Alan Klein Sugarball

Alan Klein’s Sugarball is both a historical overview and cultural study of how citizens of the Dominican Republic not only enjoy baseball but use it as a means of cultural self-expression and, more importantly, resistance to American domination of their small country.   Though not openly hostile to the United States, the Dominican public uses baseball as a means of asserting pride and equality in the face of long, formidable neocolonial domination. Baseball is a specifically American entity only partly because it was created and evolved in the United States, where for decades it remained the dominant spectator sport.   More importantly, Klein asserts, baseball is uniquely American in how it has spread to other nations and dominates the game elsewhere.   It has the largest and strongest organization, the richest teams, largest fan base, most lucrative broadcasting and advertising contracts, and most extensive networks for scouting and player development. Baseball’s presence in the Dominican Republic (among the western hemisphere’s poorest nations) is also uniquely American because, as with other aspects of American culture, it was brought there as American domination spread throughout the Caribbean American interests assumed control of the Dominican economy. However, unlike other American corporations, Major League Baseball did not provoke widespread, unmitigated resentment, but is for the most part supported by the nation’s people.   In addition, the methods long used to scout and sign Dominican ballplayers is similarly dubious and rifer with duplicity; Klein calls their methods â€Å"so reminiscent of those of the West African slave traders of three centuries earlier† (42). In terms of the game itself, the rules and style in each are generally the same, and while Dominicans play the game with an intensity equal with Americans, their approach to other aspects of baseball are more casual, reflecting that society’s leniency and lax approach to time.   While Dominican players play as hard as their American teammates and opponents, they embrace a much more casual attitude toward time, frequently showing up late for meetings or practice unless specifically required to be punctual.   In addition, they tend to be more exuberant and unrestrained; playing the game seriously is not equated with a somber demeanor. Most of the differences lie off the field, particularly in the atmosphere of a stadium on game day.   The fan culture is radically different; where American fans are more restrained, often get to games on time, and can sometimes be confrontational with other fans, Dominican fans are generally louder, more physically and temperamentally relaxed, more effusive (even with strangers), and, despite the demonstrative body language and shouting shown in arguments, there is far less violence than at an American ballgame. Klein attributes this to the fact that â€Å"[Dominican fans] are far more social than North Americans, more in tune with human frailty.   Because they see so much human vulnerability, because they are closer to the margins of life, they are more likely to resist the urge to bully and harm† (148). Economic power essentially defines the relationship between American and Dominican baseball, because Major League Baseball develops and signs much of the local Dominican talent, leaving the Dominican professional league and amateur ranks underdeveloped and subordinate to the North American teams who establish baseball academies and working agreements with Dominican teams. Since 1955, when the major leagues established working agreements with Dominican professional clubs (and, more significantly, eliminated the â€Å"color line† that prevented most Dominicans, who are predominantly mulatto, from playing), American baseball has shown its hegemony over its Dominican counterpart, turning the latter into a virtual colony by taking its raw resources and giving back very little in return.   Klein comments: â€Å"The lure of cheap, abundant talent in the Dominican Republic led American teams to establish a more substantial presence there . . . [and the] bonds between American and Dominican baseball came increasingly to resemble other economic and political relations between the two countries† (36). Klein writes that most Dominicans accept American dominance of their baseball, adding that â€Å"whereas giants such as Falconbridge and GTE are resented, major league teams are largely supported† (2), mainly because Dominican players have such a notable presence and bring positive attention to their impoverished homeland.   This support is by no means unconditional, though; they steadfastly refuse to approach the game with American businesslike gravitas; instead, they treat the game itself somewhat like Carnival, with joy coexisting alongside energetic, intense play. Resistance appears in the way Dominican players relax at home, interacting more freely with fans, who themselves resist American baseball’s decorum by being themselves and creating a festive, effusive, Carnival-like atmosphere.   According to Klein, â€Å"The game remains American in structure, but its setting is Dominican and it has become infused with Dominican values† (149).   Indeed, the park fosters a microcosm of Dominican society, particularly its impoverished economy, and unlike the more slick American baseball business, it does not exclude its marginal activities. In addition to the paid vendors and park employees within the stadium, an illicit economy flourishes both within and on the outside, with self-appointed â€Å"car watchers,† vendors, and ushers (adults and children alike) plying their trade for small fees, and bookmakers work openly, often in the presence of the police, who turn a blind eye to most illegal activity aside from the rare fight. Dominican baseball’s symbolic significance is not a sense of the pastoral heritage, like some in America interpret it; instead, it reflects Dominicans’ sense of themselves being dominated by the United States, and offers a symbolic outlet for striking back. In his preface, Klein writes: â€Å"The tensions between a batter who has two strikes against him and the opposing pitcher are a metaphor for the political and cultural tensions described in this book† (xi).   Indeed, the Dominican republic’s deeply entrenched poverty and long domination by foreign powers give it a feeling of vulnerability and compel its people to seek some means of besting the dominant power – if not politically or economically, then at least athletically. At the start of the book, Klein states that â€Å"every turn at bat is a candle of hope, every swing is the wave of a banner, the sweeping arc of a sword† (1).   Indeed, when a Dominican reaches the major leagues and excels, it is not merely an athletic success story but a symbolic invasion and conquest of the conqueror’s territory.   (The United States twice occupied the Dominican Republic in the twentieth century, an ever-present fact in Dominicans’ minds.) Also, the atmosphere in the crowd of a Dominican professional game serves as the country’s symbolic assertion of its culture in the face of American dominance.   At Santo Domingo’s Quisqueya Stadium, one witnesses â€Å"a mass spectacle that makes simultaneous use of American and Dominican elements. . . . [Baseball] at Quisqueya embodies many of the things that North Americans find blameworthy in Dominican culture – lateness, overly casual behavior, inefficiency.   But the Dominicans see these characteristics as a source of pride, and they take their game seriously† (150). The Dominican baseball press is a source of more open resistance; says Klein, â€Å"the press has inadvertently created a Latino universe of discourse, one in which North Americans are conspicuously absent† (127).   Its journalists display an obvious bias by devoting so much attention to Dominicans in the major leagues that one hardly knows other nationalities even participate. In addition, Dominican baseball writers openly blame Dominican baseball’s problems on American control, protesting a skewed economic relationship that mirrors the larger political and economic imbalance.   They promote much of the public’s pride, says Klein, but that pride is â€Å"tempered by the view that Dominican baseball is still an adjunct to the American game† (121).   Dominican resistance is thus aimed at countering this uncomfortable fact. In baseball terms, American culture interacts with Dominican culture by treating it with some degree of condescension and insensitivity.   Many American baseball professionals are impatient with Dominicans’ loose sense of time, quickly deeming Latino players uncoachable â€Å"head cases,† without looking at the cultural differences. Among Dominicans, says Klein, â€Å"There is none of the regimentation, guardedness, and nervous tension that characterizes players in the United States.   North American managers must take this looseness into account when they go to the Caribbean, for the players’ conception of the game and of time is as elastic as that of other Dominicans† (148). Despite the United States’ long domination of the Dominican Republic, the small nation’s people feel less anger than a mixture of muted resentment and aspiration to attain American material prosperity and stability, which for most are a distant, unreachable ideal.   Thus, when Dominican ballplayers reach the major leagues, their large salaries represent a sort of victory and source of immense pride for the small island nation.   Says Klein, â€Å"Much as archeological treasures attest to a rich Dominican past, salaries attest to the present† (128). Klein’s study pays keen attention not only to Dominican history but also to the ways in which Dominicans embrace this imported sport but also use their prowess to offer their own subtle response to American political and economic dominance.   The dynamic he describes illustrates not only American hegemony, but also how subordinated peoples’ identity and spirit can thrive even in the face of foreign domination. Klein, Alan M.   Sugarball.   New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.

