The UCLA International Institute will host a conversation about the Dominican Republic’s contributions to American professional baseball from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 25, at the UCLA Faculty Center’s Redwood Room.
The Dominican Republic provided Major League Baseball with 83 players on opening-day rosters in the 2015 season. Talented professional baseball players such as Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz and Vladimir Guerrero, have all hailed from the island. Professional baseball, an increasingly international sport, has become a major economic and cultural institution that employs thousands of Dominican workers in the training of baseball prospects.
The event, "You can't Walk Off the Island," will feature the insights of the 2003 Rawlings Woman Executive of the Year Luchy Guerra, the former assistant director of international player development for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who was responsible for the immigration and assimilation of the Dodgers’ international ballplayers from 1992 to 2008. Also speaking will be UCLA alumni baseball player Art Harris, who joined the Dodgers’ scouting department in 1986 and appeared in the 2012 film “Moneyball.”
Reservations can be made online. The conversation is free and open to the public.
