The Cost of Major Leave Dreams
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THE COST OF MAJOR LEAGUE DREAMS By Meg Petersen In the film, The Road to the Major Yewri Leagues, David Ortiz tells the story Guillen of how he would use plastic caps from large bottles of drinking water as But baseballs. His sisters hid their dolls Yewri started to get headaches. When he because David would decapitate them, missed a game because the pain got remove their hair and send them over the bad, the trainers yelled at him. You don’t right field fence of makeshift baseball miss a game because of a headache. diamonds. This is the dream—the rags But the headaches got worse and he got to riches story of the player who a fever. He barely made it to started with nothing in the the health center at the stark poverty of the camp. They called his Dominican countryside family to come get him and goes on to achieve and take him to a private great wealth and fame. hospital. But he didn’t A small Dominican boy in have health insurance and that same film tells the because the contract filmmaker, “David Ortiz, he hadn’t been finalized his is just like me. He is a lefty family could not pay for the like me, and he comes from my treatment, so they had to take him country. Someday I will be in the big to a public clinic. The doctors diagnosed leagues like him with God’s help.” Yewri with bacterial meningitis. He had It looked as if that dream might come surgery, but it was too late. He died the true for Yewri Guillén. The baseball men next day. started coming around when he was 15 These photos were Most people have had vaccinations taken of Dominican years old. In 2009, he signed a $30,000 against this disease. A simple vaccination boys playing contract with the Washington Nationals. baseball. could have saved Yewri’s life, but the He continued to train at the Nationals team did not vaccinate the players. Dominican Training Camp in Boca Chica. There wasn’t a certified athletic trainer or When the team authorized his contract in a doctor to examine Yewri at the training 2011, he was told he would be playing camp. If he had been treated earlier, he with their rookie league team in Florida. would not have died. [1] There are many other problems with Major League Signing bonuses are much lower for Dominican Baseball in the Dominican Republic. American players. David Ortiz signed for $25,000 in 1992 when baseball players have to finish high school to be able he was 16 years old. A comparable American player, to play on a major league team, but Dominican Lance Berkman, signed in 1997 at age 21 for one players can be as young as 16. David Ortiz says, million dollars—40 times as much. Manager Steve “When I signed at 16, I didn’t know what I was Phillips of the Mets was quoted in the Chicago doing.” All minor league teams in the US Tribune as saying you can sign 30-45 have to have a certified trainer and players in “the Dominican” for what it medical facilities, but that is not true in “There isn't anyone costs to sign one second round draft who speaks for the the Dominican Republic. Of the pick in the US. Because Dominican players, who are giving up hundreds of players in the camps in their childhood in search of a players can be signed so much more the Dominican Republic, less than half dream that few realize." cheaply, today more than 10% of MLB will leave the island to play in the -Arturo Marcano, players are from the Dominican minor leagues, and only 3 of every Author Republic and Dominicans comprise hundred will ever play in the major 30% of all players in the minor leagues. leagues. Conditions at the training camps Major League Baseball admits 90-95% of the are sometimes unsanitary and safety rules are not players it drafts for the minor leagues never make it to enforced, making them dangerous, and no education the major leagues, so most players end up being sent is provided for the players. Those who come to the back to the island. US often have very little schooling and do not speak Many Dominicans dream of becoming major English. If their baseball career does not work out, league baseball players. But only a very few actually they have nothing to fall back on. realize that dream. For many, the cost of that dream is very high. For Yewri Guillén, it cost him his life. These star American and Dominican players have a lot in common—except the age they signed and the bonuses they got. MARK MCGUIRE VS SAMMY SOSA MIKE MUSSINA VS PEDRO MARTINEZ BYRON BUXTON VS. AMED ROSARIO Mussina’s Bonus: Martinez’s Bonus: McGuire’s Bonus: Sosa’s Bonus: Buxton’s Bonus: Martinez’s Bonus: Age: 21 (1991) Age: 16 (1988) Age: 20 (1984) Age: 16 (1985) Age: 18 (2012) Age: 16 (2012) $225,000 $6,500 $145,000 $3,500 $6 million $1.5 million McGwire’s and Sosa’s pursuit of Buxton, a teen outfielder from Two dominating pitchers, Mussina the single-season home run record Georgia, was the highest-paid and Martínez were selected for a in 1998 brought baseball a whole 2012 draft pick; Rosario, a combined 13 All-Star Games and new generation of fans. shortstop, got the largest bonus faced off in the playoffs in of any Dominican last year. 2003 and 2004 Sources? [2] TWO YEARS LATER, NEW REPORT ON NATIONAL’S PROSPECT YURWEI GUILLEN’S DEATH By James Wagner , Updated: March 3, 2013 In the upcoming issue of Mother Nationals’ academy to treat him. loss of her son still lingers. MLB had Jones, the magazine will publish a They found that 21 of 30 major not officially approved his contract, story titled “Inside Major League league teams, including the which meant his health insurance Baseball’s Dominican Sweatshop Nationals, don’t employ certified policy, standard in every player’s System“ about issues surrounding trainers at the Dominican academies. contract, had not yet kicked in. Dominican baseball academies run The story will also state that the (There had been a misunderstanding by major league teams, highlighting Nationals didn’t pay Guillen’s signing about Guillen’s middle name when the talent scouting industry and bonus or insurance money until his the Nationals tried to sign him in health care system for players. One family signed a release waiving their 2010 and that sparked another of the cases referenced in the story right to sue the team. investigation when he agreed to is that of Yewri Guillen, the Nationals’ terms in Feb. 2011.) 18-year old budding prospect who Guillen’s mother, Sandra Perdomo, fell sick while at the team’s told the Post in telephone interview Guillen was sent home to Nigua, Dominican academy in early April from the Dominican Republic on about 90 minutes west of the 2011 and later died of an aggressive Sunday that she did indeed sign academy, after he felt a headache sinus infection that was paperwork that promised the family and fever, symptoms thought to be misdiagnosed. wouldn’t sue the Nationals. She said the flu. Perdomo acknowledged that she was presented papers after her son’s contract had not been The main points of the story echo Guillen’s death by Fausto Severino, approved and prevented his health what was originally reported in the the coordinator of the Nationals’ insurance from being used. The Post in April 2011. The Post report Dominican academy, and asked to family couldn’t afford health care at detailed when Guillen got sick; how sign them. the first clinic they visited in Santo his contract had not yet been Domingo. She still wonders why her approved by Major League Baseball According to Perdomo, she was told son was sent home to her sick. and thus precluded him from using that she needed to sign them in its health insurance at the first clinic order to receive her son’s $30,000 “In reality, I wanted to find out really his family took him to; and the signing bonus. She didn’t read the what happened,” she said. “And I changes in medical protocol sparked paperwork, assuming that’s all the was bothered by it. The team at academies by his death. documents were for. She and her because the kid got sick and they husband checked the paperwork sent him home like that. That After the Post story was published, three days later and discovered that headache. That’s what bothered me Major League Baseball released a they contained a clause that about it, that they sent him to me like statement saying the Nationals took promised they wouldn’t sue the that. And that they didn’t send him the proper medical procedures Nationals, she said. to a doctor.” concerning Guillen and needed steps to prevent the spread of “I could have investigated it,” said Perdomo said she and her husband, meningitis among other players. The Perdomo, who didn’t sound however, aren’t interested in pursing Post reported that doctors in the remorseful when talking Sunday. the issue. They understand that they Dominican, not Nationals officials, “But I wanted to leave it like that. signed away their right to sue and originally ruled that Guillen died of Why continue with it? That’s what I wanted to move on. “I left it all in the bacterial meningitis.