Baseball Beyond Borders : From Distant Lands to the Major Leagues 9780810892460, 9780810892453

Citation preview

Baseball beyond Borders From Distant Lands to the Major Leagues Frank P. Jozsa Jr.

THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.

Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 2013

13_256_Jozsa.indb i

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom Copyright © 2013 by Scarecrow Press All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jozsa, Frank P., 1941– Baseball beyond borders : from distant lands to the major leagues / Frank P. Jozsa Jr. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8108-9245-3 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8108-9246-0 (electronic) 1. Baseball players—United States—History. 2. Immigrants—United States— History. 3. Minorities—United States—History. I. Title. GV863.A1J688 2013 796.357—dc23 2013020131

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America

13_256_Jozsa.indb ii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

To Most Valuable Grandson Lukas James Jozsa

13_256_Jozsa.indb iii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb iv

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Contents

Abbreviations

vii

Foreword

xi

Acknowledgments

xiii

Introduction

xvii

1

International Pastime

1

2

American League Immigrant Players

33

3

National League Immigrant Players

71

4

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

111

5

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

153

Conclusion

195

Appendix

201

Bibliography

209

Index

221

About the Author

225

v

13_256_Jozsa.indb v

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb vi

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Abbreviations

AL Division Series (ALDS) American League (AL) Appalachian League (APPL) Arizona Fall League (AFL) Arizona League (AZL) Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF) Baseball Writers Association of America (BWAA) Basic Collective Bargaining Agreement (BCBA) Batting Average (BA) California League (CAL) Caribbean Confederation (CC) Caribbean Series (CS) Carolina League (CARL) Central Division (CD) China Baseball League (CBL) Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) Designated Hitter (DH) Dominican Summer League (DSL) Dominican Winter League (DWL) Double-A (AA) Double-A Eastern League (AA-EL) Double-A Southern League (AA-SL) Double-A Texas League (AA-TL) vii

13_256_Jozsa.indb vii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

viii

Abbreviations

Earned Run Average (ERA) East Division (ED) Eastern League (EL) Federal League (FL) Florida State League (FSL) General Manager (GM) Gold Glove (GG) Gulf Coast League (GCL) High Class-A (HCA) High Class-A California League (HCA-CAL) High Class-A Carolina League (HCA-CARL) High Class-A Florida State League (HCA-FSL) Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) International Baseball Athletic Federation (IBAF) International League (IL) Korean Baseball Organization League (KBOL) Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA) Low Class-A (LCA) Low Class-A Midwest League (LCA-ML) Low Class-A South Atlantic League (LCA-SAL) Major League Baseball (MLB) Major League Baseball International (MLBI) Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) Mexican League (MXL) Mexican Pacific League (MXPL) Mexican Winter League (MXWL) Midwest League (ML) Minor League Baseball (MiLB) Most Valuable Player (MVP) National Association (NA) National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL) National Basketball Association (NBA) National Football League (NFL) National Hockey League (NHL) National League (NL) Negro National League (NNL) New York-Pennsylvania League (NYPL) NL Division Series (NLDS) North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Northwest League (NORWL) Northwestern League (NWL) Pacific Coast League (PCL)

13_256_Jozsa.indb viii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Abbreviations

ix

Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) Pioneer League (PL) Puerto Rican Winter League (PRWL) Republic of China Professional Baseball League (RCPBL) Rolaids Relief (RR) Rookie (R) Rookie-Appalachian League (R-APPL) Rookie-Arizona League (R-AZL) Rookie-Gulf Coast League (R-GCL) Rookie of the Year (ROY) Rookie-Pioneer League (R-PL) Runs Batted In (RBIs) Short-Season A (SSA) Short-Season A New York-Penn League (SSA-NYPL) Short-Season A Northwest League (SSA-NORWL) Silver Slugger (SS) Single A (A) South Atlantic League (SAL) Southern League (SL) Taiwan Major League (TML) Texas League (TL) Triple-A (AAA) Triple-A International League (AAA-IL) Triple-A Mexican League (AAA-MXL) Triple-A Pacific Coast League (AAA-PCL) Venezuelan Baseball League (VBL) Venezuelan Summer League (VSL) Venezuela Winter League (VWL) West Division (WD) Western League (WL) World Baseball Classic (WBC)

