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HUMAN RIGHTS, LABOR STANDARDS, AND MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL’S EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN LATIN AMERICA 171 CHAPTER THIRTEEN Three Strikes against Major League Baseball The tragic baseball story of Alexi Quiroz provides a disturbing glimpse into the abusive and discriminatory manner in which Major League Baseball (MLB) teams have operated in Latin American countries. In chapter 1, we quoted Latin American baseball players who argued that Latins “have taken over” and “control ” the game because of the increased number of Latin major leaguers. Alexi Quiroz’s story demonstrates who really controls Latin participation in baseball’s minor and major leagues. Further, the Quiroz story puts a human face on the exploitative and discriminatory system through which Latin players find their way into the major leagues, which chapter 3 described. The analysis in chapter 3 and the Quiroz story demonstrate that how Major League Baseball has built the global ballpark is unacceptable. Against overwhelming odds, Alexi fought the system because he believed that how the Cubs and the Commissioner’s Office had treated him and other Latin children and young men was wrong. Alexi pursued a cause that he felt was right and just: to force the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball to live up to their responsibilities in the globalized game of baseball. Alexi Quiroz wants Major League Baseball to treat Latin children and young men as human beings , not as commodities. In the globalization of baseball, Major League Baseball has created and operates a system that intentionally discriminates against Latin children and young men so the teams can access cheap sources of labor in order to make profits in North America. As chapter 3 stressed and Alexi understood, major league teams’ primary focus in Latin America is getting players as young as possible, preferably under eighteen years of age. The major leagues’ target is, therefore, Latin children. Major league teams handle Latin children in ways 172 repairing the global ballpark that would be unthinkable and illegal in the United States and Canada. The major leagues’ strategy is to target Latin children and discriminate against them because cheap labor enhances profits, and the major leagues’ objective is to make money. Major League Baseball’s behavior in Latin American countries results in violations of internationally recognized human rights and labor standards designed to protect children from discrimination and exploitation. When Major League Baseball practices toward Latin American ballplayers have variously been described as neocolonialism,1 racist,2 reminiscent of West African slave trading techniques,3 abusive of human rights,4 a “boatload mentality ” seeking cheap commodities,5 and like concentration camps,6 it is time to hold Major League Baseball accountable for its behavior. When a baseballloving kid, such as Alexi Quiroz, suffers through the degradation and disrespect meted out to him by a major league team and the Commissioner’s Office, it is time to make Major League Baseball take responsibility for its globalization . When major league teams systematically engage in violations of the human rights of children and of international labor standards designed to protect children, something is wrong in and around the global ballpark. Targeting children in a discriminatory manner simply to increase profits are the three strikes against Major League Baseball’s global strategy that we explore in this chapter. Strike One: Targeting Children—The Relevance of Human Rights and Labor Standards The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989, defines a child as “every human being below the age of eighteen years.”7 More than 190 countries have ratified this treaty, making the UNCRC the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world.8 The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) argues that the UNCRC makes clear that “[c]hildren living in developing countries have the same rights as children in wealthy countries.”9 The UNCRC contains rights designed, among other things, (1) to protect children from discrimination;10 (2) to ensure that the best interests of the child shall be the primary consideration in all actions concerning children;11 (3) to protect the right to express views freely in all matters affecting the child;12 (4) to recognize the child’s right to freedom of association;13 (5) to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or mistreatment, maltreatment or exploitation by any person who has care of the child;14 (6) to protect the child’s right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and...

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