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PELOTERO

...A Dominican Baseball Story

Synopsis

Far from the neatly manicured Major League stadiums, the future of professional
baseball is being written in the small towns in the Dominican Republic. From the time
they can walk, kids practice with rolled up sock balls and broomsticks, waiting for the
day they are old enough to sign. That day comes at age 16 when players are given the
chance to try out for professional teams. The best will sign, changing their lives forever
as they try to advance through the system.

Pelotero is a feature length documentary that intimately follows five teenage players
on and off the field as they compete for the attention of MLB teams in the run up to
July 2nd, the day they become eligible to sign. While their stories illuminate the dark
side of Dominican baseball- age falsification, steroid usage, and corruption- at the heart
is a tale of young players battling incredible odds to play the game they love.

Guagua Productions LLC © 2009 1


PELOTERO ...A Dominican Baseball Story

Characters
Moreno Tejeda has been training peloteros in San Pe-
dro de Macoris for the past 18 years. He has prayed
his whole career for a player like Miguel Angel Sano.
Miguel Angel, at only 16—one of the top unsigned
prospects in the country—hits, throws, and fields, with
effortless raw talent. All 30 MLB teams have expressed
interest in Miguel Angel. Nonetheless, before July 2nd
Miguel Angel must confront several obstacles, including
an MLB investigation, as several scouts and executives
have begun to question his age.

The stakes are high for Junior Rosario. A 17-year-old


pitcher, his chances of signing dwindle every day he
gets older. Junior is determined to make it and has done
everything from dropping out of school to injecting vita-
mins to dramatically switching trainers to garner even a
little more attention from scouts. With palpable pressure
from his financially struggling family, Junior won’t let his
dreams fall by the wayside even as they become less and
less likely.

Daniel Ozuna, 19, was an inch away from his


dreams. Twice. The first time, he was nearly signed
by the Red Sox before a new trainer changed his
swing. A year later, he was on the verge of signing
with the White Sox when a scandal broke implicat-
ing the team officials in corruption. Frustrated, Dan-
iel walked away from baseball but has come back
with one last hope of getting signed: the nationwide
Doble A tournament, where many scouts will be in
attendance.

Guagua Productions LLC © 2009 2


PELOTERO ...A Dominican Baseball Story

Astin Jacobo Jr., son of the first scout in the San


Pedro area, has set up one of the most progres-
sive programs in the country. Accepting hopefuls
as young as 13, Astin provides nutritional food,
room and board, and guidance. He is simultane-
ously a trainer, agent, and a father to his play-
ers. This year, his prized July 2nd prospect is
slick fielding 16-year-old shortstop Jean Carlos
Batista. Jean Carlos carries the weight of his fa-
ther’s death and his unemployed mother as he
tries to get the best contract possible on July 2nd.

Yheraldy Medo-Mota, 17, is driven by the love of the game.


Coming from a middle class evangelical family, baseball is not
his only ticket to success. Yet Yheraldy pursues it with dogged
determination because his only ambition in life is play base-
ball. Galvanized by his dream and his faith in god he wakes
up every morning at dawn and trains straight through to dusk.
His power bat has attracted some attention, but his mental fo-
cus is in question. His trainer, the Zen-like Julian Jose, stresses
physical and mental discipline in hopes of molding Yheraldy
into a signable player.

Guagua Productions LLC © 2009 3


PELOTERO ...A Dominican Baseball Story

Directors’ Statement

This project was born out of a love for baseball.

As fans, we noticed the game becoming younger and more diverse. At the forefront of that
movement were young Dominican players, who as a group constitute the largest international
contingent in both the Majors and Minors. While we were familiar with the storied image of
Dominican children playing baseball in the streets, the process of fine-tuning those kids into
the all stars we see in the big leagues was shrouded in mystery.

In fact, the only news we had heard about Dominican Baseball was negative. Allegations of
age falsification, steroid use, and academy corruption were splattered across the news media.
Yet despite the bad press, every year another crop of Dominican twenty-somethings would
get called up from the Minors, each with seemingly more potential than the last. How could a
system supposedly so inherently broken consistently turn out such successful players?

While the scandals focus on unscrupulous trainers and corrupt officials, they ignore what is at
the heart of this story: an entire generation with the same dream. To play professional baseball.

We set out to tell the stories of five teenage players who could represent the whole spectrum.
Their stories vary, as circumstances dictate their hopeful path to the major leagues. Together,
they tell of a nation’s dream and the combination of determination, persistence, and downright
luck it takes to actually make it.

Guagua Productions LLC © 2009 4


PELOTERO ...A Dominican Baseball Story

The Filmmakers

From left: Casey Beck, Jonathan Paley, Trevor Martin, Ross Finkel

Guagua Productions LLC was formed in the fall of 2008 by Ross Finkel and Jon Paley follow-
ing their trip to the Dominican Republic to research Pelotero. Fresh out of film school, they
were eager hit the ground running with their first feature length movie. They quickly brought
on Casey Beck, recently returned from work on her feature length documentary Los Famosos
about young cartoneros in Buenos Aires. Rounding out the team is Trevor Martin, who has
worked on several Spanish language documentaries about the armed conflict in Colombia.

Guagua Productions LLC © 2009 5

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