MORE than 100 boys train daily on a baseball field next to the biggest slum in Caracas, using old bats, balls and gloves in hopes of achieving the ultimate goal: a professional baseball career in the United States.

Chances are small, and getting remoter. Major League Baseball’s teams have shut down their academies in Venezuela and no longer send scouts. Sometimes, local trainers say, a player faints on the field because he hasn’t had enough to eat, a sign of how nationwide shortages of food, medicine and other necessities inflict a heavy toll.

A junior team from Maracaibo is participating this week in the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Two Venezuelan pro players, Rougned Odor of the Texas Rangers and Ender Inciarte of the Atlanta Braves, donated funds for the trip.