! ! PITCHING DEMOCRACY: BASEBALL AND POLITICS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, 1955–1978 ! ! ! ! ! A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History.! ! ! ! By! ! ! ! April Rena Yoder! , M.A. ! ! ! ! Washington, DC March 20, 2014 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Copyright 2014 by April Rena Yoder All Rights! Reserved "ii PITCHING DEMOCRACY: BASEBALL AND POLITICS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC,! 1955–1978 April Rena Yoder! , M.A. Thesis Advisor: Bryan! McCann, PhD ABSTRACT! “Pitching Democracy” details how Dominicans used baseball to communicate their expectations for democratic society in their interactions with their government, the United States, other Latin Americans, and each other during the rapid political transitions of the period 1955–1978. Dominicans experienced the full brunt of Cold War politics during this period as their country passed from the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, through an interim government, to a social democracy under Juan Bosch that fell to a military coup after only seven months. The dissertation explains how Dominicans continued their struggle to create a democracy dedicated to economic opportunity for all even after the fall of Bosch as they rallied around baseball as they pushed against the economic policies of first the de facto military-civilian regime and later the civilian authoritarian regime headed by Joaquín Balaguer. Secretary of Sports documents, newspapers, and oral history interviews revealed Dominican understandings of social, political, and economic progress as they positioned themselves between the United States and Cuba in the ways they played, talked about, organized, and watched baseball. By examining this positioning and how Dominicans saw their nation’s place in Latin American relations, “Pitching Democracy” demonstrates Dominicans’ engagement with the ideological debates of the Cold War. Their interactions "iii with baseball representatives from the United States and Cuba influenced the meanings that Dominicans projected onto baseball and democracy. Rather than accept the consumer-based conception of freedom emanating from the United States, Dominicans pushed the Balaguer Government to develop a political and economic third way that avoided both the social revolution promoted by Cuba and the docile mimicking of the United States. Efforts by business leaders in the Cibao region to define a new baseball league as an industry legitimated President Joaquín Balaguer’s development policies while protecting Dominican ownership of the baseball industry—to a degree. Through this synthesis of political and sports history, we come to see how Dominicans imagined and enacted democracy in counter to and in cooperation with US interests during the Cold War and the deep historical linkages between the favorite Dominican pastimes of baseball and politics. ! "iv Acknowledgements! Completing a dissertation is more of an ellipis than a period to mark the end of graudate school, the beginning of the great unknown that follows it, and the continuation of the many relationships that rose in the process. Without the latter, the process would certainly be less rewarding and for me impossible. My colleagues and friends at Georgetown joined others in pulling me through the struggles of readjusting to academic life and a new place in those early years. Without lunches, poolside study dates, work days at Bentley’s, Thanksgiving, and wine breaks with Larisa Veloz, Libby Bivings, Kathryn Gallien, Sam Sanford, Jaymee Sanford, Javier Puente, Elizabeth Chavez, Oliver Horn, Carrie Crawford, and Nate Packard, I never would have made it. Thank you. My advisors and mentors provided the right mix of intellectual pushing, support, and cheerleading. Thanks, especially, to Bryan McCann, Alison Games, and John Tutino. In addition, friends I made while in the field in the Dominican Republic enlightened my research with their questions and their own findings, and also provided great personal support. Knowing that I would see Don Leonard, Sabine Cadeau, Hank González, Margaret Entringer, and Raj Chetty in the Archives, or for happy hour or dinner after, increased my enthusiasm even on the slowest days. Everyone at the Archivo General de la Nación in Santo Domingo offered great support and practical knowledge. Without Oscar Feliz, I never would have found the Secretary of Sports documents and would have drowned in newspaper clippings and doubt. I also thank my parents, sisters, and the rest of my family, who backed me despite their misgivings about more school. "v Table Of Contents! !Prologue: Politics at the Plate .......................................................................................... 1 !Chapter 1. Mens sana in corpore sano: Baseball and Trujillista Politics ....................... 16 !Chapter 2. A Big League Nation Frees Baseball ............................................................ 52 !Chapter 3. ¡Magnífico Estímulo! Baseball and Dominicans for Democracy ................. 89 Chapter 4. Debating Democracy: The Triumvirate, the United States, and the Limits of ! Baseball .......................................................................................................142 !Chapter 5. Así se hace Patria, or, Baseball: The Revolution without Blood ............... 205 Chapter 6. Sliding into Third: The Cibao Summer League and Baseball as Development ! .................................................................................................................... 263 !Epilogue: Building a Democracy of Baseball .............................................................. 316 Bibliography .................................................................................................................! 324 ! "vi Prologue! Politics at the Plate! The carnival-parade dragons decorated in the national colors of Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic had just meandered through the outfield gates of the Estadio Quisqueya as the hosting Dominican team took the field on a beautiful early-February night in Santo Domingo. A commercial came on the screen in centerfield, the classic dun-dun-dun-dun organ music drawing my attention from the Dominican players playing catch with their children to warm up before their first game of the 2012 Caribbean Series. Dominican closing pitcher Francisco Cordero, who would play in his final Big-League game later that year, appeared on the centerfield screen in black-and- white, saying “Yo sé,” Spanish for “I know.” A handful of recent Dominican players flashed on the screen with the same line, “Yo sé,” and then Jorge (George) Bell, the epithet “Dominican Big League Glory” accompanying his name,1 repeated the same. The dun-dun-dun-dun sped up for the wind-up and a baseball bat flashed on the black screen, quickly replaced by white smoke as the thnock of bat-to-ball contact sounded. I choked up, already moved by what I expected would be a nationalist expression of support for the players gathered to represent the Dominican Republic on their home field. The music changed to a rock beat. Osvaldo Virgil, the first Dominican to play in the Big Leagues, repeated the line “Yo sé.” My heart fluttered. Players continued to flash on the screen, each repeating the refrain “Yo sé,” and many directing their comments to their hometowns. Cordero, who leads Dominican "1 Bell earned the American League Most Valuable Player title in 1987 after averaging .308 and earning a remarkable 134 RBI for the Toronto Blue Jays. "1 pitchers in career saves, reappeared to add a personal touch: “About saves, I’m the one who knows. About governing, I know who knows.” Big-League pitcher Arodis Vizcaino flashed on the screen next, making the letter “L” with his right hand. For any Dominican in the crowd, the “L” revealed the political nature of the commercial. For me, a foreigner familiar with Dominican political history but still green on current Dominican political symbols, it held some baseball-related message that would soon make sense. Ricardo “Rico” Carty, whose smile won the hearts of Braves fans in the 1960s and 1970s, flashed on the screen and repeated, “yo sé.” The outline of a familiar back came on the screen and Juan Marichal, the only Dominican in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, turned to face the camera. He repeated, “I know who knows about this,” and made the “L” with the right hand that had won him a reputation for “The Best Right Arm in Baseball.” I sat in awe, impressed by the convergence of Dominican baseball past, present, and future there in the Estadio Quisqueya even before the first pitch of this celebration of Latin American baseball. And then the stock image of Danilo Medina, presidential candidate, came onto the screen in full color. A narrator summarized the commercial’s point: “The best is with Danilo. Yo sé. Sector Externo [external sector, away from the capital] with Danilo.” As my anger at having my heart strings played by one more instance of the ruling Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD, or Dominican Liberation Party) projecting its candidate into baseball subsided, I realized I should not have been surprised. From my seat on the first-base side, I saw four PLD billboards, three picturing Danilo. Two of those also featured his running mate Margarita Cedeño, who, in addition to campaigning for vice "2 president, was finishing her third term as First Lady. Two images of Hipólito Mejía, the candidate