Lying about ages is mentioned in Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" (1970). He said some players had a real age and a "baseball age" which was much younger. Ball Four is a great book.
"Baseball age" goes back AT LEAST to the end of segregation. Ballplayers from the Black Leagues were more desirable to the Majors if they were under thirty and guys like Bill Bruton and Sam Jethro would fudge their ages.
I know a kid in Caracas, Venezuela who is not even 4 yet who rakes like a gardener and has already been promoted within the Tiburones BBC system. He could sign by the time he's 5.
@mgloco88 I'm the fetus you're talking about and the 1.3 million was just the signing bonus. The actual contract is a 5 year, 15 million dollar deal. Give me a call next time you're down here and we'll go grab a drink together. I'm sure I'll be born by then
I lived in the DR for a service mission about 15 years ago and ran into all sorts of issues with people not having IDs because there was no record of their birth. It was common practice to use a family member's birth certificate to get an ID even with people who were not baseball prospects. The record keeping is not functional, especially in the less urbanized area. I also witnessed kids that were 14-15 having their coaches casually give them steroids in the middle of a conversation. It is just part of the culture because if the kid can make it out of the country, that not only guarantees the kid financial security but also their whole extended family financial freedom.
@@iTalkStudios yeah John Copella he was this really tall guy and we used to give rides home to his son I only learned it when me dad was talking to the guys at the card shop I used to go to about him and how he had gotten banned from baseball years ago
Never had this issue back when baseball was just a summer game and a part time job. MLB will never stop this. These kids have nothing in the DR and will do anything to play in the U.S.
They can be musicians. That's generally considered the other way to "get off the island". It's not even that unusual for someone to be both. We had José Lima show up at our gig at the Rumba Room (October 9, 2004, it was still on Wilshire then and not over by Universal Studios) and he asked to sit in with us to sing a few songs. He was quite good, too, although by his own admission that was never going to get him off the island because "quite good" won't cut it in mainstream music any more than it will in Major League Baseball. He still fronted his own band back in the DR during the off-season. He brought his wife, too. (I presume they came straight from the stadium, though I didn't ask.) She seemed absolutely burned out and stayed backstage in the green room the majority of the time we were there, but she was probably dragged along by the tide of events and never had a chance to ask to get off the crazy train that day. I have to guess he met her in the U.S., since she was white and slightly nerdy. She did go out and mingle with the crowd for the first half of the third set, but when her husband left the stage, she was ready to go home.
@@izzydoesrandomthings2949- no, you hold the parents accountable. And yes, the LLWS had every right and responsibility to strip the team of the title. They used an ineligible player who had the most direct impact on them winning several of the games.
Leave Pujols out of this. If you can't get evidence saying he lied after this long then he's the age he says he is. You telling me he lied about his age to play HS ball in Missouri and get drafted in the 13th round? Do some real research instead of just insinuating he lied without proof
I remember watching the 2001 LL WS on family vacation in NC, and they were all the same age as me at the time, and we were blown away at how dominant Danny almonte was. We thought he might be too old, but figured the little league did their due-diligence to make sure
I actually played against pailino little league in New York mid 90s. And as soon as I saw almonte throwing that hard I instantly told my pops that kid was older than the other kids. I knew because everytime the all star selection from my league played against them my coach would notice a new player that wasn't on the team just the game before. They were known for bringing kids from DR that were around 15 to play against 12 -13 year olds
Putting "gate" at the end of whatever scandal may be happening is the laziest shit. Watergate was a hotel. I never stayed at the Agegate hotel. I heard Wander did though, HEYOHHHHH!
Implicating Pujols is classless, based on nothing. You should, at the least, include that if he was 25, not 20, his rookie year... He would've shattered the homerun record. That's at least 800.
Frankly most of us don't care that much about a lie where the only difference the fake age makes is that they get paid better. They'd be playing in the same league if they registered their correct ages, so as far as the public is concerned, it's not our problem. Screwing over kids by falsifying documents though, that's a problem.
Maybe.. Just maybe people should stop recruiting children altogether and MLB should have to vet every player (international and domestic). It's their job to regulate the league, so do it.
Solution: Instead of teams having their own development systems in these countries, there is an MLB-run set of systems that all teams have access to. There is no international amateur free agent signing, but rather a draft that all players in the pipeline of a certain age become eligible for. The MLB itself does age verification, and no player under the age of 21 is allowed to be signed by an mlb team without coming through the pipeline. Teams and players have no incentive to change, so take their power away.
Pujols was DRAFTED... DRAFTED when he was 19. I don't see him having a chance to cheat because he left DR to LIVE in the US not to play baseball. Why would he lie if we see players over 22 getting drafted top 5? Somebody's gonna have to unravel those tricks for me to understand Blame the parents, blame the academies, blame the teams. I see disgusting when they ''buy'' 10, 11, 12 years old kids. I'm not a fan of the draft, but something should be done against the already mention guilties. Another edge is that people from other countries (Haiti) come with no birth certificate, even go to school without it. we have seen a growth in contracts from that country but with Dominican documentation that tends to be altered .
