(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Caribbean Matters: Little League and Major League baseball and the Caribbean [1] [] Date: 2023-08-31 This week in sports, the Little League Baseball championship saw Liga Pabou, the team from Curaçao, from the Little League Caribbean Region go to the final game in the World Series, though they would ultimately lose in an exciting game to California’s El Segundo. When the Caribbean makes news here in the States, the mainstream media is often focused on weather, tourism, and political turmoil, but sports are an important part of both Caribbean culture and island histories and economies. Baseball is one of those key sports and has forged major historical ties between the the U.S. and Caribbean nations. Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean. My husband is a Little League baseball fan and had been watching the League World series competition all this month. Frankly, I admit I know zero about Little League baseball. I have to say that I was surprised to find out that Curaçao, an island with a population of just over 150,000 people, has not only repeatedly fielded a powerhouse Little League team, but also has a high percentage of Major League Baseball players. When I think of popular Caribbean sports, I tend to think of soccer/football and cricket, as well as Jamaican dominance in track and field. Yet baseball has also been a major sport for many decades in the Spanish-speaking nations of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. I got curious about how it arrived and gained popularity in Curaçao, the Papiamento-speaking former Dutch colony, which was part of the Netherlands Antilles until 2010 and is now “a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.” I found this short, mini-documentary from 2020 on the Major League Baseball YouTube channel, which answered my questions about baseball, both Major and Little League, on Curaçao. One of the narrators is Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens, who was the first player from Curaçao to go to the major leagues in the States. x YouTube Video No country produces more Major Leaguers per square mile than the tiny island of Curaçao. During the winter of 2020, we explored how baseball arrived on the island and the stars who led its surge in popularity. The Caribbean nation that has become the most influential in the major leagues is the Dominican Republic. Sportswriter David Venn wrote for MLB.com on this subject: Baseball was introduced to the Dominican Republic in the second half of the 19th century by visitors and expats from Cuba. The first recorded game took place on September 25, 1886, in San Pedro de Macorís between two Cuban teams, Santiago de Cuba and Angelina. Four years later, a professional circuit was established with the local teams Ozama and Nuevo Club. As the game gained popularity in the first part of the 20th century, the country’s most famous professional team to this day, Tigres del Licey, was founded in 1907. To combat the Tigres’ dominance in the following years, a conglomerate of other clubs merged to form Leones del Escogido, with “Escogido” meaning “chosen,” or those players chosen to form the new team. Professional baseball was played, mostly in summer months, in the 1920s and 30s in loosely organized leagues. It wasn’t until 1955, with its official naming and switch to fall/winter schedules, that the Dominican League now known as LIDOM was established in its current form. This 13-minute mini-doc from Vox covers the history and politics of Dominican Republic baseball and its relationship to the U.S. major leagues. x YouTube Video Vox video notes: Baseball has a long history in the United States, but it also has strong roots in the Caribbean and Latin America, particularly in the Dominican Republic. Cubans were the first to bring the game from the US to their country in the 19th century, and later, wealthy Cubans introduced it to the Dominican Republic. Over the following decades, the sport became deeply ingrained in Dominican culture, while in the United States, baseball evolved into a multi-million dollar industry. Eventually, the United States began to seek out Cuban baseball talent. But when diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated, the Dominican Republic emerged as the primary focus of Major League Baseball's talent pipeline. As Dominicans demonstrated their skill and success as baseball players, the MLB started establishing academies in the Dominican Republic, which were affiliated with MLB teams in the United States. This system facilitated the influx of numerous talented Dominican players into MLB teams. Currently, Dominicans dominate Major League Baseball in the United States, making up more than 10 percent of all players in the league. They significantly outnumber players from other foreign-born countries. One of the interesting parts of this history was the fact that until MLB in the U.S. dropped its racial segregation with the recruitment of Jackie Robinson by the Brooklyn Dodgers, most of the Dominican and many of the Cuban and Puerto Rican players who were (and are) Black could not have played here. But Negro League players were welcomed on the islands. I know from my own family history that my aunt, who was married to Negro Leagues player Ed “Ace” Stone, spent the off seasons in Puerto Rico and Cuba. After I watched this, I had a conversation about it with my good friend, Daily Kos community member and former sportswriter Yasuragi, who is my go-to person to discuss all things baseball. She has done many years of research on its development in the DR. She jokingly noted, “The U.S. major leagues and fans should be grateful to Fidel Castro. Without him, they would not have recruited so many amazing players from the DR.” Before closing, I have to note that this month baseball fans celebrated the birthday of the late great Black player and humanitarian from Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente. Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker is one of the greatest athletes and humanitarians of the 20th century. For the people of Puerto Rico he is one of the ultimate symbols of national pride, not just for the records he set but for the lives he touched with his activism and with the simple power of watching someone from your community achieve excellence without compromising their character. Born August 18, 1934 to a laundress named Luisa Walker in Barrio San Antón, Carolina, he went from loading trucks on a sugarcane plantation for his father, Melchor Clemente, to beginning his career with the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League at just 17 years old. Clemente died in a tragic plane crash, on Dec. 31, 1972, on a humanitarian mission to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. x Roberto Clemente playing with the Santurce Crabbers in Puerto Rico from 1952-1954. pic.twitter.com/P8b4M8O7o6 — Baseball In Pics (@baseballinpix) August 25, 2023 x Roberto Clemente was born to play baseball. ⚾️ Happy Birthday to the legendary 1971 World Series MVP, born August 18, 1934. Stream ROBERTO CLEMENTE now on our website or on the PBS app → https://t.co/wPESKrxk4c pic.twitter.com/Dkvnp5rE6h — American Experience (@AmExperiencePBS) August 18, 2023 Many baseball fans would like to see his number, 21, retired by all MLB teams. Hoping baseball fans will join me in the comments section below (warning: I grew up in Brooklyn as a Dodgers fan and now root for the Mets) and I’ll also post the weekly Caribbean News Roundup. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/31/2189974/-Caribbean-Matters-Little-League-and-Major-League-baseball-and-the-Caribbean Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/