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

by Arturo J. Marcano Guevara, David P. Fidler

While some Latin American superstars have overcome a history of discrimination to strike gold in baseball's big leagues, there are thousands more who never make it to "The Show." Stealing Lives focuses on the plight of one Venezuelan teenager and documents the abuses that take place as baseball becomes a globalized business. The authors reveal that in their efforts to secure cheap labor, Major League teams often violate basic human rights.Lured by promises of fame and fortune and the encouragement of baseball scouts, many Dominican and Venezuelan boys leave school by the age of 12. Alexis Quiroz was 14 when he decided he would like to be a professional baseball player, and a relatively mature 17 when he joined one of the Chicago Cubs' Latin American academies in 1995. He was deceived by a scout into signing a contract written in English. The scout pocketed a third of Quiroz's $6,000 signing bonus and misled him in other ways as well. Playing in the Dominican summer league (a kind of baseball purgatory), Alexis and other young hopefuls were housed in slum dwellings. Their food was inadequate, and the ballparks in which they played were rundown and poorly equipped. Worst of all for Alexis, no medical care was provided for sick or injured players. At the age of 18, he suffered an injury. His baseball career ended abruptly when he was cut from the team.

Alexis's story is not an anomaly: Latin American recruits are routinely denied the basic protections that their U.S. counterparts take for granted. This exploitation violates international legal standards on labor and the rights of children. Stealing Lives concludes by proposing reforms to redress the inequities created when baseballmeets globalization.

Genres: Sports, Baseball

268 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times it was academic in language and repeated points within the same page. It was written by academics, so that makes plenty of sense. The boo truly shines when they get into the story of Alex Quiroz and the seemingly endless broken promises and neglect by representatives of Major League Baseball. Since this was written in 2002, info on MLB's policies and procedures could be outdated by now. Its still a valuable historic reference into Latin American players' role in and pursuit of the major leagues, as well as how dangerous it could be. I'll never look at Latin baseball players the same way again, especially those from the 90s-2000s.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is outdated but the information is good. I'm glad to have seen with my own eyes that MLB has made improvements in the system (although still not perfect). The bigger issue now, I believe, is in the system that gets the boys to the major leagues. Things are still very broken but I'm glad to know it is being talked about. Alexi's story made me literally sick to my stomach.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book years ago. It gets at least three stars because it's about how the Cubs organization is made up of bad people.