WAMU 88.5FM American University Radio

Baseball And The Dominican Republic (Rebroadcast)

Major League baseball season kicks off this weekend--the Washington Nationals' home opener is Monday, April 5th.

The Nats are struggling to pull themselves out of the bottom of the league and trying to recover from a major scandal involving one of their top prospects, a Dominican shortstop named 'Smiley Gonzalez.'

It turns out 'Gonzalez' had lied about his name, where he was from, and - most importantly - his age. When he was recruited in 2006, he said he was 16. That made him look like a superstar, but he was really a less-remarkable 20-year-old.

The scandal cast a harsh spotlight on baseball in the Dominican Republic, where many young players and their agents play fast and loose with the rules, all in the hope of a getting a big contract in the U.S.

Patrick Madden went to the Dominican Republic to investigate, and he joins us to speak about his coverage. In the first of two reports, he follows a young player as he takes his shot at the Big Leagues.

Part 2: "It Really Is Like The Wild West..." (Rebroadcast)

The game of baseball has helped hundreds of players from the Dominican Republic lift their families out of poverty. And it's a boon to the economy. Each year major league baseball pours about a $100 million into the country.

But the year-round race to churn out the strongest, fastest, and youngest baseball players in the world is taking a toll on this small Caribbean country.

In the second of two reports on baseball in the Dominican Republic, Patrick Madden assesses the costs and benefits...

Log Canoes (Rebroadcast)

We remember some of our favorite stories from summer '09 this week. From sailboats in the Chesapeake, to a musical band of 'Pirates' and a visit to an island in the Potomac...a distinct nautical theme emerges. We begin in the Bay.

Near the end of the summer, reporter Tamara Keith explored a tradition unique to the Chesapeake Bay: log canoe racing.

You won't do much paddling in these vessels. Log canoes are historic sailboats on steroids. Their masts are so tall and their sails so large that they have a tendency to tip.

Tamara Keith takes us on board...

We Were Pirates (Rebroadcast)

The D.C. band 'We Were Pirates' has a name that conjures images of a crew of swaggering seamen with eye patches. In fact, the latest album 'Cutting Ties' is the work of one man, Mike Boggs, playing all of the instruments himself in his D.C. apartment.

Last summer we were joined by two of the members of the live configuration of We Were Pirates, Mike Boggs and Gabriel Fry.

The band has been getting some national attention lately - We Were Pirates was featured on a few episodes of 'The Real World: DC' this season.

Fred Fiske: Why I Love My GPS (Rebroadcast)

Technology has changed our lives in countless ways. But in this commentary from last June, Fred Fiske said he was especially happy to have science on his side while driving.

Next Stop, Nature: Roosevelt Island (Rebroadcast)

Last summer, in the heat of August, and in the final installment of our 'Next Stop... Nature' series, we rode the rails to Rosslyn, Virginia. And then strolled to Theodore Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac River.

Naturalist Mark Garland was our tour guide...

Karen Schwarz: Standing Up For T.C. Williams (Rebroadcast)

Alexandria writer and mom Karen Schwarz says she had her 15 seconds of fame last month when a local TV news crew interviewed her about Alexandria's troubled T.C. Williams High School. She says the only part of the interview that made it on the air was her sole negative comment...