13_256_Jozsa.indb ix

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb x

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Foreword

F

rank Jozsa’s thirteenth and newest book, Baseball beyond Borders, is a timely, compelling study of Major League Baseball’s foreign-born players and their lasting contributions. Immigrants made up about 28 percent of teams’ 2013 opening-day rosters. The most-represented countries are, in order, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Canada. With twenty-eight of thirty MLB franchises investing approximately $150 million annually into their Dominican Republic camps, and with a development center open in China, baseball is poised to see an ever-increasing percentage of its player come from outside the United States. Among MLB’s first five immigrants were one’s born in Colombia, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Japan. Collectively, they represented a mix of nationalities and talents that paved the way for today’s players. Colombia’s Luis Castro, a 1902 Philadelphia A’s second baseman, was baseball’s first Latino. Al Campanis, born in Kos, which was then a small island within the Italian Dodecanese Islands but is now part of Greece, is best known as a former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager. Campanis originally appeared in seven 1943 games for Brooklyn. The first Dominican, Jamaican, and Japanese were, respectively, Ozzie Virgil, Chili Davis, and Masanori Murakami, all of whom broke in with the San Francisco Giants. Decades later, Dominican Omar Minaya followed in Campanis’s footsteps to become the first Hispanic general manager in 2002 when he led the Montreal Expos. Later, Minaya assumed the same title for the New York Mets. As a Texas Rangers’ scout, Minaya signed Dominican stars Fernando Tatis and Juan Gonzales. Thirty years after Murakami debuted, xi

13_256_Jozsa.indb xi

8/8/13 2:58 PM

xii

Foreword

about fifty other Japanese players have earned MLB roster positions including future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki and pitching sensation Yu Darvish, an All-Star in his rookie season. In 2012, Venezuelan Miguel Cabrera accomplished an immigrant baseball first when he won the American League Triple Crown and was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player. I grew up watching the immigrant players Jozsa writes about. Before baseball embraced immigrants, I saw dozens of them play. In the mid1950s, my family moved to Puerto Rico, where I became an avid Winter League fan. Ironically, Americans―or “imports” as they were referred to then―were considered outsiders. Much as they do in MLB today, immigrants played side-by-side with Americans. Roberto Clemente, Victor Pellot Power, and Orlando Cepeda teamed with or competed against Willie Mays, Roy Campanella, and Henry Aaron. Those Puerto Rico Winter League games represented baseball at its best. Then, in what remains one of my most vivid baseball memories, my father took me with him on a business trip to Cuba. We bought tickets to Gran Estadio de Habana and watched Cuban superstars including the great Orestes Minoso, who along with other black Caribbean’s helped integrate MLB. Since Minoso, dozens of Cubans fleeing the now Communist country followed, including Camilo Pascual, Luis Tiant, Tony Oliva, and Hall of Famer Tony Perez. The newest Cuban sensation, Yoenis Cespedes, is one of the American League’s most feared sluggers. You will learn interesting facts about these players by reading Baseball beyond Borders. Joe Guzzardi baseball historian

13_256_Jozsa.indb xii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Acknowledgments

I

n different ways, several people helped me to research topics and other information for the manuscript of Baseball beyond Borders. The most important of them was Lara Little, an assistant professor of library sciences at Pfeiffer University and the library director of the school’s campuses in Misenheimer and Charlotte, North Carolina. Besides locating and forwarding me numerous articles from various sources in the literature, she suggested how to interpret and use data, facts, and statistics from readings about American and foreign professional baseball leagues and their coaches, managers, and players. Because of Lara, my manuscript required considerably less time to complete and then submit before the deadline to Scarecrow Press. York County librarians Debra Franklin and Page Hendrix obtained a number of books for me from other libraries in South Carolina and elsewhere. They processed each of my requests for books conscientiously and immediately. In addition to them, employees at the public library in Fort Mill, South Carolina, contacted me whenever baseball books arrived and informed about their due dates. Special thanks to Debra, Page, and the other librarians. At the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, reference librarian Freddy Berowski recommended how to research papers, reports, and studies of subjects, while in photo archives, John Horne forwarded me images of baseball players, and explained how to order them correctly and promptly from him for my manuscript. Based on these experiences, Freddy and John are very good at their jobs.

