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The following article appeared in the DRSEA INFORMER newsletter published by our friend Charles Farrel who has permanantly relocated himself to the Dominican Republic to fulfill his dream of developing an educational baseball academy.

Dominican Republic: I spent the better part of a week recently with TIME magazine reporter Sean Gregory who is doing an article on Dominican baseball.  I hope I was able to add to his comprehension of a complex issue; our travels together definitely expanded my education.

One trip took us to the San Diego Padres academy, a facility I had seen before from the road, mistaking it for a resort.  Inside, that notion is reinforced; the $8 million, 15-acre complex has been referred to as the Taj Mahal of baseball training facilities in Latin America.

The place is opulent, with lush, manicured lawns and flowered pathways that lead to buildings that are grand in design and stature and include classrooms, dining facilities, rec rooms, and dorm rooms that while modest, would do a hotel proud. Players sleep two to a room and share a bathroom with another suite.  Up to 70 players can be housed at the complex.

Of course there are baseball facilities; two full fields and a half field, indoor batting cages and covered pitching mounds, plus a weight room. But one of the things that separate the Padres from most of the teams developing talent in the Dominican Republic is that the Padres have a comprehensive education program for prospects.  Granted, it is a voluntary program, but the Padres encourage participation and continue the option even if a player is cut.

               San Diego Padres facility                                                  Pittsburgh Pirates facility

While it is not as grandiose as the Padres training academy, I am equally impressed with the Pittsburgh Pirates academy, the newest in the Dominican Republic.  I have been to the facility before, but what has taken place in less than a year after opening is amazing and inspirational.  The Pirates have a mandatory education program and prospects are getting their high school diplomas; more are on target to complete theirs.  I was also moved by a young prospect who six months ago was deemed illiterate. He now reads well and openly reflects on the confidence he has gained through literacy.

What strikes me most about San Diego and Pittsburgh is that if the Padres can provide a voluntary education program and the Pirates a mandatory one, ALL Major League Baseball teams can and should provide some sort of education for their prospects.  And I think Commissioner Bud Selig should issue a mandate to all teams to provide a minimum education program, using his powers as commissioner to do what is in the best interest of baseball.

In my travels with Sean Gregory, he stops along the road several times to talk to young men about their baseball experience, particularly whether or not baseball failed them, promising but not delivering. Gregory seems surprised that his random selections provide a wealth of case studies; I would have been surprised if they didn’t in a country where baseball influences almost every segment of society and every little boy dreams of glory and fame and wealth through the game.

We met one young man who spent some time in the Anaheim Angels camp, and proves it to us by showing us photos of him in uniform.  He explains that he was 19 when he signed, but told the team he was only 17, not only to get signed, but to get a decent signing bonus.  As a 19-year-old, he said he was offered $3,500 to sign, but by lying and shaving two years off his age, he says he received $75,000. 

Of that, $25,000 went to his buscóne and another $20,000 to pay off others and to help out with family.  He claims to have $35,000 in the bank, but I doubt it, given his current lifestyle.  I think he simply blew the rest and is embarrassed to admit it. He says he later confessed to lying about his age and was soon out of baseball, but now dreams of training young players, perhaps one day brokering talent he develops.

He lives in a ramshackle dwelling with eight people, a home in need of a new roof and many other major repairs.  As a pig roots in the front yard, he takes us to an unfinished cinder block building to show us his “gym,” which is a set of barbells crafted from steel rods anchored at both ends with cement set in tomato cans. Outside, a tire tied to a tree serves as a target; a net hangs between two trees as a batting cage.  Sad as it looks, sadder still is the near certainty that he will attract young clients desperate to succeed in baseball.

  Sean Gregory pumping.......cement.

We also visit Baseball City, a training complex four teams share, and I finally get to meet Sandy Alderson, the man hired by Major League Baseball to bring change to Dominican baseball, to address age and identify fraud, steroid usage, and buscónes excesses.  Alderson was attending a drug education session for prospects, one of the new policies he has installed since taking over as reform czar.

I am struck by how much Alderson looks like a college professor, which he is, flying back and forth to the Dominican Republic from his other job as a lecturer at UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business.  I have been told that Alderson wants to have a meeting with me, but to date that has not taken place, and on this day there is little time for much more than exchanging pleasantries.  I do hope we meet soon; I think we have more in common than he might suspect.

One of Alderson’s assistants, Juan De Jesus, introduced himself to me and when I told him my name, he said with a curious inflection, “Oh, you’re Charles Farrell!”  I asked if that was good or bad and De Jesus simply said, “I read your newsletter..........interesting.” I let it go at that, apprehensive about what “interesting” meant.  I will save that for another day.

My travels with Gregory also took me to San Pedro de Macoris, a town famous for producing baseball players, including Sammy Sosa.  Here I met one of the most interesting people in this incredible journey of mine.

Astin Jacobo is a New York raised, City College of New York graduate who scouts Dominican talent for Major League Baseball teams, as his father before him did.  He despises the term buscónes, equating it to the N-word, and declares that buscónes are generally liars, thieves, cheaters and swindlers, things he swears he is not.

      Me and Astin Jacobo

In nine years as a talent scout, Jacobo says he has signed 60 players to teams, negotiating bonuses ranging from zero to $600,000.  Two of his players made it to the majors, he says.

He justifies taking between 25 percent and 35 percent of signing bonuses, explaining that he has expenses that include feeding and boarding prospects, paying for medical care, and even paying for some family expenses.  “I make an investment with no guarantees; why shouldn’t I get that back when I can,” he asks.

Jacobo says he and other scouts have met once with Alderson to discuss reform, something he agrees is necessary.  “We don’t want these kids shooting up with steroids; we don’t want to deal with them lying about their ages,” he said. “That hurts our business, but we need to be included in how the reform is going to be done.”  He, like others in his business, fears an international draft being implemented and destroying Dominican baseball as it currently exists.

“I don’t think Alderson is listening,” Jacobo said.  “I think he wants to do this all by himself, without consulting us, but we are the backbone of Dominican baseball.  He needs to listen to us since we know baseball in this country better than anyone.” But instead of listening to them, Jacobo says Alderson actually told scouts to tone down their rhetoric with the media, trim their criticism of baseball, something he refuses to do.

Jacobo says he and other scouts want to police their own ranks, weeding out the corruption and even certifying their members.  Right now, he says, too many non-baseball types, with little or no experience, moonlight as scouts, something he would eliminate.

I am personally not wise enough in the ways of Dominican baseball to know what is best for the current scouting troops – call them buscónes or not – but I have encountered no one, even those who abhor the corruption in the system, who wants to totally eliminate these talent searchers. Most consider them a necessary evil where the evil needs to be addressed.

Regulating buscónes seems a logical course; at least teams would know who they are dealing with and can apply some standards and rules of conduct.  Jacobo says he is all for that, and for instituting penalties such as suspensions for those who violate the rules.

Those rules could also include compensation guidelines for buscónes.  I personally think 35 percent is extremely high, but I couldn’t tell you what is fair.  But with independent academies springing up to develop talent for teams, some sort of standards are needed.

DRSEA Contact Information in the Dominican Republic