Hold tournaments of 16 17 and 18 19 yr olds, make them play eachother have a draft like everything else no signing before 18 spend money on baseball in their cities give all kids who qualify as prospects the same amount a year 5k no more signing anyone hold drafts that way top prospects help loser teams first teams can trade picks to move up in line etc just like the nfl and nba make them play til their 18 that way they wont lie if youre good at 16, youll be better at 18 if your 20 then that means you waited passed 18 19 and took a chance, you may never be picked which no one will do problem solved next case 😉
To me that is an agents and coaches issues trying to make more money for themself, not for the prospect,,so if MLB want to punishe someone they have to punish agents and coaches ,not the kids ,,the kids just want to play baseball.
You guys might not believe me but I know guys that are 17 trowing 92 18 trowing 93 and they don’t like them . They said that they are old . I know guy that plays random team That in every game he plays at least one home run but he’s like 20 . He make two home runs of me I think , I myself am kinda good but I know that if I go to dr I’ll get laugh at . I have a friend that at 15 being lefty was training 80 and guess what happens 😑. I wish it was different, that age restrictions
So wait... you can strip a title from a little league team when ONE player's parents lie about their kids age, but the Astros get to keep their 2017 title??? How does that make any sense?????? Edit: Whoa, I had no idea how many butt hurt Astros fans would see this comment
This is a minor issue compared to salary inequities that allow a handful of teams to spend huge amounts of money on their teams while small markets struggle and can only hope that their minor leagues allow them to build talent and then they cant keep these players for more than 1-3 years. The non-competitiveness of each baseball league robs the ;league of eyeballs to watch their games. It's not getting better!
Something similar happened when my brother and I were in the youth baseball league in Fort Walton Beach, Florida in 1985. I was in the 13-16 year old division and my brother was in the 9-12 year old division. If you turned 13 by July 1, you were in the older kids division, and with my birthday in April, that put me in that division. Our neighbor and friend Mike turned 13 in either late July or early August, so he was in the younger kids division and was on my brother's team. As he was bigger than the other kids on the team and was fairly tall for his age, parents of kids on other teams accused my brother's team of having a player older than the age limit.
Junior Felix is believed to be as much as 10 years older than his "baseball age," which is why his major league career fizzled out so quickly after a promising beginning.
Players would be more honest with their ages if scouts didn't see older youths as less desirable. And it's a damn shame teams don't update their antiquated scouting methods. We need to grow the game and give everybody a chance.
Have you been to the Dominican ? There is no problem. These guys work their ass off to have the opportunity to play . They have nothing there . Wish Americas worked as hard as these guys .
If I recall correctly before he was part of the Alex Rodriguez trade between the Yankees and Texas, Alfonso Soriano was reported to be 26 and as part of the trade (checking medical records I assume) it came out that he was actually 28.
When you come from a impoverished background. You have to do whatever it takes to make it out…. You can’t blame these kids from Dominican Republic Cuba Venezuela Colombia Panama Mexico Sorry not sorry
I gotta be honest, I'm kinda shocked that you say the young players lying about their age is the problem when teams have actually developed the mindset that being 16 years old diminishes their value to such an extent. I understand the need to develop talent, but we're talking about kids that are over a decade away from their prime, and may not even be playing for the same team by that time. If this is how things are, they deserve to be lied to. It's insane.
imagine a Domnican magazine investigator looking in to civil books in the US? There were a lot of people involved mostly the team owner i forgot his name but he eve paid dannys family, Today danny is a coach for school in morris park section of the bronx, it sucks cause he could of have a future, ruined by fking greety peeps, my quesion is ho many other countries are investigated? do they go to cuba or venezuela?
Or better solution, don’t make kids feel like they are worthless by the time they turn 16. Look at Elly de la Cruz, he had dedicated his entire life to baseball from the age of 5, living away from his family, and at 16 he was about to pack up and go home because no scout had taken an interest in him. It’s only by a slim chance that he’s in the Reds today. Between the age of 18-21 he grew 4 inches, and has become a phenom in his rookie year in the MLB at just 21 yrs old and 6’5”. So many other amazing talents have probably been wasted because they were passed over for being 16!
I dont blame them for some guys saying they're younger than they are. It gives them a better chance to get signed. Bartlo Colon is definitely a good example. He was throwing 84 mph when he was scounted but the indians took a chance on him because he said he was 18. He was really 20 and if he hadnt said he was younger he'd probably never be signed and then improve to become the legend he is now.
If a person is legally of age, which means 18 in the modern world, what they say their age is, or what their age is listed as is irrelevant. They're paid to play, and if they can play, where's the beef? Making deals as a minor is another matter. Then again, in the United States, prep football players announce commitments to collegiate programs at an early age. I don't think these early commitments are legally binding, and there cannot be a quid pro quo above the table. But they still are announced.
The key to this issue is the lack of good governance in these nations. Things we take for granted in the US are spotty at best. From birth certificates to documented education systems to even a law based judicial system. Every nation with poor governance is also a nation that is targeted by both its own government and others. So the question one must ask is this; why are nations like the Dominican Republic so poorly governed? Because in spite of the poverty, exploitation, and abuse that comes with such a situation, the people are accepting of it. That's it. The whole story. From their perspective, MLB is offering a way out of the place and they are likely not interested in fixing the problem. Which, again, is NOT an MLB problem, but a government problem.