xiii

13_256_Jozsa.indb xiii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

xiv

Acknowledgments

In a message to me about Baseball beyond Borders, former Loras College economics professor Laddie Sula was curious about the supply and demand for international baseball players. He questioned why some of them succeed and others fail in professional baseball, how difficult it is for them to leave their home country and travel abroad to the United States, whether foreign baseball players that retire eventually return to their home country, and how Major League Baseball teams scout players in nations of Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Besides being a diehard Cubs fan from Chicago, Laddie’s a friend whose comments are excellent topics for further research. Northeastern Illinois University Professor Steven Riess stated that emphasis in the manuscript should be on Hispanic players and a discussion of baseball traditions in their nations. In addition, he said for me to consider how Major League Baseball team officials recruit, sign, and treat players from such countries as Australia and the Netherlands, and how these players adjust to American culture. Riess mentioned sports books written by such prominent authors as Robert Ruck, Alan Klein, Adrian Burgos, and Sam Regalado. Thanks to Steven, their books and any reviews of them appear in the bibliography of Baseball beyond Borders. Professor Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, and researcher Sean Smith answered my questions about the “2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball.” Their study, which indicated areas of improvement, stagnation, and regression in the racial and gender composition of professional and collegiate sports personnel, had data regarding the race and gender of coaches, managers, officials, and players in professional baseball. Some of that information is in tables in the appendix. My former teammate from high school and big-league ballplayer Tommy John had opinions about the role and historical significance of foreigners on teams in professional baseball. Tommy told me how crosscheckers and scouts evaluate the abilities and potential of international baseball players and the extent of these athletes’ performances and careers in the sport. After pitching 4,701 innings, winning 288 games, and playing twenty-six years for six different teams in Major League Baseball, Tommy deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Bill Poveltich is the author of Milwaukee Braves: Heroes and Heartbreak and executive producer of such documentaries as Milwaukee Braves: The Team That Made Milwaukee Famous and Henry Aaron’s Summer Up North and the television special Milwaukee Braves: The Golden Legacy. He informed me about sports websites that feature data, facts, and histories of professional baseball leagues and their teams and players. In fact, Bill

13_256_Jozsa.indb xiv

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Acknowledgments

xv

supported my effort to write about foreigners in professional baseball and their contributions to improve the sport. Besides them, others who provided tips or made minor or major suggestions to me about contents in Baseball beyond Borders were University of South Carolina associate professor Mark Nagel, Wall Street Journal reporter Joel Millman, Baseball America national writer Ben Badler, and Cecilia Tan, the publications director of the Society for American Baseball Research. Meanwhile, the website seamheads.com’s founder and president, Mike Lynch, forwarded me the e-mail address of a prominent official in businessofsportsnetwork.com. After experiencing problems with symbols, tables, and other matters in the files of my manuscript, Cass Barnett, a technical services specialist at Office Depot in Rock Hill, South Carolina, taught me how to access and update computer software programs and use them to remove errors and mistakes, and scan for viruses. Cass understood my concerns with writing a book manuscript and seemed interested in researching immigrants in American professional baseball. Thanks to Cass for his assistance. A baseball historian and member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the Internet Baseball Writers Association, Joe Guzzardi authored the foreword in Baseball beyond Borders. Regarding the legality and treatment of foreigners, he clarified the status of Puerto Rico and the nationality of professional baseball players from that country on teams in MLB and the minor leagues. Thanks to Joe for writing the foreword and being someone who has studied baseball and its heritage, tradition, and trends in American culture. A nursing administrator at a hospital in North Carolina, Dr. Maureen Fogle has been my companion, friend, and partner for more than a decade. We share her office, our dog Lucy, and my computer and printer. She knew how important it was for me to finish the manuscript, get it approved by Scarecrow Press, and then printed for distribution as a book. Despite files of paperwork on floors and tables, in a closet, and under beds, and some stress on our relationship, Maureen encouraged me to finish the manuscript of Baseball beyond Borders and continue researching sports topics and writing manuscripts that become books. Frank P. Jozsa Jr.

