Stealing Lives: The Globalization of Baseball and the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz

268 Pages·2002·1.61 MB·English

by  Arturo J. Marcano Guevara

Stealing Lives

L I V E S
The Globalization of Baseball and
the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz
Arturo J. Marcano Guevara
and David P. Fidler
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
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© 2002 by Arturo J. Marcano Guevara and David P. Fidler
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher. The Association of American University Presses’
Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception
to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
manufactured in the united states of america
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marcano Guevara, Arturo J., date
Stealing lives : the globalization of baseball and the tragic story of
Alexis Quiroz / Arturo J. Marcano Guevara, David P. Fidler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-253-34191-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Baseball players—Recruiting—Latin America. 2. Baseball
players—Abuse of—Latin America. 3. Quiroz, Alexis. 4. Major League
Baseball (Organization)—Corrupt practices. 5. Discrimination in
sports—United States. I. Fidler, David P., date II. Title.
GV880.22 .M37 2002
796.357'089'68—dc21
2002005638
1 2 3 4 5 07 06 05 04 03 02
To Alexis Quiroz Castellanos and his family

C O N T E N T S
PREFACE IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI
Part I. Building the Global Ballpark 1
1 The “Golden Age” of Latin American Baseball Talent in
Major League Baseball 3
2 The Globalization of Baseball 8
3 The Structure and Dynamics of Major League Baseball’s
Recruitment of Foreign Baseball Talent 23
Part II. Exploitation and Mistreatment in the Global
Ballpark: The Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz 53
4 “Papá, I Want to Play Baseball!” 55
5 Going to Vietnam 66
6 In Baseball Purgatory 82
7 The Mesa Miracle 93
8 The Dominican Disaster 105
9 “That’s Just Your Story” 119
10 The Pursuit of Justice Goes Terribly Wrong 132
11 Seventh-Inning Stretch: Chicago, New York, Maracay 147
12 The Final Inning 157
viii contents
Part III. Repairing the Global Ballpark 169
13 Human Rights, Labor Standards, and Major League
Baseball’s Exploitation of Children in Latin America 171
14 Global Ballpark Repair Strategies 183
Epilogue 195
197
NOTES
233
BIBLIOGRAPHY
247
INDEX
P R E F A C E
The analysis in this book of the globalization of baseball and especially the
tragic baseball story of Alexis Quiroz directly implicate many individuals who
work for the Chicago Cubs and the Major League Baseball Commissioner’s
Office. Despite repeated invitations and requests from us for interviews, not a
single person at either the Chicago Cubs or the MLB Commissioner’s Office
would grant us an interview. No one from the Chicago Cubs who is involved
in Alexis Quiroz’s story ever returned any of the multiple telephone calls we
made or letters we sent to them. The only formal response we received from
the people involved at the Commissioner’s Office was a letter refusing to grant
us interviews but claiming how proud the Commissioner’s Office is of the way
major league teams recruit baseball players in Latin America.
We also spoke or had contact with a number of Latin major league play-
ers who agreed that serious problems exist in the way major league teams re-
cruit children and young men in Latin America, but who were unwilling to go
on the record with their stories and concerns. We hope this book provides the
foundation on which these and other Latin major league players can build an
effort to convince major league teams to change the exploitative and abusive
system they operate against children and young men in Latin America.
This book attempts to take account of events up to March 8, 2002.