Overview
The Dominican Republic provides almost 20% of professional baseball players in the United States. In a country where many are very poor, the sport is one of the few routes out for young men. But the cost of failure at 18 years old can be devastating. In the United States, Major League teams can't sign a player until he has a high school diploma, usually at the age of 18 or 19. Dominican Republic law allows children to leave school at just 14 and sign when they're 16, so the US teams can sign them up earlier. As a consequence, the teams pay the most for players when they're 16. But these boys know they have a limited shelf life. In two years they will be worth a lot less and may have missed their chance to get signed at all.
-
13 - 1Terror in Sudan April 13, 2012 -
13 - 2Baghdad Bomb Squad April 20, 2012
-
13 - 3Afghanistan: Lights, Camera, Death Threats April 27, 2012
-
13 - 4Congo: Magic, Gangs & Wrestlers May 11, 2012
-
13 - 5Ukraine: The Teenagers Who Live Underground May 18, 2012
-
13 - 6The Monkey Business May 25, 2012
-
13 - 7Libya: My Week with Gunmen June 01, 2012
-
13 - 8Honduras: The Lost Girls June 08, 2012
-
13 - 9USA: Talk Radio Nation November 02, 2012
-
13 - 10Indonesia's Tobacco Children November 09, 2012
-
13 - 11Dominican Republic: Baseball Dreams November 16, 2012
-
13 - 12The Master Chef of Mogadishu November 23, 2012
-
13 - 13Mumbai's Party Police November 30, 2012
-
13 - 14Egypt: Sex, Mobs and Revolution December 07, 2012
-
13 - 15Russia's Radical Chic December 14, 2012
-
13 - 16Burma: The Village that Took on the Generals December 21, 2012