13_256_Jozsa.indb xv

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb xvi

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Introduction

S

ince emerging as struggling organizations during the late 1800s to mid-1900s, the U.S. professional sports leagues have evolved in their competitiveness and operations and grown in popularity among sports fans in nations across the world. This evolution has brought about, for example, franchise expansions and team relocations, realignment of conferences and divisions, revision of regular season schedules and postseason playoffs, and the penetration of international markets by promoting and broadcasting games and playing them in ballparks of different countries. These organizations were initially the National League (NL) and subsequently the American League (AL) of Major League Baseball (MLB), then the National Hockey League (NHL), National Football League (NFL), and National Basketball Association (NBA).1 Over the years, an increasing proportion of players on team rosters of these sports organizations have been born in countries other than the United States. To illustrate, between 1998 and 2012, the foreign players participating in MLB increased from approximately 20 to 27 percent, in the NHL from 25 to 50 percent, in the NFL, from less than 1 to about 1 percent, and in the NBA from 5 to 15 percent. After finishing their careers as active players, a fraction of them have remained employed full- or parttime in the United States. Some former ballplayers have become coaches, managers, scouts, and even executives of major or minor league baseball franchises, while others have joined a league’s administrative staff. In short, diversity and globalization are trends that, in various ways, influence American professional team sports.2

xvii

13_256_Jozsa.indb xvii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

xviii

Introduction

As reported by print and online media, a number of conflicts, disputes, and failures occur with respect to young professional athletes who leave their homes to live and play for baseball teams in the United States. Besides cultural, economic, and language barriers they encounter, there are such problems as discrimination; racism; drug and alcohol abuse; differences in customs, politics, and traditions; and not enough assets, money, and resources to adequately assist, educate, and train them as immigrants. A majority of MLB teams invest in, control, and supervise baseball academies in the Dominican Republic and potentially may in other nations. They assign scouts from there and the United States to recruit and sign talented but poor and uneducated teenage ballplayers before they mature and become adults. Only a small number of these athletes eventually succeed on teams in the AL and/or NL or in minor leagues, so these investments are risky but the payoffs can also be substantial for professional baseball franchises and their investors. Reading about these controversial issues, in part, motivated me to research topics and write this book. To explain its intent, purpose, and scope, Baseball beyond Borders identifies, groups, and analyzes the nationalities and careers of foreign-born and Puerto Rican baseball coaches, managers, ballplayers, and officials, including team executives, owners, and scouts of franchises in the AL and NL, for various MLB seasons and different decades from 1901 to 2012. Furthermore, the book reveals the impact and significance of these coaches, managers, and ballplayers on teams in baseball’s minor league system. To measure, highlight, and organize results, tables of qualitative and quantitative data and other information in chapters and the appendix reveal the contributions of these immigrants to the development, expansion, and popularity of American baseball in sports markets of the United States and abroad. The book also contains photos of nine foreign-born former MLB players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The primary audiences for Baseball beyond Borders include the following individuals and groups: officials and central office staff in MLB and minor league baseball; coaches, field managers, executives, and owners of MLB franchises; private and public college and university faculty who teach any undergraduate and graduate courses in sports business, economics, history, management, and marketing; baseball scouts of professional teams in America and foreign countries; and administrators of any baseball academies or other training facilities located especially in cities and towns of Latin America. Besides scholars who research professional baseball, the secondary audiences for Baseball beyond Borders are public libraries in the U.S. and in nations where the sport is popular, such as the Dominican Republic, Ja-

13_256_Jozsa.indb xviii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Introduction

xix

pan, Panama, South Korea, Taiwan, and Venezuela. In addition, the book appeals to Asian, Canadian, European, and Latin American baseball fans that live in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and other prominent U.S. sports markets. To introduce Baseball beyond Borders, the next section primarily informs readers about the contents of sports books that reveal in different ways the role of foreign and Puerto Rican baseball athletes and their careers, experiences, and relationships with America’s professional baseball leagues and their teams.

