Dodgers Doing Their Part in Dominican Republic

Nearly one in 10 major-league players comes from the Dominican Republic, making the island nation far and away the world’s top exporter of baseball talent. As a result, virtually every big-league organization--as well as a few Japanese teams--now operates a year-round training facility there.

But while the investments have paid huge dividends for the clubs, a handful of vocal Latin players say many Dominicans are not benefiting.

“In principle, it’s good to take the kids off the streets and teach them to play baseball,” Cleveland Indian pitcher Dennis Martinez, a Nicaraguan, told the Managua newspaper La Prensa. “But now look at the other side. These organizations only import exploitation. They aren’t concerned that the children don’t have an education that allows them to prepare for the future.

“What happens to the Dominicans that don’t make it to the major leagues? They end up as thieves, drug addicts and alcoholics because they have no other way to defend themselves.”

That’s a criticism the Dodgers are trying to dispel. Included among the fields and batting cages at the club’s 60-acre Campo Las Palmas facility in Guerra is an elementary school that serves 480 kids. Ralph Avila, the camp’s director, says the Dodgers provide each student with three hot meals a day, plus shoes and clothing, from kindergarten through the sixth grade.

The club has received some help: The Dominican government donated the land, for example, and the government of Spain helps support the two nuns who run the 6-year-old school. But for the most part, the school buildings are as much a part of the Dodger complex as Manny Mota Field.

“It’s a very, very poor area,” Avila says. “With the baseball academy, we were obligated to those people there, to do something for them. And that’s what we’re doing. And we feel happy that the whole area is much better.”

The idea of baseball giving as well as taking is very much a part of Esperanza International’s pitch as well. The cover of the group’s informational brochure features a baseball with the slogan “You Can Get the Winning Hit in a Losing Game.”

“I just felt that if I could provide a vehicle for these people, for the players, to give back to their own communities . . . people would come on board with us,” says Dave Valle, who also plans to seek contributions from major league baseball and the individual clubs, as well as companies such as Nike, which have benefited from the success of Dominican athletes.

If the Dodger experience is a barometer, a little goodwill goes a long way in the Dominican. Avila says that when the Dodgers began building their baseball complex a decade ago, thieves who struck at night were a constant nuisance.

“But since we started our community program,” he says, “we’ve had no problem. The people, they watch out for us now.”

Perhaps that’s because the Dodgers are doing the same for them.