world with a sixth

grade education — something that is not just unthinkable but illegal in America. What are they supposed to do, go

back to sixth grade at age 20? They don’t have any technical skills. They can’t be an electrician or a mechanic.

They’ve spent 10 years of their life being only one thing: a baseball player.

 

Many leave the game broke because of the obligation to send money back home to help their parents, siblings,

cousins — sometimes their entire family. A lot of times people forget that once these players signs a deal, their

whole family looks to them as the provider. It’s a lot of responsibility for a 16-year-old kid to take on.

 

(Not to mention unregulated business arrangements with buscones, but that’s a more complex story.) Baseball

gives them a way out but most of them don’t make it, and they’re spit back out into poverty. It’s a vicious cycle.

 

And that’s where most kids from the Dominican envy even the poorest American kids. In the DR, you can’t even

get a job at McDonald’s without a high school diploma. While the real dream is to make it to the majors, a lot of

these prospects eventually realize that they’re not going to get there, and then it’s survival mode — stick around

the minor leagues long enough and apply for U.S. citizenship, or find a regular job in the U.S. that will still allow

them to send enough U.S. dollars back home to change their family’s station in life.

 

There has to be a better way. While MLB has come a long, long way since the early 2000s, we can still do better.

Teams should make it a priority to provide these kids with a structured education, or at the very least professional

and language skills. Right now, some teams are trying, but there’s no standard across the board. The Arizona

Diamondbacks recently started offering a program that allows prospects to obtain a high school diploma while

training at their Dominican academy. The important thing is that prospects who have been released by the team

are also allowed to complete the program.

 

All 30 teams should offer similar free programs.

 

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The easy thing to do is say that there’s simply no time. Any Major League baseball player will tell you that’s not the

truth. If there’s a surplus of something in baseball, it’s down time. There’s only so much you can work out in a day,

especially when you’re 16 or 17 years old. These kids spend eight hours a day playing and training at the academies,

and then they spend the rest of their day on social media and playing videogames. Why not make the most of that

time and require English classes or computer training so that when 97 percent of these kids wash out of the game,

they have viable job skills to fall back on after baseball?

 

MLB as a whole could really stand to benefit from making education just as important as nutrition and strength

training. I’m not just talking about from a PR or moral standpoint. It makes business sense, too.

 

I can’t tell you how many times in my career I witnessed a Latin American player develop an unfair reputation strictly

because of a language barrier or cultural differences. Now teams are really smart about employing assistant coaches

in the minor leagues who speak Spanish, but the language barrier still causes problems. When I was coming up, as a

bi-lingual player, I was constantly being called in to meetings with players to translate conversations between coaches

and players. The simplest misunderstandings would take 10 minutes to explain.

 

Many times, I overheard managers saying that a player was lazy or stubborn, and I was blown away because I knew

that baseball was everything to the guy. He just had no idea what he was being asked to do. He didn’t know the

manager was telling him to take extra batting practice or do a drill a certain way, and then I’d step in and explain in

Spanish and the player would be like, “Oh! Sorry, sorry. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! Better tomorrow.”

 

Then everyone would be happy. But what would’ve happened if I had come into the room 10 minutes later and not

stumbled onto that conversation? If the player wasn’t a top talent, he probably would’ve been branded as lazy or

arrogant or been released.

 

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The language barrier goes deeper than just on-the-field confusion. I’ve witnessed the inability to communicate result

in guys being too scared to go to the training room when they’re injured out of fear that they’d get told on and be

released. Minor issues would develop into career-ending injuries as guys played through pain, simply because they

didn’t fully understand how the system worked.

 

MLB has made huge strides in the past decade to address the communication gap, but there’s still a huge opportunity

here. If teams poured significant energy into creating a practical education system for those players at 16 and 17

years old, how many amazing careers would be saved? And how many millions of dollars for the teams? More

importantly, think of the improvement in the quality of life for the hundreds of players each year who don’t make it.

 

This issue isn’t going away. With the recent developments in relations between Cuba and the United States, there

are literally millions of Cuban children who will soon be presented with the same dream as Dominican kids. It’s up

to us in Major League Baseball to look at those kids as human beings and not just prospects.

 

All of us in baseball have the same weakness: we become obsessed with numbers. There’s a tendency to look at

players as a collection of digits behind decimal points. What’s this kid’s OBP against lefties? What’s his ceiling? Is

he the next Ken Griffey Jr.? Is he the next … ?

 

These are children.

 

It should be just as important to teams that a 16-year-old Dominican kid can read a book as it is that he can read

a sign from the third base coach.

 

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[bendera3]

I think that offering an education to these guys to go along with their baseball training makes so much sense. I don't think it would take THAT much time away from baseball and I think it would make the transition to the states a lot easier.

[GreekFatAss]

Its sad and very much a problem but its not just up to MLB to solve an entire regions social issues. There is no realistic way of convincing a business of investing in something they might not be able to see much of a return in unless they partner with local governments and established players to work together to pool resources to enact structural and legal changes. MLB can pay some bills but they can't outlaw exploitation in 3rd world countries.

[bendera3]

Its sad and very much a problem but its not just up to MLB to solve an entire regions social issues. There is no realistic way of convincing a business of investing in something they might not be able to see much of a return in unless they partner with local governments and established players to work together to pool resources to enact structural and legal changes. MLB can pay some bills but they can't outlaw exploitation in 3rd world countries.

