Some critics worry because so many teen-agers drop out of high school for their baseball pursuits. They say youths should worry about diplomas, not contracts. But baseball lovers find nothing wrong with dreaming, with thinking beyond the boundaries of a difficult life. It's about trying to succeed in life no matter what you do. There's no baseball field too rocky, dirty or obscure to keep Pedro Silverio from looking.
Superstars come from unlikely places.
Look at Sosa. As a child, he earned scraps shining shoes in the coastal town of San Pedro de Macoris. Now he gets phone calls from the country's president. When the Chicago Cubs slugger socked 66 home runs in 1998, he surpassed a standard that had stood for 37 years. Or look at Febles.