LITERATURE REVIEW Listed in the bibliography are several books of special interest because of their data, facts, and implications regarding one or more topics in Baseball beyond Borders. Published during the 2000s, six of these books are concerned specifically or in part with U.S. and international baseball, including the organization, history, and success of professional leagues and performances of teams and their players. University of Illinois African American studies and history professor Adrian Burgos Jr. wrote an impressive book titled Playing America’s Game, which the University of California Press published in 2007. Organized in three thematic parts, his study of baseball culture, history, and life is, in part, about American race relations, community development, Latinos’ multicultural background, and problems involving the color line. In the book, Burgos examines how notions of race, ethnicity, and masculinity among Anglos and Latinos interacted with each other and how these groups responded as baseball evolved as a team sport. In his opinion, Anglo players not only distanced themselves from the color line to support segregation, but also to prove that they were first-class citizens and truly professional athletes. The book’s major argument, therefore, is that baseball management in America was essentially interested in obtaining new sources of cheap labor for teams without undermining the color line.3 A well-conceptualized and researched but controversial book, Playing America’s Game is appropriate and recommended as a text for students enrolled in such college and university courses as American history, ethnic and labor studies, and cultural politics. In addition, since MLB has became more international and includes thousands of Latino players, general readers are an audience of Burgos’s book. In short, Playing America’s Game established a starting point for further exploration into questions and topics regarding sport, transnational identity, and changes in the demographics and ethnicities of people in a region.

13_256_Jozsa.indb xix

8/8/13 2:58 PM

xx

Introduction

In University of San Francisco anthropology professor George Gmelch’s Baseball without Borders, experts from such disciplines as anthropology, economics, computer science, history, and journalism contributed sixteen essays about the common and unique cultural attributes of the sport in fourteen nations within four areas of the world. Those who read it learn, for example, how the game originated and increasingly expanded throughout eastern and northern Asia, and in Australia, Latin America, and a few countries of Europe, when it evolved and became popular in other parts of the globe, and how coaches and players approach baseball and fans behave toward it. To depict its uneven growth across the world, Gmelch also points out that interest in baseball among sports fans has recently decreased in some countries like Great Britain and Nicaragua. Yet, because sports are actually international, professional baseball varies among nations to some extent with respect to participation, popularity, equipment sources, and style of play.4 According to Gmelch, it is unlikely that baseball will ever rival basketball and soccer as truly global sports. Even so, he predicts an ongoing movement of talented foreign baseball players from schools and amateur and professional leagues to clubs in MLB’s AL and NL and U.S. minor leagues largely because of financial incentives. In sum, Baseball without Borders provides a multidisciplinary and multicultural examination of the sport as it exists among people in several societies. To that end, baseball is a part of the international landscape and certainly an integral part of U.S. culture. Authored by Northeastern University sociology-anthropology professor Alan Klein in 2006, Growing the Game examines the economic, political, and structured arrangements of baseball on a global scale. In the book, he discusses the demand for and recruitment of outstanding young foreign baseball players by professional sports franchises and reveals the efforts of Major League Baseball International (MLBI) to promote the sport in other areas of the world in order to increase profits from selling broadcast rights and corporate sponsorships, licensing products, and scheduling events. More specifically, Klein describes how the AL Kansas City Royals and NL Los Angeles Dodgers, for example, recruit uneducated and talented players in countries of Africa and from the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, and Venezuela. To study the globalization of the sport, Klein relied on historical data, interviews, and personal visits to baseball sites throughout the world. Critics, as expected, have different views from interpreting the concepts, data, and theories in Growing the Game. Some contend Klein’s methods actually blend ethnography, industry analysis, and archival research from the late 1990s to early 2000s and that this facilitates MLB’s mission. In contrast, others believe Klein ignores the possibility that many places

