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

by Arturo J. Marcano Guevara

While some Latin American superstars have overcome discrimination to strike gold in baseball's big leagues, thousands more Latin American players never make it to "The Show." Stealing Lives focuses on the plight of one Venezuelan teenager and documents abuses that take place against Latin children and young men as baseball becomes a global business. The authors reveal that in their efforts to secure cheap labor, Major League teams often violate the basic human rights of children. As a young boy growing up in Venezuela, Alexis Quiroz dreamed of playing in the Major Leagues. Alexis's dreams were like those of thousands of other boys in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and Major League teams encouraged such dreams by recruiting Latin children as young as 10 and 11 years old. Determined to become a big league player, Alexis finished high school early and dedicated himself to landing a contract with a Major League team. Alexis signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1995 at age 17 and then began a harrowing ordeal of exploitation, mistreatment, and disrespect at the hands of the Chicago Cubs, including playing for the Cubs' Dominican Summer League team in appalling living conditions. Alexis's baseball career came to an abrupt end by an injury for which the Cubs provided no adequate medical treatment. The story continues, however, with Alexis's pursuit of justice in the United States to ensure that other Venezuelan and Dominican boys do not encounter similar experiences. What happened to Alexis is not an isolated case-Major League teams routinely deny Latin children and young men the basic protections that their U.S. counterparts take for granted. This exploitation violates international legal standards on labor standards and the human rights of children. Stealing Lives concludes by analyzing various reforms to redress the inequities big league baseball creates in its globalization.

Genres: Sports, Baseball

280 pages, Hardcover

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.