Baseball's Exploitation of Latin Talent
Marcano, Arturo J. & Fidler, David P.
In this era of globalization, multinational businesses are increasingly criticized for exploiting cheap sources of labor in developing countries. Corporate techniques that outrage critics...
...David P Fidler is professor of law and Ira C. Batman Faculty Fellow, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana...
...Interestingly, in its agreement with the Latin Winter Leagues, MLB mandates that English-speaking players who play in the Latin Winter Leagues have their contracts translated into English...
...As a strateent source, Latin America is profoundly ant to the economics of globalized profesbaseball...
...labor recruitment system seems to exist in another MLB's recruitment system is intentionally dimension, beyond the interests of fans and the designed to access baseball talent as young and as analyses of economists...
...1 7 The Commissioner's Office only reversed course after criticism of its response became too politically damaging...
...Steve Fainamr and Christine Haughney, "Pataki Urges MLB on Testing: N.Y...
...Official rules regulate the result of criticism...
...Vol XXXVIIl, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 2004 15REPORT ON SPORT AND SOCIETY talent among 10-, 11and 12-year-olds...
...Still, the Commissioner's Office fails to grasp that it needs an overarching strategic vision for correcting the Latin recruitment system...
...baseball academies meet certain standards...
...Corporate techniques that outrage critics include the use of child labor, poor working conditions, the nonexistence of labor unions to protect workers' rights, lack of attention to occupational safety and health, and the flouting of local legal systems...
...Our regard...
...1 2 The second problem involves the abuse Subsequent investigative reporting by the Chicago of performance-enhancing drugs, including drugs Tribune confirmed Quiroz's story, including details designed for livestock, by Latin minor league from a MLB report criticizing the treatment the Cubs prospects and players...
...Yet, when pundits debate baseball econom- human rights law, which requires extra protections ics, few pay any serious attention to the methods when children are the subjects of economic utilizaused to recruit Latin American talent...
...In environments such as these that call for prehending how MLB operates as a global business, heightened attention to, and regulation of, corporate The statistics concerning the Latin presence in behavior, MLB has established, operated and even today's game demonstrate, beyond any doubt, that defended the unregulated recruitment of minors...
...4. Amateurs in Puerto Rico are subject to MLB's annual draft, but not amateurs in any Latin American country...
...not apply in Venezuela) may also cause more trouble Imp for the system by pretending that MLB teams have easy, bi no responsibilities for the buscon-player relation- that the ships...
...Being lovers of statistics, baseball fans notice the Latin presence in the game reaching unprecedented levels...
...Governor Pataki was gress right: It is time for MLB to stop applying double standards against Latin children...
...The Cubs protested and has pretended not to have any responsibility for its insinuated that Quiroz was a publicity-seeking liar...
...Steve Fainaru, "Baseball's Minor Infractions: In Latin America, Young Players Come At a Bargain Price," Washington Post, October 26, 2001, p. D01...
...The human rights of children and the best ts of baseball itself require nothing less than , effective reform...
...A memorandum to MLB teams reminding them to comply with local laws concerning their operations in Latin American countries...
...1 8 The lack of a strategic vision in the league's halfhearted "reforms" is also apparent in two other contexts...
...Winter League Agreement, Article IV(aX1...
...tries constitute an important factor in the labor Understanding how Latin players find their way exploitation by corporations from developed couninto minor and major league ball is critical to com- tries...
...On opening day of the 2003 MLB season, approximately 28% of players on MLB rosters were born outside the United States, a percentage that has nearly doubled since 1990...
...What's more, this office is also charged with the responsibilities of dealing with the Winter League Agreement between MLB and the Caribbean professional leagues, which regulates the treatment of players under contract to MLB teams who play for teams in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Vol XX)(VII, No 5 MARcH/APRIL 2004 17 17 Vol XXXVII, No 5 MARCHIAPRIL 2004REPORT ON SPORT AND SOCIETY Venezuela during the MLB off-season...