Marketing Management Examination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

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PERSONALITY THEORY (PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH PAPER) - Essay Example Jung was very influential and changed the way many people thought of psychology in his time, adding a certain mystical or spiritual dimension to some of Freud’s basic categories. And, like Freud, Jung has remained a respected part of the field of psychology, even in today’s modern world. According to Jung’s theories, life’s primary goal is to achieve self-realization, or a harmonious blending of the many components and forces within the psyche. â€Å"Although self-realization is never completely achieved, approximating it involves a†¦ journey of self-discovery† (Hergenhahn and Olson, 2003). The analyst’s role, then, in this situation is to help the client through a sectional modality to find as much self-discovery and self-realization as possible within the parameters of the interview setting, or to present this modality in terms of analysis. reacted to as if they belong to another object or person† (Scharf, 2004). The individuation process was also seen by Jung to be potentially induced by trying to make a connection in the individual between their conscious and unconscious self/selves, through analysis and deliberate action. Jung favored this form of coaxing out the individuation process in an analytical setting. Obviously, the individuation process does not occur during early childhood, and is seen by most to have its roots in the second half of an individual’s adult life. â€Å"Perhaps Jung’s most original contribution is that of the collective unconscious and archetypal patterns and images that arise from it† (Scharf, 2004). Jung was also somewhat strict about the individuation process being facilitated only by his own methods and descriptions, and was distrustful of other methods such as yoga or other eastern paradigms of awareness and enlightenment as being legitimate. The goal of the individuation process

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Competition, Monopoly, and Oligopoly & Monopolistic Competitive Market Structure - Term Paper Example The research explained briefly on the perfect competitive market structure and revealed some features of this market structure. It described the way firms maximize profits with the help of diagrams, the researcher revealed the way they maximize profit at the equilibrium point in both short and long run. Lastly, the conclusion summed up the discussion, and the researcher provided some significant areas for further research study. The market is structured depending on varied factors and variation that determine the market structure of a particular firm in an economy. Competition is one of the factors or conditions that determines the structure of a firm. The economists assume that there are many buyers and sellers in the marketplace; hence, they compete favorably for the available products in the market. Therefore, competition in the market contributes to changes of prices for commodities; thus creating a shift in demand and supply curve. Furthermore, there are substitute products in t he marketplace; thus, when one product increases the prices, consumers chose the alternative of consuming substitute products. The buyers and sellers have the ability to influence prices for commodities, and this contributes to increased competition in the market. ... The buyers and sellers may exchange property rights and everyone in the market interacts voluntarily in order to achieve self-interest. The buyers and sellers interact; thus, they signal much information about the product through product prices. Successful sellers reduce prices in order to influence buyers and out-compete their competitor (Mankiw 2011, 36). The sellers can maximize profits in case the price exceeds the products costs. Monopoly A monopoly refers to a market structure whereby only a single producer or buyer for a commodity exists. The monopoly firms are the price makers because they are single sellers in the market. Monopoly is a single business firm and it is characterized by varied features including market restrictions because of high costs and production of homogenous products. The government has powers to control or restrict entries into the market by creating barriers. The barrier to market entry may result because the firm may have exclusive rights of accessing the natural resources. For instance, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company is a monopolistic firm because the government takes control over the resources. The same case applies to Saudi Arabia oil industry because the Saudi government is the sole control of the natural oil reserves. The market also have a patent right that impede other competitors from entering into the market. The monopoly firm is classified into numerous features including perfect monopoly whereby the single seller does not have substitute products. Therefore, there is no perfect competition, but such firms are extremely rare. Another one is imperfect monopoly whereby the single seller does not have close substitute products meaning that the

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