Sugarball: The American Game, the Dominican Dream

In Sugarball, author Alan Klein attempts to draw on the complicated relationship between baseball in the United States and the Dominican Republic by equating it to that of a neocolonial power to its subordinate nation. In the same way that all the resources are tapped from the underdeveloped nation and utilized by the parent, the United States has exploited the Dominican Republic's most lucrative export, baseball players. The exchange has become institutionalized and the top players from the Dominican leagues major aim is to move into the Major League Baseball system, leaving the economic desolation of home and depleting the nation's culture.The relationship is both revered and abhorred by the people of the nation. As most boys in the Dominican Republic have few choices of employment after their minimal education, baseball is seen as a way out of the poverty that pervades the country. The Dominican attitude toward the Americans is typical of the aforementioned neocolonial relationships; we are loathed and imitated all at once. In a show against US control, the game has been altered by Dominicans to showcase their own culture and values, thereby serving to stamp their own mark on the sport in the most public fashion.Though Klein's reasoning is mostly sound throughout, he does make some stretches in his interpretation of the hegemonic behavior exhibited by the Dominican people. It would have been beneficial to have more in-depth information about how the Dominican players feel about the choices they make in leaving their homeland. Additionally, further discussion into how the purported baseball resistance is making a difference throughout the country would have been of interest. Overall however, Sugarball is a valuable look into how the economic state of the Dominican economy lead to its virtual rule by American industry and how the all-time American game, baseball, has been used and altered by the Dominican people into a game with their own flair and culture stamped on it.

The book "Sugarball: The American Game, The Dominican Dream," by Alan M. Klein shows the development of baseball in the Dominican Republic and how it has become the national game and a point of resistance against the encroachment of the United States. Klein shows how the United States has both helped and hindered the development of the Dominican Republic and how baseball has played a role in this. Klein gives an in-depth overview of the history of the Dominican Republic and how baseball has played an important role in it. Baseball came to the Dominican Republic from Cuba between 1891 and 1920. It then flourished to become the national sport and a point of national pride. The United States has had heavy involvement over the past ninety years in the Dominican Republic. It is because of United States influence that has caused the Dominican economy to become dependent on sugar cane as its only main crop. Another problem is that the Dominican Republic exports only half of what it imports. United States companies own most of the sugar cane fields and Dominicans have little choice of what to do in order to make a living. Dominican men can cut sugar cane for a meager living, deal drugs, which causes social problems, or attempt to play professional baseball in the United States and make a decent living. It is because of this that almost all Dominican boys try to become professional ball players. Baseball has been a point of national resistance by the Dominican Republic to the encroachment of the United States on its culture. The Dominicans took the American game of baseball and drastically change it into a Dominican sport. In the Dominican Republic, baseball is much more relaxed, the same as the Dominican society. It was during the first occupation of the Dominican Republic by the United States Marines. During this time, many Dominicans chose to fight the Marines not only on the battlefield but also on the baseball field as well. It was during this first occupation that baseball became the national sport. During the second occupation, a few Dominicans refused to play in the United States as a protest of the occupation of the Dominican Republic. Klein discusses many more points of resistance by the Dominicans using baseball.

A thorough report and extensive research conducted by Alan M. Klein offers an insight into Dominican society and the role of baseball. Detailed observations and personal interviews in the Dominican Republic between 1987 and 1989 persuade readers that baseball is not only a sport, but also a political tool used to promote cultural control. Klein's main focus is that American influence has been both advantageous as well as destructive, and is largely responsible for the continued underdevelopment of the Dominican Republic.During his stay in the Dominican Republic, Klein has watched Dominicans struggle to keep their national identity separate from the dominating United States. The author takes an entire chapter (chapter 4) to cover American intervention in the course of baseball academies and recruiting of Dominican players. Significant points are made well, but this section is monotonous and drags on leaving readers bored. The use of simple vocabulary along with organized titles and subtitles make this book appropriate for the average reader. An effective timetable and a collection of historical pictures with captions are included midway through the book giving readers a better understanding of Dominican life.Klein brings up conflicting issues regarding the truth behind America's motivation to help the Dominican Republic. An extensive portion discussing resistance and hegemony can be found in chapter five. The author nicely covers the pros and cons of American influence through detailed examples. Klein's personal observations and comprehensive research have led him to conclude that baseball, the American game, may one day be the outlet for Dominicans to rebel and regain their national identity.

Growing up north of Boston in a small town, the Dominican Republic could not have been further from my consciousness. I knew it to be small, tropical and under the heel of a dictator who liked white suits and big cars. One day he had his date with a machine gun bullet and that was that. Subsequent political crises occasionally made the news, but not much more. But over the last 40 years, "La Republica Dominicana" gradually impinged on my consciousness. Nearby towns began to fill up with Dominican immigrants who cleaned houses, worked in restaurants and factories, and appeared at weekend yard sales. "Las Brisas del Caribe" takeout restaurants, "Quisqueya" travel agencies, many small store fronts offering "envios" and "llamados" began to be seen. I had never gone to Santo Domingo, but it had at last come to us. And so, when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire slugged out their famous home run duel of 1998, Dominican flags flew from countless cars, people painted Sosa's name on the rear windows of their Fords and Chevrolets and nobody could remain unaware that Dominican patriotism ran strong in suburban Massachusetts. Why did Dominicans get so passionately involved in baseball ? What did that contest mean to them ? Alan Klein did not mention Sosa in his book, as it appeared in 1992. Although many major league players are mentioned by name, SUGARBALL is not an account of the exploits of Dominican ballplayers. Rather it is a sober, readable book, with an absolute minimum of jargon, of how cultural imperialism works in the area of sport. If the USA dominates the Dominican Republic economically, in the areas of sugar, tourism, and small-scale manufacturing, it also dominates culturally. Using often-mentioned ideas like `hegemony' and `resistance', Klein shows that though Americans introduced baseball into the country, it remained independent until the Dominicans got so talented that American major league teams sent permanent scouts to recruit talent. Eventually the US teams set up baseball academies to train rookies and siphon them up north to minor and major league teams. These academies operate like any other colonial outpost, according to Klein. They locate raw material (players), refine it, and ship it home. The drain of talent became so drastic that the local baseball leagues faced ruin, since all their players were being taken. Yet, in the baseball that remained, we can see a defiant strain---the very game that is the arena for exploitation can also provide a focus for nationalism. Hence the flags north of Boston in 1998. It is in describing this process that SUGARBALL is best. Readers may bog down in the history of Dominican baseball found in Chapter One, the details of which must be too arcane to be of much interest. The last chapter, with its overview of sports and cultural resistance, might have better been made the first, so that we would have perceived quickly the direction Klein wanted