...8 MLB had, thus, been tendering quality of playing facilities in North American minor contracts in a way that virtually all recruited Latin leagues but contain no equivalent protections for prospects could not read, let alone understand...
...Most people upset about such corporate behavior do not realize that each of these techniques has been, and continues to be, practiced by U.S...
...A directive from the Commissioner's Office to teams that signing bonuses should only be paid directly to players and not to buscones...
...any requirement-not even one word-instructing both a teams to provide adequate medical trainers and sup- interest plies to deal with injured players, a problem the gic tal Commissioner's Office knows is widespread in Latin imports baseball academies...
...We and others who have expressed similar cents are not deterred by the magnitude of the ge...
...The opposite is true for Latin America, the biggest market for foreign baseball talent...
...2. Arturo J. Marcano and David P. Fidler, "The Globalization of Baseball: Major League Baseball and the Mistreatment of Latin American Baseball Talent," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol...
...A memorandum to MLB teams indicating that they should not have anyone under 16-years of age training in baseball academies...
...Perhaps most alarming is that MLB has never adopted officially binding rules on tendering contracts to Latin prospects or the quality of living conditions and playing fields in Latin minor league facilities...
...The one systemic reform that could have revolutionized the Latin recruiting process-the worldwide draft proposal-is now dead, killed by a lack of motivation on the part of MLB teams to change the exploitative status quo...
...The dramatic reversal of the Commissioner's Office policy on drug-testing for Latin minor leaguers and the announcement of the intention to have full drug-testing in place for the 2004 Latin minor league season...
...1 3 The initial response by the provided its Latin minor leaguers...
...nadequacy of reforms undertaken or promised Commissioner's Office means that much work s to be done before Latin youth are accorded the same kind of treatment as North American minor league prospects...
...League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA...
...5 radically from the manner in which North American* The only official rule MLB has adopted to regulate and Asian talent is brought into MLB...
...abysmally as the Chicago Cubs acted towards Alexis Despite having set up a mandatory drug-testing sys16 NACI.A REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON SPORT AND SOCIETY tem for minor leaguers in North America, the Commissioner's Office argued that applying the same program in Latin America would be too costly, complex and might represent, in the words of a responsible official at the Commissioner's Office, money flushed down the toilet...
...The drafting of standards for MLB baseball academies in Latin American countries...
...we simply note that these changes have been proposed or adopted in the time period we have been criticizing the Commissioner's Office...
...Arturo J. Marcano is a lawyer from Venezuela and serves as International Legal Advisor to the Venezuelan Baseball Players' Association...
...Investigative reporting by Steve Fainaru of the Washington Post was instrumental in exposing the extent of the problems, embarrassing the Commissioner's Office and forcing it to change its approach in successive rearguard actions...
...The first involves the league's historical book, Stealing Lives, documented the shocking mis- encouragement of so-called "street agents," or bustreatment of 17-year-old Latin prospect Alexis cones, who find, train and then sell Latin prospects to Quiroz and his teammates by the Chicago Cubs, MLB teams...
...finally translated the standard minor league player's Remarkably, this behavior toward children does not contract into Spanish, and only then, reluctantly, as a violate any MLB rules...
...Two specific variable approaches, with some providing good facil- problems have recently received attention in this ities and others dishing out inhumane treatment...
...Major League Rule 3(a)(1)(B...
...families...
...it has t that h although the new standards for baseball acad- Commi emies represent some progress-the robust acknowledgment, for example, of problems in the regarding sanitation and food-they continue to fun- The i damentally neglect glaring deficiencies in the way by the teams behave...
...In Latin American talent is critical to MLB's economic this sense, the league has sidestepped international system...
...6, Issue 2, Spring 1999, p. 511...
...Sam Regalado, "'Latin Players on the Cheap': Professional Baseball Recruitment in Latin America and the Neocolonialist Tradition," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol...
