Why is Baseball So Popular in The Dominican Republic? (Solved)
I can’t believe I haven’t written anything about baseball on this website until now…I say this because as of today I have written over 200 topics and this is the first baseball topic I’m going to write about.
My beginnings as a writer go back to the Dominican winter baseball forums, from there I wrote for several websites some articles as an analyst, at that time I was writing for fun.
Here is one of the first blog projects I did more than a decade ago…wow, how time flies!
https://dominicanprospectcorner.blogspot.com/
But this topic is not about me, it is about the sports and cultural phenomenon known as baseball in the Dominican Republic, this country has been the origin of some of the best players in the world, and to this day continues to produce great baseball stars.
But why is the sport so popular in the Dominican Republic and what is so special about the country that produces so many great MLB players?
Here are the main reasons.
Contents
How did the popularity of baseball in the Dominican Republic begin?
In the Dominican Republic, baseball was made popular by sugar cane planters who came from Cuba to escape the ten-year war between Cuba and Spain during the 1870s. The planters promoted baseball among the plantation workers to encourage them.
With the dictatorship of General Rafael Trujillo in 1930, he acquired one of the most popular teams in Santo Domingo (the Tigres de Licey) to further control the national economy.
Since then, baseball in the Dominican Republic was encouraged by the same president and dictator, bringing to the country players like Joshua Gibson, the famous Negro League slugger, one of the best catchers and home run hitters in the history of baseball and hall of fame, Gibson played in the Dominican Republic in 1947, as well as many other baseball stars of the United States.
The plans of the dictatorial government of that time bore fruit and baseball became a great attraction in the country and a national pastime, with a professional baseball league formed by 4 classic teams from the different regions of the country, a strong feeling of identity and fanaticism began to be created among the Dominicans of each region with the teams.
Major League Baseball presence in the Dominican Republic
Major League Baseball’s 30 organizations operate academies in the country and the commissioner’s office has the only address outside the United States, generating thousands of direct jobs throughout the country in the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic has become the extra-national capital of the United States, with the highest number of baseball players per capita in the world.
Baseball generates a large amount of money in the Dominican Republic
Not only are the economic benefits incredible for the top Dominican baseball athletes who reach the highest levels, but for the country itself, baseball generates a great deal of money.
For more than two decades, young prospects from the Dominican Republic have been earning signing bonuses in excess of one million dollars.
Every year hundreds of young people from the Dominican Republic are signed by different professional teams of baseball organizations in the United States, this is the dream of many young people with limited resources in the country, coupled with the dream of being able to play in their favorite professional baseball team in the country.
Low attendance at baseball stadiums in the Dominican Republic
In the fifties and until the mid-sixties, the Dominican people enjoyed little collective entertainment, and the professional baseball championships provoked unusual and feverish enthusiasm.
But when the abundance of movie theaters and the rise of other sports, such as basketball, conquered a large part of the population, the love for baseball began to decrease.
The low presence of fans in local baseball stadiums may be due to multiple factors, most games are at night, many people are afraid to go out at night for fear of crime and because of the scarce public transportation, efforts were made to change the schedule of games.
In spite of everything, Dominican baseball continues to be the most popular sport in the country, a sport that awakens great passions and emotions in Dominicans.