Well you are comparing the richest and most powerful country ever known to man, to a small island that’s 300 times smaller. Actually part of an island, as on the other side of the island you have Haiti. Dom Rep has actually done pretty well compared to most of its neighbors. Their government, unlike Haiti’s, has been able to create a wildly successful country with an enormous GDP and one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. They have advanced metro systems, their tourism industry is bigger than all other countries in the Caribbean combined, their farming industry is the best in the region, with them being able to produce everything they consume themselves and have enough to export to Haiti, Cuba and the US, and so on. But of course it is still just a small developing country and it’s not perfect. The birth certificate process has been an issue for decades. It’s not just ball players, people all over the country have the wrong dates on their birth certificate, because the way it has always worked is that usually the father goes to their local city hall and registers the child’s birth and obtains the birth certificate while the mother is still in the hospital or at home recovering with the baby. And unfortunately men tend to make many mistakes with these things. In rural towns, it’s probably much easier to get an official document with the wrong birthdate and I’m sure some players’ parents still take advantage of that.
there is documentary on miguel sano's signing process as he signed the biggest bonus in history at the time, it's called "pelotero (ballplayer)" and it covers a lot of this.
No best is when they caught glimpses of little league pitcher that had a special glove made since he pitched both right and left handed and eventually needed a rule put in play the pitchers that are like this must pick what arm they are using for the batter so switch hitters can’t constantly just move to the other side of the plate then pitcher just switch hands. Forgot who made it in the MLB being able to do this but a little leaguer was like this
full disclosure#1: this is super long (sorry) but, imho, pretty worth reading for folks who’ve spent way too much time thinking about u.s. professional sports way too much. full disclosure#2: grew up hating all houston teams due to simple geography (dallas), & this is when they all sucked (most of time/mid to late 80s+). exceptions: pre jr richard’s heartbreaking tragedy (virdon’s on hook for that collapse imho) & obvi the dream (ao) & his teams were unimpeachable. oilers never not a joke-even when good. but more than anything i always hated houston fans w/ a venom equaling the stupidity (geography/tribalism/indoctrination) in my reasoning (mostly). every fanbase has its low-hanging fruit & i was just a kid (at first). basically, i’ve grown up a bit & recognized some patterns i now both disavow & try to own. but c’mon, nobody (me) imagined astros being moved to a.l. & becoming the juggernaut they did/are. these 2 things & their unique unlikeability (yeah, me again) renewed my hatred which had zero to do w/ being lifelong rangers fan (yeah, sarcasm). fyi, being half-life cowboy fan gave me some perspective & so much eventual shame (would rather watch cowboy game w/ ♾️ eagles fans than 1 cowboy fan). almost there . . . all that said, the following ‘excuses’ for ‘getting caught’ cheating will never not be laughable, moronic & pathetic: 1. everybody was doing it 2. it was going on for years 3. it’s ancient history, get over it 4. any other excuse while all of these are true to extent, using them makes one a sad, small & silly person. & i should know b/c i’ve been that person. so the ones who need to let it go, accept the shame & learn to carry it are the astros (specifically) & their fans (who had nothing to do w/ the actual goddamned cheating). then the rest of us not as good at cheating should follow suit. & then we can all get together & realize that mlb-the owners & their water boys, err, commissioners-are always the ones responsible for these type scandals, & essentially all others. it’s called banking in case y’all hadn’t noticed that whole money angle. alright, maybe not worth reading all this. my bad.
I'm latino and i have heard about it, but as I know they take one year off, so even if Soto was older he would be 26 maybe 27, that makes no noticeable difference on the looks of 25.
I don’t think so. Juan Soto is from the same neighborhood I’m from in DR, which is smack in the center of the Capital city. Everything there is very modernized and official. It would be extremely difficult to obtain official documents with the wrong age. That’s probably the only reason he didn’t do it. It’s much easier to do that when you come from these small rural towns that most of those kids come from. Which means he probably also grew up middle to upper middle class, with less of an urgency to make it than these other poor kids do, so less of a reason to lie. Of course anything is possible but I would say he’s one of the least likely candidates.
I went to Highschool with Danny, He hated that he was only ever known for that. Dude was a great pitcher and led us to two championships in his three years there.
I guess treating teens like adults is a thing in the dominican republic too bad for wander franco he couldnt find an 18yrold in the dominican republic who wasnt all smashed in by 18 😂
If a player is 19 he won’t get 50k he won’t get signed at all in DR if you are 16 your already too old to get signed if you haven’t commited to a team at 14 so if your 19 and the only way your gonna get signed is by lying then that’s what’s gonna happen either poor or help out your family players in DR don’t care what people in the USA think of think of them because your not gonna help out his mom who’s making less than 20 dollars a week working 12 hours a day
What will happen to the 50 nullifoed agreements? Have the investigators establish a "real age"? If so imagine a current kid currently 15, lied about his age to get his bonus, but said kid will turn 16 sometime in the calender year 2024 and will then be eligible to be signed. I know the Orioles still have slightly over $2M left in their bonus pool. That would have been genius on their part knowing this would happen and then have the ability to scoop several "million dollar bonus babies" up throughout the course of the year as they begin to actually turn 16. Wishful thinking perhaps?