...By refusing equal treatment to Latin matic c recruits under official MLB rules, standards and minor principles, the Commissioner's Office has missed a Office paramount opportunity to make a powerful state- standin ment...
...3. William B. Gould IV, "Baseball and Globalization: The Game Played and Heard and Watched 'Round the World' (With Apologies to Soccer and Bobby Thomson)," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol...
...The buscon system has raised many including the failure of the Cubs to provide adequate serious problems, and despite feeding this system food and water, sanitation facilities and proper med- and benefiting from the efficiencies it creates, MLB ical treatment for injuries...
...he system of exploitation surrounding the In terms of the living and playing conditions at league's recruitment of Latin talent includes Latin minor league facilities, sometimes referred to T MLB teams' penchant for ignoring local laws as "baseball academies," MLB teams display highly that attempt to regulate their behavior...
...The office staff is essentially one person, who is expected to single-handedly monitor the largest market for foreign baseball talent...
...8, Issue 1, Fall 2000, p. 85...
...10 Commissioner's Office to the exposure of this probAlthough not every team has behaved as lem illustrated MLB's discriminatory predilections...
...14NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 14 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON SPORT AND SOCIETY For some, these numbers suggest the dawning of a "golden age" for Latin American talent in MLB, but the analysis usually stops at the superficial level of statistics...
...7. Andrew Zimbalist, May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2003), p. 7 . 8. Steve Fainaru, "The Business of Building Ballplayers," Washington Post, June 17, 2001, p. A01...
...We developed strategic reform principles-democratization, centralization and implementation--that we argued in memoranda to the Commissioner's Office (and others) should be applied to all reform proposals on all issues...
...Many companies have corporate if conduct under which they will not use suphat do not meet certain manufacturing stanincluding proper treatment of their workWhy MLB faces "legal constraints" in ing its suppliers, the buscones, remains a myspecially when doing so would protect countuths from exploitation...
...5. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, November 20, 1989...
...In previous scholarship, we challenged this complacent and uninformed view of MLB's recruitment of Latin American baseball talent by arguing that the league intentionally exploits children in Latin America...
...The numbers are equally or even more impressive at the minor league level...
...A similar agreement exists between MLB and the Korean professional baseball league...
...Instead of proactive and sincere reform efforts, MLB has responded to bad publicity by simply applying one band-aid after another...
...The case for ending double standards and the resulting discrimination and exploitation is compelling from human rights perspective and from the selfof MLB's access to Latin talent...
...The latest of these controversies-the drug abuse problem-reveals the reluctance in the Commissioner's Office to reforming Latin recruiting strategically...
...Given the abuses, strategic importance of the Latin labor pool to base- less, vu ball today, the staffing of the Dominican office sug- the bus gests MLB is interested more in successful public respons relations than in actually stopping the discrimination anarchy and exploitation of Latin youth...
...We are neither in favor nor against the worldwide draft...
...1 5 MLB and those who benefit from the system we criticize do not receive our thesis kindly, but the T league's own behavior has in many ways confirmed our arguments against it...
...We do not claim responsibility for causing these changes...
...The response of the Commissioner's Office to the drug problem in the Dominican Republic was so appalling that even Governor George Pataki of New York felt compelled to intervene and publicly demand that MLB stop operating in Latin America on the basis of double standards...
...9. Arturo J. Marcano and David P. Fidler, Stealing Lives, pp...
...Of these foreign-born players, approximately 86% are from Latin America and the Caribbean...
...MLB's position concerning the rampant issue a abuses taking place in the buscon system is that it's those v not responsible for the buscones and cannot regulate buscon them because of "legal constraints," such as anti- sentim trust laws...
...MLB is correct in that it cannot fix con problem by itself, but it has fundamental ibilities for helping to transform the current into regulated order and has the requisite power to make progress happen...
