you suck
...the national psyche. But baseball means more than money to Dominicans. It is a passion that reaches every corner of this Caribbean island nation. Venture into a Dominican town and you can bet you’ll find children playing baseball – on grassy fields, in streets, on parking lots, or, if fortunate, on actual baseball diamonds. Those without money for equipment play bare-handed with broomsticks for bats and tennis balls -- or even dolls' heads -- in place of baseballs. Baseball has a long and colorful history in the Dominican Republic. After Cubans brought the game to the island in the late 1800s the first professional team – the Licey Tigers – was chartered in 1907. During the U.S. occupation in the 1920s the competitive structure of Dominican baseball expanded. And during the famous 1937 season Negro League stars such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell were recruited by the island’s president in a successful attempt to win games and therefore the hearts and minds of the populace. With the rise of player salaries and the increased prominence of Dominican players in Major League Baseball, there is an intense focus on finding raw talent, developing young players to a professional level, and then selling the rights to that individual to a Major League Baseball team. With so much as stake there is plenty of room for people to cut corners and blur ethical lines of conduct. In the last few years, revelations of birth certificate forgery, identity swapping, and signing bonus irregularities have underscored the pressure ...