Pro sports is a waste of money. Horrible people get a free ride to secondary education because they can play a sport and end up leaving to go pro without graduating. Every NFL player states what school they went to at every chance, yet no menton of grades or what they even majored in. What a sham.
Yup this is why there are so many errors on birth certificates. And to top it off it’s usually the father who goes to register the child birth while the mom is still in the hospital or recovering and 7 out of 10 times they put the wrong birth date. My mom is 2 years younger than she really is according to her birth certificate and my dad is a year and a month older 😅
Any international player should only be signed as a free agent with zero signing bonus. That solves the problem. The opportunity should be payment enough for any international player to get their work visa for the season.
His problem with this seems absurd, I mean it's not like taking steroids. What difference does it make if you lie about your age in baseball? Obviously, it's a big deal if you're a Little Leaguer but not if you're a pro ballplayer.
so interesting how we have these facilities in 3rd world nations to create baseball players when we have poor Americans that cant afford to play baseball in the US. So interesting how that works.
Tbh nobody truly has it rough in the Dominican. There’s poverty yes. But you can easily survive and thrive there and you can live a happy life even with poverty there. The other half of the island is a legit nightmare.
@@wintyforever I'm sure it's a better place to live than here seeing as they're not dealing with a Thought Police that has successfully neutered the majority of their masculinity...
Lying about ages is mentioned in Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" (1970). He said some players had a real age and a "baseball age" which was much younger. Ball Four is a great book.
"Baseball age" goes back AT LEAST to the end of segregation. Ballplayers from the Black Leagues were more desirable to the Majors if they were under thirty and guys like Bill Bruton and Sam Jethro would fudge their ages.
It makes a fellow proud to be an Astro!
I know a kid in Caracas, Venezuela who is not even 4 yet who rakes like a gardener and has already been promoted within the Tiburones BBC system. He could sign by the time he's 5.
I know a kid who's still in the mother's womb in the Dominican Republic who just signed a 1.3 million dollar deal with the Yankees.
@mgloco88 I'm the fetus you're talking about and the 1.3 million was just the signing bonus. The actual contract is a 5 year, 15 million dollar deal. Give me a call next time you're down here and we'll go grab a drink together. I'm sure I'll be born by then
The Detroit Tigers were actually considering signing one of Miguel Cabrera's sperm cells as his retirement was looming last season
I heard Wander Franco also nullified somebody's agreement for being too old
No
The girls birth certificate said shes 18. That's his story anyways.
Funny guy.
Damn. That's a good joke
I lived in the DR for a service mission about 15 years ago and ran into all sorts of issues with people not having IDs because there was no record of their birth. It was common practice to use a family member's birth certificate to get an ID even with people who were not baseball prospects. The record keeping is not functional, especially in the less urbanized area. I also witnessed kids that were 14-15 having their coaches casually give them steroids in the middle of a conversation. It is just part of the culture because if the kid can make it out of the country, that not only guarantees the kid financial security but also their whole extended family financial freedom.
That braves gm was my assistant little league coach a few years ago lol
Hahaha really??
he was scouting bro
Aint no way
@@iTalkStudios yeah John Copella he was this really tall guy and we used to give rides home to his son I only learned it when me dad was talking to the guys at the card shop I used to go to about him and how he had gotten banned from baseball years ago
based
Never had this issue back when baseball was just a summer game and a part time job. MLB will never stop this. These kids have nothing in the DR and will do anything to play in the U.S.
They can be musicians. That's generally considered the other way to "get off the island". It's not even that unusual for someone to be both. We had José Lima show up at our gig at the Rumba Room (October 9, 2004, it was still on Wilshire then and not over by Universal Studios) and he asked to sit in with us to sing a few songs. He was quite good, too, although by his own admission that was never going to get him off the island because "quite good" won't cut it in mainstream music any more than it will in Major League Baseball. He still fronted his own band back in the DR during the off-season.
He brought his wife, too. (I presume they came straight from the stadium, though I didn't ask.) She seemed absolutely burned out and stayed backstage in the green room the majority of the time we were there, but she was probably dragged along by the tide of events and never had a chance to ask to get off the crazy train that day. I have to guess he met her in the U.S., since she was white and slightly nerdy. She did go out and mingle with the crowd for the first half of the third set, but when her husband left the stage, she was ready to go home.
Almonte's NY team didn't win the LLWS in 2001. They lost in the US final to Florida. Japan won the championship over Florida.
As the MLB says…Let the kids play! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He was two feet taller than everyone else in the game. He was not a victim.
So you'd plan to hold the 14 year old accountable?
@@izzydoesrandomthings2949 Read my post.
@@izzydoesrandomthings2949- no, you hold the parents accountable. And yes, the LLWS had every right and responsibility to strip the team of the title. They used an ineligible player who had the most direct impact on them winning several of the games.
Thank you sooooo much for doing a video on this topic!!
Leave Pujols out of this. If you can't get evidence saying he lied after this long then he's the age he says he is.