...14 All these examples of intentional discrimination are at the heart of a long-standing strategy that Latin baseball expert Sam Regalado calls, "Latin players on the cheap...
...But several years into our efforts on this an elaborate process agreed upon by MLB and the Japanese baseball commissioners...
...If a MLB team dence that MLB teams prefer signing younger playwants to recruit a Japanese player under contract ers...
...Governor Wants Action in Latin America," Washington Post, July 16, 2003, p. DO1...
...1 These statistics reveal just how significant Latin America has become as a strategic asset for MLB...
...6. MLB teams cannot sign players before they are 17-years-old unless they will turn 17 during the current baseball season or by September 1, whichever is later...
...3 For young players in North America and Asia, recruitment into MLB is a highly structured and regulated process...
...BASEBALL'S EXPLOITATION OF LATIN TALENT 1. John Donovan, "ANew Game Face: Globalization of the Grand Old Game "Hits All-Time High," Sports Illustrated On-line, July 11, 2003...
...7 MLB has been recruiting in Latin America since at least the 1940s, but it wasn't until the Quiroz and his teammates, a number of teams have summer of 2001 that the Commissioner's Office treated players more or less as the Cubs did...
...While at first glance impressive, one should keep in mind that each of these steps came amid bad publicity and severe criticism...
...This critical tion, especially in poverty-stricken settings...
...First, the Dominican office opened by the Commissioner's Office remains understaffed and underfunded considering the extensive responsibilities it has been given...
...However, regulate these "requirements" are non-binding recommenda- tery, es tions, not officially binding rules formally adopted less yo by the league...
...8, Issue 1, Fall 2000, p. 9. 16...
...Because issue, our analysis has survived attempts to ignore or MLB's Asian talent is predominantly Japanese and discredit it...
...However, it's too early to tell whether ope is justified or even whether the .ssioner's Office will actually implement a drug-testing system equivalent to the one used 4orth American minor leagues...
...Hopefully, the drahange of policy on drug-testing in the Latin leagues introduced by the Commissioner's represents a deeper, more strategic underg of the systemic nature of the problems that o fix...
...practices in Latin America target children, defined in The Latin American recruitment system differs international law as persons under 18-years of age...
...occurs in a context where extreme poverty is prevaAs a result, the reforms it has undertaken or proposed lent...
...The significant Latin presence in MLB did not happen overnight, and most people who observe baseball-including those who purport to be interested in the economics of the sport--have paid little, if any, attention to the system fueling the growing Latin contribution to "America's pastime...
...Teams also routinely scout and make contact with a Japanese professional club, it must go through with players well under 16, sometimes looking for *For simplicity in this article, "North American" refers to those from Canada and the United States, including Puerto Rico...
...Major League Baseball (MLB) in connection with its recruitment of baseball talent in Latin America...
...6 Latin prospects who are of age but pretend to their home countries have expired (e.g., Hideki be younger than they really are, also serve as eviMatsui of the New York Yankees...
...4 MLB recruitment in Latin America is a free-agency system that is essentially unregulated...
...sional The MLB guideline prohibiting buscones from require receiving any portion of signing bonuses in the for Lat Dominican Republic (strangely, the guideline does tion...
...During dru the time we have been criticizing the Commissioner's Office, it has grudgingly acknowledged the systemic nature of the problems created by its Latin recruitment practices...
...Often, teams recruit players too young to sign in their "baseball academies" to hide them from other teams and to begin the prospect's training as early as possible...
...The decision to implement the 17-year-old rule more robustly...
...Socioeconomic inequities in developing counfall far short of adequately addressing the problems...
...The Commissioner's Office claims pliers t that teams are now required to tender a Spanish dards, translation of the uniform contract and to ensure that forces...
...The proposal to negotiate with the MLBPA a worldwide draft that would cover Latin America as well as other regions...
...North Latin recruitment is the so-called 17-year-old rule, American amateurs are subject to the annual amateur draft, which contains extensive protections for drafted players negotiated between the MLB Major League Baseball has sidestepped Commissioner's Office and the Major international human rights law...
