When leaving the Dominican Republic to begin his journey to the major leagues, Ubaldo Jiménez promised his mother he’d get an education. Twenty years later, he graduated from college — with honors.

O’Dowd, now an analyst for MLB Network, took that a step further, saying it should be a requirement that every international player signed by an MLB team receive a GED before coming to the United States. Not only would it help them become better players but, if baseball didn’t work out, O’Dowd said, “It’d be incredibly incumbent upon us to be able to put players back into the individual areas that they come from, like in the DR, at least with a high school education, hopefully more.”