You telling me he lied about his age to play HS ball in Missouri and get drafted in the 13th round? Do some real research instead of just insinuating he lied without proof
I remember watching the 2001 LL WS on family vacation in NC, and they were all the same age as me at the time, and we were blown away at how dominant Danny almonte was. We thought he might be too old, but figured the little league did their due-diligence to make sure
I actually played against pailino little league in New York mid 90s. And as soon as I saw almonte throwing that hard I instantly told my pops that kid was older than the other kids. I knew because everytime the all star selection from my league played against them my coach would notice a new player that wasn't on the team just the game before. They were known for bringing kids from DR that were around 15 to play against 12 -13 year olds
Putting "gate" at the end of whatever scandal may be happening is the laziest shit.
Watergate was a hotel. I never stayed at the Agegate hotel. I heard Wander did though, HEYOHHHHH!
I remember Watergategate, that was somethinggate.
@@GizmoBeach lol
Journalismgate.
Implicating Pujols is classless, based on nothing. You should, at the least, include that if he was 25, not 20, his rookie year... He would've shattered the homerun record. That's at least 800.
Why assume Soto did it right if this is the level of charitability you're going off.
Frankly most of us don't care that much about a lie where the only difference the fake age makes is that they get paid better. They'd be playing in the same league if they registered their correct ages, so as far as the public is concerned, it's not our problem.
Screwing over kids by falsifying documents though, that's a problem.
Maybe.. Just maybe people should stop recruiting children altogether and MLB should have to vet every player (international and domestic). It's their job to regulate the league, so do it.
Been going on forever. Personally, I would never sign a Latino player to a multi-yr deal after he was 30.
Imagine if wander Franco was actually 17 right now.
I wouldn’t have had to throw out his Rookie Card
Solution: Instead of teams having their own development systems in these countries, there is an MLB-run set of systems that all teams have access to. There is no international amateur free agent signing, but rather a draft that all players in the pipeline of a certain age become eligible for. The MLB itself does age verification, and no player under the age of 21 is allowed to be signed by an mlb team without coming through the pipeline.
Teams and players have no incentive to change, so take their power away.
21 is a bit extreme id say 18 just so it’s even just how it is here in the states
Sounds quite viable. Get the proposal out to those who can do something about it.
Pujols was DRAFTED... DRAFTED when he was 19. I don't see him having a chance to cheat because he left DR to LIVE in the US not to play baseball. Why would he lie if we see players over 22 getting drafted top 5? Somebody's gonna have to unravel those tricks for me to understand
Blame the parents, blame the academies, blame the teams. I see disgusting when they ''buy'' 10, 11, 12 years old kids. I'm not a fan of the draft, but something should be done against the already mention guilties.
Another edge is that people from other countries (Haiti) come with no birth certificate, even go to school without it. we have seen a growth in contracts from that country but with Dominican documentation that tends to be altered .
Hold tournaments of 16 17 and 18 19 yr olds, make them play eachother
have a draft like everything else
no signing before 18
spend money on baseball in their cities
give all kids who qualify as prospects the same amount a year 5k
no more signing anyone
hold drafts
that way top prospects help loser teams first
teams can trade picks to move up in line etc
just like the nfl and nba
make them play til their 18
that way they wont lie
if youre good at 16, youll be better at 18
if your 20 then that means you waited passed 18 19
and took a chance, you may never be picked
which no one will do
problem solved
next case 😉
Normally I would doubt the title... But this is baseball... And this is Issac.
Great video . Just stumbled on to your content not too long ago, love the channel
WHO GETS SCREWED ARE AMERICAN PLAYERS WHO ARE HONEST . THEY LOSE OUT ON THEIR BONUSES AND TO EVEN SIGN. WAKE UP!
Not any different than American football players whose parents hold them back a year so they can be bigger and better and develop their talents more.
shocker lol wait til people find out peds are still widely used in baseball
I know right? Mike moon face trout been on HGH and has a script so that’s okay right?
@@thereisnosuchthingasanativ904literally lol
Let them all run gear . Would make the game awesome
@@JUSTheTIP-on5cbI still don’t understand why they don’t legalize everything. I want to see how far athletes can push the boundaries.
@@yankees29because we will have more Chris Benoit situations.
To me that is an agents and coaches issues trying to make more money for themself, not for the prospect,,so if MLB want to punishe someone they have to punish agents and coaches ,not the kids ,,the kids just want to play baseball.
I don’t understand. If you play major league baseball. Who cares how old you are?
You guys might not believe me but I know guys that are 17 trowing 92 18 trowing 93 and they don’t like them . They said that they are old . I know guy that plays random team That in every game he plays at least one home run but he’s like 20 . He make two home runs of me I think , I myself am kinda good but I know that if I go to dr I’ll get laugh at . I have a friend that at 15 being lefty was training 80 and guess what happens 😑. I wish it was different, that age restrictions
This is the real problem and I don’t blame them for lying about their age if it’s the only way they’ll be give an opportunity.
So wait... you can strip a title from a little league team when ONE player's parents lie about their kids age, but the Astros get to keep their 2017 title??? How does that make any sense??????
Edit: Whoa, I had no idea how many butt hurt Astros fans would see this comment
And it seems like the Astros exploit this the most. Typical cheating Astros.
