If you have seen the headlines of the major investigation we recently published, “The Dominican Baseball Factory,” you may have wondered: Why is ProPublica, with its serious-sounding mission of accountability and its focus on abuses of power, reporting on baseball?
uncertain
ProPublica → see → baseball
Baseball fans have long marveled at how the Dominican Republic, a tiny island nation with a population akin to Ohio, has produced so many brilliant players — roughly 10% of the major league.
asserted
Republic → marvel → league
Major League Baseball and the owners of its 30 teams have regularly harvested bumper crops of sluggers to build their rosters and their fanbase, including most recently the Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the New York Mets’ Juan Soto and the San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr., whose playing contracts total more than $1.6 billion.
asserted
contracts → harvest → billion
When we hired reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts from The Washington Post as our first reporter dedicated to sports, he arrived with an idea: He’d long heard that the Dominican Republic system that had churned out so many stars was deeply problematic.
asserted
that → hire → stars
Garcia-Roberts wanted to dig into that world, not just to explain how it operated but to identify the individuals who were taking advantage of the young players and those who were allowing it to happen.
asserted
it → want → players
What if he was afforded the time to track a promising young player — a potential superstar — as he was plucked from obscurity by a major league team?
asserted
he → afford → team
Even prepped, Garcia-Roberts was surprised by what he found: For generations, poor parents in the Dominican Republic have shunted their children into an unforgiving juggernaut of baseball academies praying for a chance at a life-altering signing bonus from an MLB team.
asserted
parents → preppe → team
Since the bonus could not be delivered until age 16, teams had begun locking up talent younger and younger with verbal IOUs.
uncertain
teams → deliver → IOUs
As for the kids who don’t make the cut, well, they paid with their childhoods, and sometimes with their health.
asserted
they → make → health
Garcia-Roberts also detailed the rapacious industry that had sprung up around these young players and their parents: Trainers and moneylenders, he found, were siphoning away those signing bonuses with predatory, high-interest loans and other, often questionable, claims before they even arrived.
uncertain
they → detail → loans
Significantly, Garcia-Roberts found, MLB itself has long known about the often brutal world surrounding its youngest prospects.
asserted
MLB → find → prospects
The players union has as well; Dominican players, led by former Boston Red Sox star David “Big Papi” Ortiz, have argued against efforts to establish an international draft — a move that would end early bonuses, cutting off a revenue stream for moneylenders.
asserted
that → have → moneylenders
Ortiz told players, according to an audio message, that an international draft would be “trouble” for people in the Dominican Republic.
uncertain
draft → tell → Republic
In a statement sent through his lawyer, Ortiz told Garcia-Roberts that his opposition to the proposal “was never motivated by personal interests.”
asserted
opposition → send → interests
There’s big money in sports, and with it lots of reasons to explore how it is being wielded and who is paying the cost.
asserted
who → ’ → cost
And that is why ProPublica is diving in.
asserted
ProPublica → dive → ?
These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find a slice of society untouched by the Big Money tentacles of the sports industry — and the lack of accountability that often goes along with them.
asserted
that → press → them
Your tax dollars likely paid for much or all of it, despite its billionaire owners (while you may not be able to afford a ticket — unless it’s to a Mets game).
uncertain
it → pay → game
You may have experienced the boggling cost of travel teams or noted that private equity is buying up leagues and tournaments.
uncertain
equity → experience → leagues
The ads for online gambling can seem as ubiquitous as the score, luring legions into a new scourge of addiction.
asserted
ads → seem → addiction
And the Los Angeles Lakers just sold for $12.5 billion!
asserted
Lakers → sell → billion
With a B, amid, of course, a scandal about how the previous owner financed his purchase.
asserted
owner → finance → purchase
All of that big money is ramping up just as the landscape of sports journalism has contracted along with the larger media industry.
What ProPublica brings to sports is the time, the skill set and the resources to go beyond the games and the individual stories.
asserted
brings → ramp → games
Our approach to investigative reporting required Garcia-Roberts to get inside the system, to find out how it works and who is being harmed, and then reveal who is responsible and who is preventing the problems from being fixed.
asserted
who → require → problems
Without the expectation to cover games or daily sports news, reporters like Garcia-Roberts won’t be hamstrung by what one of my colleagues called “the conundrum of access.”
asserted
one → cover → access
You dig out the unsightly bits and suddenly your sources dry up and with them your scoops.
asserted
sources → dig → them
And we haven’t covered a topic so long that we have become blind to its flaws.
asserted
we → cover → flaws
In 2021, reporters Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Ellis Simani were scrutinizing a trove of federal tax data and noticed that the billionaire owners of the nation’s sports teams were taking fat write-offs on team assets, from media deals to player contracts.
asserted
owners → scrutinize → contracts
In 2015, former ProPublica reporter David Epstein wrote about how one of the most powerful track coaches in the world was accused of experimenting with testosterone and pressuring athletes to use prescription medications they didn’t need to gain a performance benefit.
asserted
they → write → benefit
The story touched off an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency that eventually led to the coach’s four-year ban.
asserted
that → touch → ban
And most recently, Molly Hensley-Clancy, in partnership with The Washington Post, published an investigation that found a youth sports giant failed to put in place promised reforms to prevent child abuse.
asserted
giant → publish → abuse
You can expect to see more of ProPublica’s reporting on sports in coming months, and like the box scores, they will be spelling out who is winning and who is losing.
asserted
who → expect → scores
That’ll just likely mean something different to us.
asserted
That → mean → us
If you’d like to read those stories, we’d love to send our Big Story newsletter right to your inbox.
asserted
we → like → inbox
In the meantime, if you have a story tip for a terrific sports investigation, or just something sports-related you think we should know, we’d love to hear it.
asserted
we → have → it
The Aporia
