Dominican Born American Made

Sugar. Dir. Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden.

Feat. Algenis Perez Soto (Miguel).

Sony Pictures Classics, 2009.

The film Sugar first debuted in March of 2009 had settings in both the Dominican Republic, and the United States. The film gets its name from the main character Miguel Santos A.K.A “Sugar.” Sugar was born and raised in the Dominican Republic; in one of the poorest communities. The main themes of this movie were: commitment, pride, and dedication. Sugar grew up having slim to no resources to get him on track towards accomplishing his dream: playing professional baseball in the major leagues. He did not let anything in his life keep him down. Whether he was having family issues, or was having difficulties working in the scorching heat in the D.R., Sugar did not give in, he kept his eye on the prize. Sugar continued to practice for hours on end hoping one day it would pay off, and it did.

One day Sugar was throwing a bullpen, when he was approached by a scout for the Kansas City Knights. The Knights were a professional baseball team in the United States, and the scout liked what he saw from Sugar. Perhaps, this was an open door for Sugar. The Knights immediately invested in Sugar, and a few of his teammates, inviting them to spring training in Arizona. A few days later (for the first time in their life) they were on a plane and headed to the States. Once in the states, Sugar had to start all over i.e.: adapting to a new culture, and learning a new language. These things did not come easy to Sugar, but with his hard work he was able to still pursue his dream. Training camp went well for sugar, but he was still optioned to Single A Bridgetown, apart from all but one of his Dominican teammates.

Once he was optioned to Bridgetown he was placed with a host family, who I initially thought Sugar wouldn’t last long with. The family lived in a farmhouse in the middle of the Iowa plains– the exact opposite from his Dominican habitat. Aside from the new lifestyle Sugar still maintained his composure on his path to success. Sugar was nothing short of dominant during his first few games, then the tables turned. After that Sugar went into a deep slump, he then took an unknown substance– perhaps steroids. Sugar began to feel bad about himself, so he changed his hopes for the future. He left the team and headed to New York City. Sugar reconnected with an old baseball pal, and made the most out of living in the big apple: he got a job, and his own apartment. He could of took a different path after he realized his baseball career wasn’t going well, but Sugar did not want to become attracted to unhealthy things: drugs, gangs, hookups, etc.

Sugar is very much like our most recent film, Rocky. Just like Rocky Sugar “built from the bottom up.” He grew up in the slums of the Dominican Republic and eventually played semi-professional ball in the states, just like Rocky grew up in the slums of Philadelphia and eventually fought on the big stage against the world champion. But just like Rocky, a sense of reality hit Sugar hard. Rocky realized he wasn’t going to beat Apollo Creed, so he changed his goal to at least go the distance against him. Sugar eventually realized he wasn’t going to make it to the major leagues, and continue his career playing baseball, so he changed his goal to become a normal citizen and make the most out of life.

I would recommend this film to any baseball lover. This is becoming normal for baseball; they MLB or even MILB are receiving these players from latin american countries like: the D.R., Venezuela, Puerto Rico, etc. These players are coming from places where they have hardly any resources to go to. They simply just keep giving it all they’ve got, hoping one day they will make it to the bigs. Even though Sugar didn’t make it to the bigs, he certainly gave it all he had until the day he realized his head wasn’t in the game anymore.