13_256_Jozsa.indb xx

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Introduction

xxi

have their own team sports and are not necessarily interested in baseball, since it is a complex and relatively difficult game to play for athletes in groups. Despite these opinions, the book contains fascinating and welltold stories about baseball around the globe and, in fact, is a timely contribution to understanding the game in our contemporary age.5 In 2011, Beacon Press in Boston, Massachusetts, published Raceball, a book written by University of Pittsburgh sports history professor Rob Ruck. He combined political, sports, and racial history to demonstrate how MLB expanded the game into the Caribbean and Mexico to protect its interests, competed for foreign athletes with other team sports leagues, attempted to implement and enforce its regulations and rules in other nations, and while integrating itself, tended to harm minority groups involved with it. Unfortunately, Ruck suggests, MLB may make similar mistakes again because of its policies to become dominant and tighten controls over Caribbean baseball, establish rules to marginalize veteran scouts, and extend the amateur draft to include international players.6 Besides details about the effects of political dictatorships in the Caribbean sponsored by the U.S. government, and the historical development and then failure of the Negro baseball leagues, Raceball also examines the rise and gradual decline of blacks relative to their participation in amateur and professional baseball within America. In addition, the book charts the explosion of Latin Americans in U.S.-Canadian baseball that allows MLB teams to minimize costs, exploit talent, and increase acceptance of these foreign athletes on their rosters. According to Ruck, MLB had truly gutted the game at the grassroots level in the United States to achieve financial prosperity. Moreover, he explains how Caribbean baseball remained somewhat and temporarily autonomous from MLB. As such, the league did not colonize the Caribbean for decades due to the region being geographically distant from the United States. For those and other reasons, Raceball is a highly recommended book. Not only does it remind us of the long and independent history of the sport in Latin America, it denotes how colonialism influenced North America’s Negro Leagues. Simply put, Raceball blends the intertwined histories of African American and Latin American baseball and their ill-fated interactions with MLB, and portrays a fascinating picture of the game in the early twentieth-century Caribbean. Johns Hopkins University writer-in-residence Tim Wendel’s The New Face of Baseball reveals the history of Latinos in MLB, including biographical sketches, facts, and performances of former superstars and the accomplishments of less-popular and average Hispanic ballplayers. Published by HarperCollins in 2003 with a foreword written by sports broadcaster Bob Costas, the book gives readers such information as how the Dominican Republic’s Sammy Sosa became inspired to play the game. In addition, it

13_256_Jozsa.indb xxi

8/8/13 2:58 PM

xxii

Introduction

provides insights into the life of Cuban miscreant ballplayer Jose Canseco and about an incident in which Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, a second baseman from the Dominican Republic, protested and spit into an umpire’s mask. For sure, baseball fans will recognize names of baseball legends like former Los Angeles Dodger Fernando Valenzuela, Minnie Minoso of the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates’ Roberto Clemente, and San Francisco Giants’ Orlando Cepeda.7 Wendel, however, is not objective in his analysis when he praises Latino ballplayers. In fact, he needed to dig deeper into their lives and reveal their personal experiences. These involved such problems as racial discrimination, stereotyping, and quotas that some foreign governments had placed on athletes in their professional sports. Nevertheless, The New Face of Baseball is strong on content and thus a good title for public libraries and any bookstores in America that feature sports heroes born in communities within Central and South America. Other primary audiences of Wendel’s book are Latino coaches, managers, and administrative officials associated with the U.S. major and minor leagues, and baseball fans in MLB cities like Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. Anyone interested in baseball will enjoy looking at one hundred photographs and reading stories about Latino ballplayers in Far from Home, a book published in 2008 by National Geographic. Besides interesting synopses of such foreign-born athletes as Luis Aparicio, Omar Vizquel, and the three Alou brothers, authors Tim Wendel and Sacramento Bee staff photographer Jose Luis Villegas pay tribute to them because these and other major league ballplayers had to confront and battle prejudices and overcome language barriers and cultural differences while in America to become role models and legends in their home countries. In the book’s final chapter, Villegas tells the story of how Miguel Odalis Tejada managed personal obstacles and rose to stardom as a major league infielder while his friend Mario Gonzalez Encarnacion struggled before his tragic death in 2005.8 Other attractive features of Far from Home are Wendel’s narrative, which celebrates such early icons of the game as Cuban players Adolfo Luque and Martin Dihigo and their generational counterparts Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente, and Minnie Minoso, and Villegas’s pictures, which highlight players in action along with the passion of fans and athletes. For some readers, this book is inspirational and especially memorable for young Latino players who participate in Little League and Babe Ruth League Baseball programs and others who perform on teams in high schools, colleges and universities, and on clubs in the U.S. minor leagues. Besides information in the above-mentioned books, Baseball beyond Borders also drew from articles published in magazines, newspapers, journals and periodicals, Internet sources such as baseball-almanac.com, baseball-

