As organizations expanded their boundaries, looking for players in Latin
America, they began to do so with more than just a scout or two.
They started to build academies, baseball schools where they could hone
those signees' baseball skills. Eventually, more educational components,
including the teaching of the English language and customs in the United
States, were added to the instruction.
The quality of the academies has varied.
"It's like anything else," said Tony Bernazard, a special assistant to
the Major League Baseball Players Association. "Some organizations do a
better job than others."
But since December, 2000, Major League Baseball has been trying to make
sure that all of the organizations are running clean, efficient,
first-class academies. That year, MLB established an office in Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic, to create and enforce guidelines it feels
should be met in these academies.
So far, so good, says Rafael Perez, the manager of MLB's office in the
Dominican, though he readily agrees there is room for improvement.
"We've been working extremely hard and the clubs have done a tremendous
job working alongside with us to improve their operations," said Perez.
The MLB office in Santo Domingo has three missions, according to Perez:
It offers administrative assistance to the 29 academies in the
Dominican Republic and to the 9 in Venezuela. Some organizations,
including the Red Sox, have an academy in each country.
It serves in a regulatory role, implementing rules and making sure the
organizations follow those rules, especially in regard to age
falsification, an effort that led to several Latin players in
professional baseball in the States all of a sudden "aging" by a year or
two when birth-certificate discrpenacies were found.
It acts a liason with all MLB departments, protecting MLB's image in
Latin America.
The organizations have been given minimum standards in several areas,
Perez said, such as conditions on the field, in the dorms and with the
food that is served. MLB also is making sure the players have 160 hours
of English instruction over the course of the year.
"They're not teaching standard English classes, though," said Perez.
"These are cross-cultural English classes. It's different. We have to
understand (the poverty) where these kids come from. The English classes
have to be tailored to their needs and the different educational levels.
The average schooling in the Dominican Republic is from the 6th through
the 9th grade. Education for them is not a simple issue.
"We want to be more effective in making sure they learn," he added. "We
don't want them to have a class just to have a class -- we want to make
sure they hold classes when the kids can truly, truly learn. The nature
of the game is unique. The education level of the players varies, so you
have to be creative."
MLB's presence in this arena has been a step in the right direction,
said Ben Cherington, the Red Sox' director of player development.
"I think MLB's initiative to open up a satellite office in the Dominican
involved in inspecting each of these academies and creating a higher
standard by which every academy has been run -- everything from
cleanliness of the bathrooms to the comfort of the living areas to the
actual playing surfaces and to the English programs -- has been
positive," said Cherington.
"If a team's academy isn't living up to the standards, there would be
pressure."
