The Sporting News isn't worth the toilet paper it's printed on, but they recently did a listing of the top 50 baseball players in MLB.
By region (country/state) the Dominican Republic had 6 of the top 50. California also had 6. Of the next few listings were Venezuela and Puerto Rico with 4 & 3 respectively.
By round numbers the DR is about 9 million, California has about 35 million (not counting all the illegals).
Considering the public schooling, pristine fields, overabundance of youth leagues, travel teams, excellent coaching, facilities and training opportunities in Cali, vs. what odds the typical Dominican must overcome to achieve JUST an opportunity in baseball as such, is amazing to me.
It has to be one of the most staggering phenomenons I've ever come across in all of sports. An unofficial count of the 40 man rosters on opening day lists 90 plus Dominicans, even more staggering is that 26 of them are (listed) from Santo Domingo.
Don't get lost in the idea that, for example, Manny Ramirez is just a shade more Dominican than my white-bread arse?and is listed as being from S.D.?but also note that sissy-slapper GAYRod is not listed as Dominican in the second set of numbers I'm referring to (40-man MLB rosters).
Regardless of semantics, to consider that there are more ML'ers from one city of 3-4 million people (S.D.) than any single state (in the country where the sport was born) and whose boarders boast 100x the people is mind-boggling.
Top Export is 'talent'.
Anybody with me? Or am I just our riding my bike?
By region (country/state) the Dominican Republic had 6 of the top 50. California also had 6. Of the next few listings were Venezuela and Puerto Rico with 4 & 3 respectively.
By round numbers the DR is about 9 million, California has about 35 million (not counting all the illegals).
Considering the public schooling, pristine fields, overabundance of youth leagues, travel teams, excellent coaching, facilities and training opportunities in Cali, vs. what odds the typical Dominican must overcome to achieve JUST an opportunity in baseball as such, is amazing to me.
It has to be one of the most staggering phenomenons I've ever come across in all of sports. An unofficial count of the 40 man rosters on opening day lists 90 plus Dominicans, even more staggering is that 26 of them are (listed) from Santo Domingo.
Don't get lost in the idea that, for example, Manny Ramirez is just a shade more Dominican than my white-bread arse?and is listed as being from S.D.?but also note that sissy-slapper GAYRod is not listed as Dominican in the second set of numbers I'm referring to (40-man MLB rosters).
Regardless of semantics, to consider that there are more ML'ers from one city of 3-4 million people (S.D.) than any single state (in the country where the sport was born) and whose boarders boast 100x the people is mind-boggling.
Top Export is 'talent'.
Anybody with me? Or am I just our riding my bike?