“It’s really embarrassing.”
David Otis (48), a major league legend and inducted into the Major League Hall of Fame (HOF) last year, has spoken out against his country, the Dominican Republic.
In a recent interview with ESPN, an American sports media, Otis criticized the government of his country. He said the point was that the baseball infrastructure was lousy.
Every year, a number of baseball prospects are born in the major leagues. Among them, Dominica produces as many baseball players as the United States, the home of baseball.
There are many of the world’s best baseball players, such as Manny Machado (31, San Diego Padres), Juan Soto (25, San Diego), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (24, Toronto Blue Jays), who represent the big leagues. New faces such as Jeremy Pena (26, Houston Astros) and Julio Rodriguez (23, Seattle Mariners), who are in their second year in the big leagues, are also slowly emerging.
Dominica is rated as highly likely to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) as the United States. It has such outstanding players that it is called a ‘baseball powerhouse’. 메이저놀이터
However, the baseball infrastructure does not fit the reputation of a ‘baseball powerhouse’. Otis also raised his voice, emphasizing this point. He said, “Dominica produces the most baseball players among Latin countries. However, Dominica has no stadiums approved to host major league games. It’s really embarrassing.”
The Major League Secretariat conducts a world tour for the purpose of expanding the base of baseball. This year, major league games will be held in Mexico (Mexico City) and England (London). However, Dominica is missing from this list every time. This is because the baseball field environment required by the major leagues was not established. This is the biggest reason why Otis does not stop criticizing.
Except for Dominica, it is changing little by little. Recently, Panama announced plans to build a baseball stadium named after the country’s legend, Mariano Rivera (54), led by the government. In this trend, Dominica produced the most baseball players in the major leagues, but faced an ironic situation that its infrastructure could not support.