five championships. Initially consisting of four teams, by 1967 the number had increased to 16, with the construction of new stadiums in all of the nation's provincial capitals. Industriales, with most of the top-tier ballplayers from Havana, has remained the strongest team, but Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara and Pinar del Río have also experienced considerable success. Recruitment of Cuban baseball players Many talented players were raised and trained in Cuba and then recruited to the major leagues in the United States. Some of the more famous modern players are José Contreras, Orlando Hernández, and Liván Hernández. These players make very good money for their talents, but this was not always the case. From the 1930s through the 1950s many American scouts went to Cuba to find inexpensive recruits. During this time period many talented Cuban players were recruited, signed contracts and were locked into little or no money. In 1961, due to severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, one of the major league's main sources of foreign players was cut off. This has limited the number of Cuban players migrating to the United States to play baseball. The US major league baseball clubs are in hopes that in the near future they will be able to recruit players from Cuba again. This can and will deeply affect baseball as it is played in Cuba today. In the United States, Cuban players such as Liván Hernández can make million dollar salaries, while players in Cuba will make less than thirty dollars a month. Cuba cannot compete with major league wages and this already has shown an impact. Although salaries are the same for all of the Cuban baseball players, some of the best Cuban players can get perks or gifts from the Cuban government. These can be anything from a vacation, to a car, unlimited expense accounts at restaurants, or something as small as movie tickets. The problem with these gifts is that they are very unpredictable and players often complain about the gifts. Cuba has lost many talented players since the 1990s due to defection for financial reasons. Dominican Republic Baseball was first brought to the Dominican Republic by Cuban sugar planters who arrived in the country in the 1870s, fleeing the Ten Years' War on their home island, and built the nation's first mechanized sugar mills. Cuban sugar planters began providing baseball equipment to their workers as a diversion