Big difference between that
Rent free , still
Enjoy
@@elgatomjonly meaningful difference is that the LLWS wasn’t run by a spineless coward named Rob Manfred
Those kids don’t have a union.
"BASEBALL'S MOST CORRUPT PROBLEM!"
Wait...this video isn't about Angel Hernandez. WTF?
Oh...CORRUPT! I thought you said INCOMPETENT.
This is a minor issue compared to salary inequities that allow a handful of teams to spend huge amounts of money on their teams while small markets struggle and can only hope that their minor leagues allow them to build talent and then they cant keep these players for more than 1-3 years. The non-competitiveness of each baseball league robs the ;league of eyeballs to watch their games. It's not getting better!
The Diamondbacks just made it to the World Series dawg
Something similar happened when my brother and I were in the youth baseball league in Fort Walton Beach, Florida in 1985. I was in the 13-16 year old division and my brother was in the 9-12 year old division. If you turned 13 by July 1, you were in the older kids division, and with my birthday in April, that put me in that division. Our neighbor and friend Mike turned 13 in either late July or early August, so he was in the younger kids division and was on my brother's team. As he was bigger than the other kids on the team and was fairly tall for his age, parents of kids on other teams accused my brother's team of having a player older than the age limit.
Junior Felix is believed to be as much as 10 years older than his "baseball age," which is why his major league career fizzled out so quickly after a promising beginning.
Players would be more honest with their ages if scouts didn't see older youths as less desirable. And it's a damn shame teams don't update their antiquated scouting methods. We need to grow the game and give everybody a chance.
Have you been to the Dominican ? There is no problem. These guys work their ass off to have the opportunity to play . They have nothing there . Wish Americas worked as hard as these guys .
But I think Albert grew up in the US.
He went to high school in Missouri, but it’s possible he still faked his age
If I recall correctly before he was part of the Alex Rodriguez trade between the Yankees and Texas, Alfonso Soriano was reported to be 26 and as part of the trade (checking medical records I assume) it came out that he was actually 28.
Honestly, based on this video's title, I thought it was going to be about the umpires.
Only way we'll really know if they're old enough or not is if we get Wander Franco on the case
When you come from a impoverished background. You have to do whatever it takes to make it out…. You can’t blame these kids from
Dominican Republic
Cuba
Venezuela
Colombia
Panama
Mexico
Sorry not sorry
Is there a documentary about this? I’d like to know more about this situation in the DR.
I gotta be honest, I'm kinda shocked that you say the young players lying about their age is the problem when teams have actually developed the mindset that being 16 years old diminishes their value to such an extent. I understand the need to develop talent, but we're talking about kids that are over a decade away from their prime, and may not even be playing for the same team by that time. If this is how things are, they deserve to be lied to. It's insane.
I agree
imagine a Domnican magazine investigator looking in to civil books in the US? There were a lot of people involved mostly the team owner i forgot his name but he eve paid dannys family, Today danny is a coach for school in morris park section of the bronx, it sucks cause he could of have a future, ruined by fking greety peeps, my quesion is ho many other countries are investigated? do they go to cuba or venezuela?
Is this any different than American high school kids whose parents hold them back a year, so they get more time to develop in their sport of choice...
Baseball Doesn’t Exist did a great video on this topic a long time ago. Worth the watch!
Great stuff, keep the stories coming.
Simple fix is to recruit more American players
That's neither simple nor s fix. Teams sign prospects in the hope of developing MLB players. You sign the best prospects you can.
they want the best players - wherever they are - thats where they will go
Or better solution, don’t make kids feel like they are worthless by the time they turn 16. Look at Elly de la Cruz, he had dedicated his entire life to baseball from the age of 5, living away from his family, and at 16 he was about to pack up and go home because no scout had taken an interest in him. It’s only by a slim chance that he’s in the Reds today. Between the age of 18-21 he grew 4 inches, and has become a phenom in his rookie year in the MLB at just 21 yrs old and 6’5”.
So many other amazing talents have probably been wasted because they were passed over for being 16!
I dont blame them for some guys saying they're younger than they are. It gives them a better chance to get signed. Bartlo Colon is definitely a good example. He was throwing 84 mph when he was scounted but the indians took a chance on him because he said he was 18. He was really 20 and if he hadnt said he was younger he'd probably never be signed and then improve to become the legend he is now.
If a person is legally of age, which means 18 in the modern world, what they say their age is, or what their age is listed as is irrelevant. They're paid to play, and if they can play, where's the beef? Making deals as a minor is another matter. Then again, in the United States, prep football players announce commitments to collegiate programs at an early age. I don't think these early commitments are legally binding, and there cannot be a quid pro quo above the table. But they still are announced.
The key to this issue is the lack of good governance in these nations. Things we take for granted in the US are spotty at best. From birth certificates to documented education systems to even a law based judicial system. Every nation with poor governance is also a nation that is targeted by both its own government and others. So the question one must ask is this; why are nations like the Dominican Republic so poorly governed?
Because in spite of the poverty, exploitation, and abuse that comes with such a situation, the people are accepting of it. That's it. The whole story. From their perspective, MLB is offering a way out of the place and they are likely not interested in fixing the problem. Which, again, is NOT an MLB problem, but a government problem.
