The baseball academy where Miguel Santos has been training as a pitcher since he was signed at age 16 is a breeding ground for major league talent. Living at the facility during the week, players go through rigorous daily training, while scouts observe and grade their abilities. Sugar’s uncommon ability on the mound is apparent, but there are thousands of teenagers across the island just like Miguel, all of whom hope for the opportunity to advance to the United States minor league system – just the first step of many on an arduous journey to the big leagues.

Miguel spends his weekends at home, passing from the landscaped gardens and manicured fields on one side of the guarded academy gate to the underdeveloped, more chaotic world beyond. In his small village outside San Pedro de Macorís, Miguel enjoys a kind of celebrity status. His neighbors gather to welcome him back for the weekend; the children ask him for extra baseballs or an old glove. To his family, who lost their father years before, Miguel is their hope and shining star. With the small bonus he earned when he signed with the academy some time ago, he has started to build his family a new house – one that has a bigger kitchen for his mom and a separate room for his grandmother.