Baseball in the DR Article

Bugsey34 · #1 06-30-2002, 11:46 PM

Interesting ideas about the DR in this article... do we think this guy has ever actually been there? Is it the poorest island in the hemisphere????

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...ts/3537168.htm

Tony C · #2 07-01-2002, 12:16 AM

Remember that Haiti makes up part of the island as well. What Island would be poorer? Maybe Tierra Del Fuego!

Tony C.

Hillbilly · #3 07-01-2002, 08:47 AM

Try Trinidad, Saint Vincent, Granada and a flock of others...like Cuba? Puerto Rico (without US aid??)

HB

Pib · #4 07-01-2002, 09:10 AM

Just another example of lousy journalism. Notice how he mentions that Marichal is the Sport Minister. What El Jerko!

And what HB said.

Criss Colon · #5 07-01-2002, 10:17 AM

Most Americans outside of New Your City have no idea where the DR is,let alone anything about the place! Any article that only touches on the poverty,and says that the weather is good,and that the kids try to better themselves is a plus.He didn't say that the country is "corrupt" from top to bottom,no electricity, no water,decent health care,no garbage pick-up,etc.! The majority of the kids have no chance at the "Big Leagues" and will remain poor,just like the "inner-city" black kids in the US who will never get an education,or an NBA contract!CRISCO

Hlywud · #6 07-01-2002, 10:50 AM

I agree, a bunch of crap, this guy has never been to the DR no doubt in my mind and his information is terrible.
Hippo came to celebrate, he stood on the sidelines for a picture, they went to commercial and never showed the 1st pitch by Hippo and never even mentioned playing the DR national anthem.
Since when is may Bartolo Colon the best picture in the American league especially since he is with the Montreal Expo's (National League).
He goes on and on with verbal diarrhea about the first players and the sandlots in the DR, he should visit and see some of the facilities where players are developed, and of course baseball was introduced in by the Yank marines in 1916. LOL.

Pib · #7 07-01-2002, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Criss Colon
He didn't say that the country is "corrupt" from top to bottom,no electricity, no water,decent health care,no garbage pick-up,etc.!

Criss, that's not the point. Because mentioning all of the above would not be terribly relevant to the story and would have made the piece all the worse. I am not a journalist, but I know good journalism when I see it. I don't mind journalists telling the truth about DR. Objective journalism will help in the short, or the long term. What I read is a shallow, feel-good, piece of crap.

Why aren't journalists today held to highest of standards? Because all people want is McDonalds for the brain, and now we have fat, lazy brains too.

Bugsey34 · #8 07-01-2002, 09:32 PM

I was waiting for Atlanta Bob to pipe in since he said "The Dominican" all the time too. Where are ya, Bob?

No way is that the poorest island in the entire western hemisphere Tony C... and it is true that Haiti is part of it, but that's very misleading that snuck Haiti into an article that has nothing to do with it.

The author is a loser probably thinking that he's doing the country a favor (as CC says) by writing sappy $%&@ about poverty. He seems to be justifying for some people the prejudices that they already have by stating that Dominicans that don't make in baseball have to 'find some other way". Oh, OK, that must be why there's so many Dominicans in the USA selling drugs and draining the system, right? What a load of crap.

And what do you do if you're a Dominican woman? Women can't play in the major leagues... that's gotta suck, you would have no future!

bob saunders · #9 07-01-2002, 11:26 PM

There some truesisms in what he says, but the opportunity to get a good education is there for many Dominicans. As far a being poor, yes there are extremely poor people in the DR, but if you look in the good old USA you will find as poor in the Ghettos of every major city.
The poorest place I've been was Guatamala and some parts of Mexico. Most Dominicans are rich in comparison.
In my wifes social circles baseball isn't close to important. Most seem to be bigger soccer and volleyball fans.
My two cents.

Carolina066 · #10 07-02-2002, 12:58 AM

Bob: Statistically speaking, I have heard and read in many places that the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is Haiti and that the DR is second. I thought that the article was a little patronizing, but then too, out in the campos around Azua and Las Matas de Farfan, I have seen the kids with their catcher's mitts made out of milk cartons. As far as the poverty of the DR being equal to the ghettos of the US: I had a kid die in my arms of malnutrition in Azua in 1989 and she was just one of many that we treated in and around that town. I have seen lots of Kwashiorkor (not sure of the spelling) it is a protein deficiency disease especially in the south of the DR. The DR does not have the welfare system, WIC, or the food pantries of the USA, nor medicaid, headstart, etc. I have never seen a home in the USA without plumbing (although I know this exists in West Virginia.
There are still thousands and thousands of homes in the DR with no lights, running water, dirt floors and no sanitation. You may not have seen them, but they are there. Add to that the thousands of Haitian who live in the DR in virtual servitude to the Ingenios and it makes for one very poor country indeed, if only for the sheer numbers of the population.