...by the teams and the Commissioner's Office in recruiting minor league prospects...
...The decision to translate the uniform minor league player's contract into Spanish...
...Also see Arturo J. Marcano and David P. Fidler, Stealing Lives: The Globalization ofBaseball and the Tragic Story ofAlexis Quiroz, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002...
...Steve Fainaru, "Injecting Hope-and Risk: Dominican Prospects Turn to Supplements Designed for Animals," Washington Post, June 23, 2003, p. A01...
...Major League Rule 58 regulates minor league playing facilities...
...1 6 The following developments that occurred between 2000 and 2003 validate our arguments against MLB: * The opening of an office in the Dominican Republic with responsibilities to oversee MLB operations in Latin America...
...her areas of global business, some corpora:gulate the conditions under which they deal eir suppliers...
...The extensive rules on tendering contracts to persons subject to the amateur draft have been historically denied to Latin youth and their A batter prepares to take a swing during a friendly game in a Santo Domingo youth league...
...Latin prospects are not subject to the amateur draft, nor do agreements exist between MLB and Latin professional leagues about talent transfers...
...The most shocking is the absence of remain: MLB has the market power to make pro happen...
...Baseball fans often prove to be the most incredulous when it comes to accusations that MLB exploits children and young men in Latin America...
...66-81, 105-118...
...This facilities on which Latin prospects are recruited to blatant and deep-seated discrimination against Latin play.1 In the world outside MLB, this kind of behavplayers underwrites the exploitation of Latin youth ior is considered intentional discrimination...
...MLB also has official rules protecting high school and college players in North America from unscrupulous which teams have routinely violated since the rule behavior by teams...
...At the start of the 2003 minor league season, 46% of players signed to minor league contracts were born outside the United States, with 78% of those players coming from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela...
...Steve Fainatu, "MLB to Evaluate Drug Test Policy," Washington Post, July 14, 2003, p. D01...
...responded to the exposure of a serious drug-abuse question in Latin America with discriminatory arrogance by claiming drug-testing was not worth the effort...
...market Second, many of the reforms mentioned above, In ot including the translation of the uniform minor league tions re player's contract and the standards for the baseball with thi academies, have not been adopted as formally bind- codes o ing MLB rules...
...It is important to keep in mind the socioeconomic contexts when comparing how MLB recruits talent in North America, Asia and Latin America...
...Thus, it tries to wash its hands of the prob- challen lem through its signing-bonus guideline while con- interest tinuing to create incentives that lead to buscon radical a situation that leaves prospects more, not [lnerable...
...Such a strategic talent source s a strategic vision that provides opportunity in youth without discrimination and exploitalementing such a strategic vision will not be ecause it will confront the narrow-mindedness Commissioner's Office has exhibited on this nd the entrenched economic interests of all iho feed on the current system, from teams to es...
...One reason may very well be cheaply as possible...
...Gary Marx, "Clean Up Begins of a Sorry Mess," Chicago Tribune, June 28, 2003...
...2 This attack on MLB generated disbelief and anger in the world of professional baseball and beyond...
...Even after the slew of embarrassments came to light-abuses of the 17-year-old rule, tendering English-only contracts, lack of standards for Latin baseball academies and the buscones problem-the Commissioner's Office reverted to form and he Commissioner's Office claimed g-testing in Latin America was not worth the effort...
...9 regulation...
...Without question, recruitment that it is an ugly, discriminatory system...
...MLB has only grudgingly acknowledged South Korean, only Latin American recruitment the systemic exploitation endured by Latin recruits...
...Asian players, such as those from was implemented in the mid-1980s and the Japan and Korea, typically enter MLB as free agents Commissioner's Office has refused to enforce effecafter their initial contracts with professional teams in tively...
Vol. 37 • March 2004 • No. 5
