Minister of Education Andres Navarro met yesterday with representatives of the Major League Baseball Players Union and came to an agreement to create a mixed working commission with the object of promoting academic development of those training to be professional athletes so that these players can have a career options beyond baseball.
Omar Minaya, a former major league general manager and the executive vice president of the Players Union, together with former Major League pitcher Miguel Batista, spoke with Minister Navarro and said that many young players in the Major Leagues have shown interest in such a project and some former players who live outside the country are willing to receive training in order to serve as physical education instructors in the country.
Minaya stressed through a documentary presented to the minister that there is an awareness of the need for these young men who aspire to play professional baseball not to abandon their education in case they do not realize their dreams. With an education these young athletes will have something to fall back on.
Batista argued that a large number of young men under the age of 30 who do not make it to the Major Leagues have little possibility for developing life skills because of their poor academic achievements.
Batista noted that only 4% of Dominican ballplayers who sign with an MLB club make it in the majors. He said that more than 20,000 have fallen by the wayside since the 1950s when Osvaldo Virgil became the first Dominican to walk onto a Major League diamond as player. Batista said that “studies should be plan A and baseball should be plan B.”
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7 Dias
20 April 2017