13_256_Jozsa.indb xxii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Introduction

xxiii

reference.com, milb.com, and mlb.com, and a few detailed media guides and reports. In addition to these sources, the bibliography contains a list of dissertations and theses. These were academic studies, in part, of different demographic, ethnic, philosophical, and racial aspects of baseball and of some professional leagues, teams, and their international coaches, managers, and players.9

BOOK OVERVIEW Chapter 1 discusses the culture of baseball, especially within countries where it is popular and very prominent as an amateur and/or professional team sport. Economic, political, and social events in the historical development of these nations indicate why they are unique and became places for baseball to exist and perhaps thrive as an activity while receiving support from their public and private sectors. In fact, as the game developed and gradually expanded there, it attracted athletes, fans, money, and resources. That contributed to the growth of baseball and its globalization since the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Chapter 2 identifies and highlights the performances of a number of immigrant baseball players and their role on one or more teams in MLB’s AL. It, in part, denotes the circumstances for why and when some of them immigrated to the United States and how they and others overcame problems that affected their personal lives and careers to perform as hitters, pitchers, catchers, infielders, and outfielders. As discussed in the chapter, a few of these ballplayers had exceptional skills and enough accomplishments for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame at its site in Cooperstown, New York. Chapter 3 names and focuses on those international baseball players who, for one reason or another, decided to sign contracts and then have careers with various MLB teams, primarily in the NL. Because of their attitude, talent, and achievements in baseball games as teenagers and/ or young adults, these athletes took advantage of opportunities while in their home country to join NL clubs. As such, this chapter reveals why some players excelled as competitors and later earned enough votes for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Chapter 4 contains information about the contribution of foreign and Puerto Rican men and women who worked in various administrative positions of MLB franchises or coached, managed, and/or owned a big-league team. They and others, meanwhile, may have also been employees for years as officials in the central office of the AL, NL, and/or MLB. Indeed, some of them retired after playing many seasons for teams. Meanwhile, a few had enough experience, knowledge, and motivation

13_256_Jozsa.indb xxiii

8/8/13 2:58 PM

xxiv

Introduction

to become effective administrators, executives, or simply members of an organization’s front office staff or baseball operations. Due to their exposure, leadership, and crucial role with MLB teams, field managers were most interesting to study and evaluate. Chapter 5 features immigrants to the United States who during their years in the sport served as coaches, managers, and players of teams in minor league baseball. In the literature, there are data, statistics, and personal information about these individuals and their accomplishments. Baseball beyond Borders highlights and examines the contributions of these men and focuses on interesting aspects of their careers. Chapter 6 summarizes the important contents of the other chapters. In part, it denotes issues and problems of immigrants who, for one reason or another, decide to leave their homes in foreign countries and Puerto Rico to play for, or become employed by, franchises in MLB or minor league baseball. This chapter predicts their role and impact while they perform for organizations in American professional baseball during 2013 and years thereafter. An appendix presents tables of quantitative data and qualitative information that supplement concepts and themes discussed in the chapters.