 

I agree but I think realistically teams educating their players is returnable. I'm not sure about the location of all the teams facilities but I imagine they are all relatively close. If the cost for each team is too much build an educational facility for three or four teams and invest in your employees. Successful employers invest in their employees who then can benefit the organizations they work for.

[GreekFatAss]

I agree but I think realistically teams educating their players is returnable. I'm not sure about the location of all the teams facilities but I imagine they are all relatively close. If the cost for each team is too much build an educational facility for three or four teams and invest in your employees. Successful employers invest in their employees who then can benefit the organizations they work for.

 

I can't see how any business entity is allowed to sign and provide education for children as young as 12 while teams would wish to educate communally that they would then later have to compete over for service.

 

Imagine being the one team who invests the money time and effort to developing these kids for all those years to have a team like the Yankee's come in and poach all that talent from under you.

 

Realistically it has to be outlawed in those countries for kids to be pulled from school for stuff like this and force them to have to complete highschool to play pro ball (there is something MLB can do). Although I suspect that in many cases they would just forge those credentials.

[Angrioter]

And after that, you continue making fun of my Mexican accent.

[TwistedLogic]

I could see them maybe caving and doing something like this for the PR, but I'm not gonna put hopes into an organization that has been starving it's minor leaguers forever. Hopefully the teams themselves realize the kind of difference they can make and put that step forward themselves, like the Diamondbacks did.

[Deadpool]

I think Bautista definitely has enough clout in Toronto to get the Jays on board with this type of thing, and the Jays really seem like the type of organization that would embrace that.

 

Also, if they're one of the first teams offering that sort of benefit to kids, it might encourage some more signings, so win/win!

[burlingtonbandit]

I still can't believe almost all MLB teams don't have proper nutrition for their players in the minors. For something that would only cost like 500k and has a massive benefit it still blows my mind they feed these kids peanut butter sandwiches before games.

[BigBounceyBlueBalls]

Ya what dead said, it's right said Fred ! Agreed, all in favor, passed!

[bendera3]

I can't see how any business entity is allowed to sign and provide education for children as young as 12 while teams would wish to educate communally that they would then later have to compete over for service.

 

Imagine being the one team who invests the money time and effort to developing these kids for all those years to have a team like the Yankee's come in and poach all that talent from under you.

 

Realistically it has to be outlawed in those countries for kids to be pulled from school for stuff like this and force them to have to complete highschool to play pro ball (there is something MLB can do). Although I suspect that in many cases they would just forge those credentials.

 

I'm not talking about kids that young. I'm talking more about players the teams have already signed and they are under the umbrella of an organization. It could basically be like a GED course.

[Spanky99]

If you guys liked this write-up by Bautista, you should checkout the baseball movie, "SUGAR" it follows a kids life and shows much of what these kids trials and tribulations along the way to NA from the DR, Ang steered me to watch this about 5 years ago, it's certainly one of the best baseball movies I've ever watched, a true eye opener. Excellent flick.

 

http://www.google.ca/url?q=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0990413/&sa=U&ei=mSglVbmxHszzsAXF1oOQBQ&ved=0CBMQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNG8gZ9cFIyiq94AeH9TIfNRST8ejg

 

There's also "Paletero" that I've been meaning to watch as it's on Netflix at the moment, rated 5 stars by Rotten Tomatoes, should be great.

[Spanky99]

P.S. Thanks TL for posting this, much appreciated.

[dineke]

I can't see how any business entity is allowed to sign and provide education for children as young as 12 while teams would wish to educate communally that they would then later have to compete over for service.

 

Imagine being the one team who invests the money time and effort to developing these kids for all those years to have a team like the Yankee's come in and poach all that talent from under you.

 

Realistically it has to be outlawed in those countries for kids to be pulled from school for stuff like this and force them to have to complete highschool to play pro ball (there is something MLB can do). Although I suspect that in many cases they would just forge those credentials.

 

Don't European soccer clubs sign 12 year olds all the time?

[VegaBond]

Surprised as to why this thread is not going off, oh right when we discuss things that affect us we just want to ignore it. Problem solved. I love society what is new.

 

If this was a post about Jose Bautista telling us about his experience going to a strip club with Jose Reyes and Encarnacion, members on this forum would ape s*** with conspiracy theories based on no facts.

[Jayday]

Surprised as to why this thread is not going off, oh right when we discuss things that affect us we just want to ignore it. Problem solved. I love society what is new.

 

If this was a post about Jose Bautista telling us about his experience going to a strip club with Jose Reyes and Encarnacion, members on this forum would ape s*** with conspiracy theories based on no facts.

 

Whatevah are you talking about ?

[Spanky99]

Surprised as to why this thread is not going off, oh right when we discuss things that affect us we just want to ignore it. Problem solved. I love society what is new.

 

If this was a post about Jose Bautista telling us about his experience going to a strip club with Jose Reyes and Encarnacion, members on this forum would ape s*** with conspiracy theories based on no facts.

 

lol

[Sorrow]

I still can't believe almost all MLB teams don't have proper nutrition for their players in the minors. For something that would only cost like 500k and has a massive benefit it still blows my mind they feed these kids peanut butter sandwiches before games.

 

Ehh when I played I ate like s*** before games. I'd easily eat 1-1.2k calories of something like tacos before a game, the rest of the week I'd eat green leafy veg and saturated fatty meats and eggs.