If you can change genders you can change birth years. Chill. You do you, type stuff
Well you are comparing the richest and most powerful country ever known to man, to a small island that’s 300 times smaller. Actually part of an island, as on the other side of the island you have Haiti. Dom Rep has actually done pretty well compared to most of its neighbors. Their government, unlike Haiti’s, has been able to create a wildly successful country with an enormous GDP and one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. They have advanced metro systems, their tourism industry is bigger than all other countries in the Caribbean combined, their farming industry is the best in the region, with them being able to produce everything they consume themselves and have enough to export to Haiti, Cuba and the US, and so on.
But of course it is still just a small developing country and it’s not perfect. The birth certificate process has been an issue for decades. It’s not just ball players, people all over the country have the wrong dates on their birth certificate, because the way it has always worked is that usually the father goes to their local city hall and registers the child’s birth and obtains the birth certificate while the mother is still in the hospital or at home recovering with the baby. And unfortunately men tend to make many mistakes with these things. In rural towns, it’s probably much easier to get an official document with the wrong birthdate and I’m sure some players’ parents still take advantage of that.
That is the problem with all sports today. Too much money involved either now or in the future.
This would make an fantastic documentary
there is documentary on miguel sano's signing process as he signed the biggest bonus in history at the time, it's called "pelotero (ballplayer)" and it covers a lot of this.
No best is when they caught glimpses of little league pitcher that had a special glove made since he pitched both right and left handed and eventually needed a rule put in play the pitchers that are like this must pick what arm they are using for the batter so switch hitters can’t constantly just move to the other side of the plate then pitcher just switch hands. Forgot who made it in the MLB being able to do this but a little leaguer was like this
Watch the movie “Sugar” about Dominican ball players, great movie
full disclosure#1: this is super long (sorry) but, imho, pretty worth reading for folks who’ve spent way too much time thinking about u.s. professional sports way too much.
full disclosure#2: grew up hating all houston teams due to simple geography (dallas), & this is when they all sucked (most of time/mid to late 80s+). exceptions: pre jr richard’s heartbreaking tragedy (virdon’s on hook for that collapse imho) & obvi the dream (ao) & his teams were unimpeachable. oilers never not a joke-even when good. but more than anything i always hated houston fans w/ a venom equaling the stupidity (geography/tribalism/indoctrination) in my reasoning (mostly). every fanbase has its low-hanging fruit & i was just a kid (at first). basically, i’ve grown up a bit & recognized some patterns i now both disavow & try to own.
but c’mon, nobody (me) imagined astros being moved to a.l. & becoming the juggernaut they did/are. these 2 things & their unique unlikeability (yeah, me again) renewed my hatred which had zero to do w/ being lifelong rangers fan (yeah, sarcasm). fyi, being half-life cowboy fan gave me some perspective & so much eventual shame (would rather watch cowboy game w/ ♾️ eagles fans than 1 cowboy fan). almost there . . .
all that said, the following ‘excuses’ for ‘getting caught’ cheating will never not be laughable, moronic & pathetic:
1. everybody was doing it
2. it was going on for years
3. it’s ancient history, get over it
4. any other excuse
while all of these are true to extent, using them makes one a sad, small & silly person. & i should know b/c i’ve been that person. so the ones who need to let it go, accept the shame & learn to carry it are the astros (specifically) & their fans (who had nothing to do w/ the actual goddamned cheating). then the rest of us not as good at cheating should follow suit. & then we can all get together & realize that mlb-the owners & their water boys, err, commissioners-are always the ones responsible for these type scandals, &
essentially all others. it’s called banking in case y’all hadn’t noticed that whole money angle.
alright, maybe not worth reading all this. my bad.
The fact that 2 Little League teams hired a private investigator😂😂😂😂 it's little league it's not that serious
I'm not even sure about Juan Soto to be honest. That man looks older than 25 to me...
I'm latino and i have heard about it, but as I know they take one year off, so even if Soto was older he would be 26 maybe 27, that makes no noticeable difference on the looks of 25.
Have you seen how old Jasson Dominguez looked at 16?
I don’t think so. Juan Soto is from the same neighborhood I’m from in DR, which is smack in the center of the Capital city. Everything there is very modernized and official. It would be extremely difficult to obtain official documents with the wrong age. That’s probably the only reason he didn’t do it. It’s much easier to do that when you come from these small rural towns that most of those kids come from. Which means he probably also grew up middle to upper middle class, with less of an urgency to make it than these other poor kids do, so less of a reason to lie. Of course anything is possible but I would say he’s one of the least likely candidates.
Another excellent video. Been subscribed for awhile with notifications on. I LOVE YOUR CONTENT!! Thanks for all your hard work.
Thank you!! I appreciate it more than you know
I went to Highschool with Danny, He hated that he was only ever known for that. Dude was a great pitcher and led us to two championships in his three years there.
So it's okay to cheat. get caught, and blame others for the notoriety. Sounds like a Michigan Wolverines fan.
@@pamelavaughn547 you sound like a slave to a college that put you in debt. idgaf about college sports
I just hope the kids aren’t being abused. A lot of times you hear stuff like this it usual comes back around to also have some abuse stuff
I have no doubt there's abuse going on. Its a player mill worth a ton of money
I played on the pa team in 97 dudes on the world teams had 18 year olds on it
Us players sign between 17 to 21. What's the big deal with these kids. It's all about looking for a way to pay less for these kids.
This is a HUGE deal. I will barely be able to sleep tonight.
I guess treating teens like adults is a thing in the dominican republic
too bad for wander franco
he couldnt find an 18yrold in the dominican republic
who wasnt all smashed in by 18 😂
It’s “Due Diligence” that needs to be done on buyers part. That’s all. This is business.
Who cares! If teams want to spend $1M on a kid who just exited the birth canal, their gamble, their bad.....
As a Cardinals fan i also sometimes think Pujols looks older than his age but he looks about 10 years older 😂😂😂
He has looked 50+ every time he has needed to run for at least a decade, even while everything else still seemed to be working pretty well.
@@mal2ksc Amen to that 🤣
If a player is 19 he won’t get 50k he won’t get signed at all in DR if you are 16 your already too old to get signed if you haven’t commited to a team at 14 so if your 19 and the only way your gonna get signed is by lying then that’s what’s gonna happen either poor or help out your family players in DR don’t care what people in the USA think of think of them because your not gonna help out his mom who’s making less than 20 dollars a week working 12 hours a day
Satchel Paige did it. Told folks he was 31 when he was really 48.
Bartolo Colon suddenly became two years older in the early 2000s
What will happen to the 50 nullifoed agreements? Have the investigators establish a "real age"?
If so imagine a current kid currently 15, lied about his age to get his bonus, but said kid will turn 16 sometime in the calender year 2024 and will then be eligible to be signed.
I know the Orioles still have slightly over $2M left in their bonus pool. That would have been genius on their part knowing this would happen and then have the ability to scoop several "million dollar bonus babies" up throughout the course of the year as they begin to actually turn 16.
Wishful thinking perhaps?
It’s probably a lot worse in Venezuela
Why not have all players in academies and competing in international events submit blood work?
Pro sports is a waste of money. Horrible people get a free ride to secondary education because they can play a sport and end up leaving to go pro without graduating. Every NFL player states what school they went to at every chance, yet no menton of grades or what they even majored in. What a sham.
Wow that's crazy corrupt very informative.
Iconic "I am 12" Talks
Strip the Astros of the ‘17 title. Yeah, others did it, but Houston won the Series. What, you want NY’s division title stripped too? Ok.
I can tell u for a fact, MLB knows it, and are allowing it
Prolly a much bigger problem lying about zip codes
The concept of people cheating in Little League baseball is so bizarre to me. Do any of the adults in charge of the teams get anything from winning?
The saying "No one is coming to scout your 12 year old travel team" seems to be only in America.
The baseball players in 8th grade in the US are 15. It’s Nona Dominican problem
I've wondered about this before , quite a lot actually. I mean it's wild that a full 3rd of mlb players are latino.
When they awarded the Houston Astros their 'World Series Trophy' after using cameras, buzzers and trash cans... That was it for me. MLB is a joke.
The DR problem is that you don’t have to register the child birth for months to years and this is one of those reasons as well
Yup this is why there are so many errors on birth certificates. And to top it off it’s usually the father who goes to register the child birth while the mom is still in the hospital or recovering and 7 out of 10 times they put the wrong birth date. My mom is 2 years younger than she really is according to her birth certificate and my dad is a year and a month older 😅
Any international player should only be signed as a free agent with zero signing bonus. That solves the problem. The opportunity should be payment enough for any international player to get their work visa for the season.
Now youy are telling people they cannot monetize their talents.
WTF!
Great topic to shed light on, fire video 🔥
Thank you for watching!
@@iTalkStudios thanks for being consistent with the content g
Corruption? In a Latin American country? My, whoodathunkit?
The worst scandal in baseball are the home plate umpires baseball need automatic strikes or balls
When Orlando Hernandez was 28 after having a 15 year career in Cuba 🤣
His problem with this seems absurd, I mean it's not like taking steroids. What difference does it make if you lie about your age in baseball? Obviously, it's a big deal if you're a Little Leaguer but not if you're a pro ballplayer.
Giving a 14 year old 1 million... well good for the poor kids.
Problems can't be corrupt. There, I said it.
Don't forget about Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez
Miguel Tejada
Sounds like a DR issue
Damn this is actually crazy
Almonte ruined New York little league baseball
so interesting how we have these facilities in 3rd world nations to create baseball players when we have poor Americans that cant afford to play baseball in the US. So interesting how that works.
Baseball's biggest problem is baseball
If you think they have it rough in the Dominican Republic, check out the other half of the island....
Tbh nobody truly has it rough in the Dominican. There’s poverty yes. But you can easily survive and thrive there and you can live a happy life even with poverty there. The other half of the island is a legit nightmare.
@@wintyforever
I'm sure it's a better place to live than here seeing as they're not dealing with a Thought Police that has successfully neutered the majority of their masculinity...
So did Danny's parents keep him back two years in school?