If Brazil and Argentina are crazy about soccer, the Dominican Republic is crazy about baseball. The Dominican Republic has not only supplied Major League Baseball with veritable baseball legends, but the country itself loves the sport.

With the World Baseball Classic going on, the country is currently trying to win back its title as World Champion from defending champs United States. So the entire Caribbean nation is watching.

Much like soccer in Brazil, children start their journey young in hopes that they will be able to play in the MLB or even represent the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. 

So far, the country has only won once in the prestigious tournament that only started in the early 2000s, and they are hungry for more.

According to the Visit Dominican Republic website, parents teach their young children "how to play, always encouraging the next generation of world-class talent to rise up the ranks of the Dominican league."

It added that "being a baseball player is a great honor" in the Dominican Republic, and "many young people can be seen practicing in their spare time, dreaming of making it big."

READ NEXT: 2023 World Baseball Classic: Here's What You Need to Know

History of Baseball in the Dominican Republic

According to Origins, Cuban sugar moguls first introduced baseball to the Dominican Republic as early as the 1870s. Since then, the country has been hooked and has produced countless baseball superstars.

Plantation workers used to play the game, even overtaking cricket as the more popular sport. It grew in the country around the same period as the U.S. expansion of political and economic control in the Caribbean basin and worldwide.

The sport even served as a common ground between the occupying Americans and the locals when U.S. Marines landed in the Dominican Republic to protect the legitimacy of the elected President Juan Jiménez in 1916.

Local Dominican teams often played with the American marines and beat them in their own game. That sparked a national craze on the island, with Dominicans taking up the sport and the rest of history.

Dominican Republic and Major League Baseball

Dominicans had become a staple of Major League Baseball for a long time, with Ozzie Virgil being the first Dominican-born player in the majors when he played for the New York Giants.

The country also produced the man considered the best Latin American pitcher in MLB history, Juan Marichal, who also played for the Giants after they moved to San Francisco.

Since then, scouts from every MLB team would comb the island for possible prospects, maybe giving their team the next Sammy Sosa or the next David Ortiz, two baseball superstars also proudly from the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican recruitment kicked into high gear in MLB in 1977 when Dominican "super-scout" Epy Guerrero took 10 Dominican players whom he had signed and housed together so they could hone their skills. Big names like the Alou brothers soon became household names in the United States.

These days, Dominican players can be found all over the Major League, from Xander Bogaerts with the Boston Red Sox to Fernando Tatis Jr. in the San Diego Padres.

READ MORE: Jesus Alou, Youngest of the Legendary Alou Brothers, Dies at 80

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Dominican Republic vs. Nicaragua | 2023 World Baseball Classic - From MLB