miguel said:
I mentioned american players overseas because I was replying to a poster who was saying that there are, also, many good dominicans playing in other countries. Get it?.
I did see the reference you were responding to. Here's the difference. Each MLB team only gets a certain number of visas for your entire organization. So once you've used up your allotment, you can't have anymore foreigners. This is why you rarely see a foreigner as the 25th player on a team. Thus players who might still be able to play in MLB, ie Tony Fernandez, Julio Franco, Offerman, Henry Rodriguez to name a few, go overseas. Such is not the case for the American players. if you go overseas, its because, well you're not that good at the MLB level.
If you are a baseball fan and can go as far as the '70's, you will find out that El Licey won so many times because Lasorda would bring his good american players, from the big leagues and AAA, to play for them. Before and after he did that, Licey had won just a few times.
Again, you simply cannot compare the state of Dominican baseball in the 70's until today. That's like comparing the US dominance in basketball in the 70's and 80's and using that to justify why they will dominate in the next basketball world cup.
Now as for Licey's dominance that you speak about in the 70's, let us delve into their history of winning the Caribbean Series. They won it in 1971, 1973 and 1977, ONLY 1973 was won by Lasorda. 1971 Manny Mota was the manager and Bob Rodgers was the manager in 1977.
BTW, in case you're wondering what they did after Lasorda and his Dodger players left, they also won it in 1980, 1985, 1991, 1994, 1999 and 2003. Not bad, eh?
The thing with some of you guys is that some of you are not baseball fans. Some of you are Dominican players fans.
Sorry, you must have me confused with someone else. If you want to talk about baseball in general, I'd love to do it. I'm a Mets fan. Sucks for me, I know, but if you want to delve into the history of baseball, I'd love to. However the thread won't go far, since it is a DR related website, guess what, the threads should be DR related.
I love good baseball, but cringe when Pujols comes up to the plate against my team. I want him to do well as a Dominican, against other teams, but sure as heck root for him to go 0-4 everytime he plays my Mets.
Pedro started his career 9-0 against the Mets, I hated his guts, because of what he did to my team each time he went to the mound. Then he moved to the AL, and I was able to appreciate his dominance as a baseball fan, knowing my team would only have to face him every few years. Then it would be back to hating Pedro on those outings. So you may want to point that finger elsewhere.
Btw, and I will say it again: lets not make a big deal about this "thing". Many will not be allowed to play. MANY. Some will opt not to play. Gary Sheffield already said that he would not play. He said that he would not risk getting injured since he would not be getting paid.
We can agree about that. The point however is that Selig has received approval from virtually all the owners. Make no mistake, this is a money making venture for MLB, plain and simple and the owners will reap the benefits. Are there risks, sure, however, if the NBA and NHL can take that risk to promote their sports in the Olympics, why can't MLB? Its all about the bottom line.
You know full well, that its diferent for the latin players. No matter how much money Vlad, Tejada and Ortiz make, they still want to play for their country, which is why they play winter ball. There is pressure on these players also to play, not so for the US players, as Sheffield has so eloquently put it.
:bandit: