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.

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

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