Dominican Republic in baseball

[DAWG61]

Insane stat about the Dominican Republic said during tonight's WBC game. The DR has a population of 10 million. Less than the state of Ohio which has 11 million. The DR accounts for more than 20% of ALL minor league players playing in the MLB minor's system and 10% of all active MLB players. Unreal. Can Cohen start recruiting the Dominican Republic?**

 

[MrCoolDog]

If you ever visit the DR, which I highly recommend, you will see why. There are baseball fields everywhere. They play baseball, and soccer, year round. Everyone. That's all they do. Very few, if any, can afford such distractions as Internet service, televisions or Xbox. But they do live within walking distance of a baseball field.

 

[shotgunDawg]

The biggest reason for this is that the DR's best athletes play baseball. In the US, most of our best athletes play football or basketball, and some play baseball. However, the US equivalent to the pool of athleticism that the DR is pulling from would be the same pool of talent that Mullen, Saban, and all SEC football coaches pull from. If you notice, when the DR plays next, guys like Jose Reyes, Robinson Cano, and Hanley Ramirez look a lot more like our football players than they do our baseball players. Jose Reyes looks like a 1st round DB. This isn't a racist post in the slightest, this is a post about the caliber of athlete that is playing baseball in the DR vs the US.

 

[Desoto]

I think the main reason the DR produces so much baseball talent is that is all they do down there. The only way out for them is baseball. They work extremely hard. It's their only way out.