geoffrey kirkman's blog

As interest has grown on the growing numbers of Latin Americans, especially Dominicans, in the Major Leagues, I am often asked what the best resources are for finding out about the link between baseball and the DR.

There are a number of books that deal with Dominican baseball, but the best of the lot that I have come across is Rob Ruck’s The Tropic of Baseball. Unlike other books that exaggerate or demonize certain elements of the Dominican pastime, sports historian Professor Ruck provides a well-written and well-researched take on Dominican baseball that also provides a good background on Dominican history and culture.

I have been fortunate to have been tangentially involved in another production underway by Professor Ruck, who together with Daniel Manatt, Jose Mota and Christia Alou has been producing The Republic of Baseball: Dominican Giants of the American Game, a documentary dealing with the first big wave of Dominican talent to hit Major League Baseball in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Juan Marichal, Manny Mota, and Felipe Alou and his brothers Matty and Jesus…). The film has a great feel to it, and along with newly-rediscovered footage of Marichal’s legkick and other highlights of the past, it includes interviews with not only past-greats but current Dominican players that include Alex Rodriguez, Pedro Martinez, Alfonso Soriano and Miguel Tejada. They are in the final stages of production and are seeking distribution of the film. Hopefully we will see this great piece soon either on the air or in theaters!

Nationality numbers in minor league baseball are striking, and provide a large sample of how top baseball talent breaks down by national origin. Dominicans (1,442) represent 49 percent of all minor league rosters, and radically dwarf the numbers from all other points of origin, including the closest rival, Venezuela (803). The number of non-US players hovers around half the total overall.

There are almost no Japanese (only 7) in the minor leagues, in spite of the popularity of baseball in Japan — most Japanese big leaguers come to the US as established transplanted players from the Japanese major leagues. The lone representatives of China, the Bahamas, Italy, Guam, New Zealand, St. Martin, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, etc. remain nothing more than novelties.

The trendline of non-US representation in the minor leagues will be one of the most important elements to watch in terms of how baseball changes in the years to come.

Big questions on the table such as the worldwide draft, the possibility of the international expansion of MLB franchises, the challenge of how to build larger and more diverse fanbases and the rumored World Cup of Baseball all depend on these shifting demographics.

It is curious that Major League Baseball has dropped hints about opening franchises in Europe — if minor league numbers are any indication of potential popularity of the sport, then MLB is barking up the wrong tree. Latin America and to a lesser extent, some parts of Asia, are much more potent potential markets. The argument made against this direction of internationalization of the sport is that low incomes cannot possibly provide revenues that can support Major League quality franchises. Creativity and some flexibility will be required. The stranglehold of the big market team ownership groups in the US against significant and positive change in the game will have to change if the exporting of the MLB model is ever to succeed.

In any event, the success and popularity of Dominican, Panamanian, Venezuelan, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Taiwanese, Mexican and other national variations of baseball within these countries are apparent yet not very well understood by those in this country. While true baseball fans in those countries follow US MLB, this is driven mostly by the large followings of their own compatriots in the United States (the Dominican attention to Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero et al, Panamanian attention to Mariano Rivera, Ramiro Mendoza, Carlos Lee…) and the fascination with the wealth and domination of the gringos by their countrymen, rather than any true affinity with the US way of playing the sport. At the same time, by the mere virtue of tracking their countrymen’s successes and failures in MLB, millions of people outside the US understand the nuances of baseball in the US. The rampant devotion to these stars means that there is a huge fanbase across a number of countries that remains unexploited by MLB.

The growth of non-US players is bringing new challenges to minor league franchises, as well, perhaps even more so than in the Major Leagues, where players are generally more polished and prepared to deal with a wider range of difficult situations. While clubhouses all over baseball are split along gringo-latino lines, with all the various variations on more complex frictions such as Dominican vs. Puerto Rican vs. Venezuelan vs. Mexican or Korean vs. Japanese or Southern vs. Northern vs. Super-religious vs. super-irreverant vs. partiers vs. family-types, these cleavages are even more apparent in the minor leagues. Fights in the clubhouse are more common in farm clubs among these different factions, and the management challenges of mediating differences among groups who sometimes do not even speak the same language are tremendous.

No doubt, the growing internationalization of the sport leaves baseball scrambling for creativity, management skills and vision, not to mention language training. How this complex saga unfolds will be essential for the future of baseball as we know it in the US.

Minor League Players Born Outside the 50 United States (as of April 4, 2004, according to Major League Baseball)

Country		   Total Players
Argentina	   1
Aruba		   7
Australia	   76
Bahamas		   1
Brazil		   7
Canada		   106
China		   1
Colombia	   44
Costa Rica	   1
Cuba		   22
Curacao		   16
Dominican Republic 1,442
Ecuador		   3
El Salvador	   4
Germany		   3
Guam		   1
Honduras	   3
Italy		   1
Japan		   7
Korea		   11
Mexico		   102
Nicaragua	   34
Netherlands	   9
New Zealand	   1
Panama		   64
Puerto Rico	   127
South Africa	   3
St. Martin	   1
Taiwan		   10
United Kingdom	   1
Venezuela	   803
Vietnam		   1
Virgin Islands	   1
Total		   2,914

In a recent press release that was picked up by some news outlets, Major League Baseball called attention to its swelling ranks of international players. As in past years, in the major leagues Dominicans (79) represent by far the greatest number of non-US born players, followed by Venezuela (45) and the US-born-but-not-on-the-mainland case of Puerto Rico (36). These numbers only consider the 25-man roster, not the 40-man roster, so I suspect that they under-represent the numbers of non-US born players on overall major league rosters. These numbers also clearly do not reflect ethnicity, merely place of birth. MLB today is a much more international, and especially latino, environment than these official numbers indicate.

As follows are the non-US born players on Opening Day 2004, listed by place of origin with team affiliation as of April 2004 (courtesy of Major League Baseball):