NOTES 1. As currently named, the National League’s first season was in 1876, American League and Major League Baseball in 1901, National Hockey League in 1917–1918, National Football League in 1922 (originally the American Professional Football Association in 1920–1921), and National Basketball Association in 1949 (merger of the Basketball Association of America and National Basketball League). For other historical information, see various editions of the World Almanac and Book of Facts and these leagues’ websites. 2. Because its people are American citizens when born there, Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States. In fact, it is a self-governing, independent territory and an island whose border is not contiguous to any U.S. state. Even so, Baseball beyond Borders considers and treats that nation’s baseball players, coaches, managers, and any officials from there as immigrants. 3. Four reviews of Burgos’s book are Robert Ruck, “Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line,” Journal of American History 94 (December 2007): 975–76; Richard Perez, “Remembering My Father’s Face: Roberto Clemente and an Ethics of Hospitality,” Centro Journal (Fall 2007): 244–53; Darius Echeverria, “Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line,” Canadian Journal of History 43 (Autumn 2008): 341–43; Robert Cottrell, “Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line,” Library Journal (August 2007): 95. 4. To read two reviews of this book, see B. Tavakolian, “Baseball without Borders: The International Pastime,” Choice (May 2007): 1, and Randy LaGrange, “Baseball without Borders: The International Pastime,” Sociology of Sport Journal 24 (December 2007): 495–98.

13_256_08_Intro.indd xxiv

8/12/13 6:30 AM

Introduction

xxv

5. For different critiques of Alan Klein’s Growing the Game: The Globalization of Major League Baseball, see Toby Miller’s review in Contemporary Sociology 36 (November 2007): 561–62; Michael Butterworth’s in Sociology of Sport Journal 24 (September 2007): 346–48; and Steven Riess’s in American Studies 48 (Fall 2007): 175–76. 6. Sample reviews include Tim Marchman, “Squeeze Play,” Wall Street Journal (11 March 2011), A13; Stephon Johnson, “‘Raceball’ Eloquently Presents Other Side of Baseball History,” New York Amsterdam News (25 August 2011), 28; and Alan Moores, “Baseball in Latin America,” Booklist (1 March 2011): 12. 7. Reviews of The New Face of Baseball were written by Sarah Gold, Emily Chenoweth, and Jeff Zaleski in Publishers Weekly (28 April 2003): 60; Ana Acle-Menendez in Hispanic (June 2003): 66; and Jim Burns in Library Journal (1 June 2003): 130. 8. See comments about the contents of Far from Home: Latino Baseball Players in America by Robert Cottrell, Margaret Heilbrun, Paul Kaplan, and Gilles Renaud in Library Journal (1 February 2008): 78, and Alvin Benson in Magill Book Reviews (1 November 2008): 1600. 9. A few recommended articles are “Local Heroes,” Economist (2 August 2008), 10–12; Stuart Anderson, “America’s Pastime Should Be Baseball, Not Complaints about Immigrants,” www.forbes.com (4 November 2012); Jim Witte, “American as Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and . . . Immigrants,” www2.timesdispatch.com (5 November 2012); and Joe Guzzardi, “Baseball: The Game That Helped America Become America,” www.post-gazette.com (5 November 2012).

13_256_Jozsa.indb xxv

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb xxvi

8/8/13 2:58 PM

1

International Pastime

B

esides being a traditional, well-publicized, and prominent amateur and professional sport in the United States, baseball is also an extremely popular activity and competitive event in other nations across the globe. Indeed, for one reason or another, the game of baseball is relatively more popular in several countries of Asia and Latin America than basketball, American football, and ice hockey, although not soccer. This is the case in places such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in Asia, and Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela in Latin America. In addition, since the late 1990s, the sport has expanded in Australia, Canada, China, and Russia, and furthermore throughout such European countries as France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Consequently, there has been steady growth in the numbers of international athletes who excel in playing the sport and spectators who enjoy attending games; an expansion in amateur, semiprofessional, and professional leagues and their teams; and the development of modern baseball fields and construction of new stadiums internationally.1 As baseball emerged and then evolved in these and other demographic areas, problems occurred in some countries from economic, political, and/or social perspectives. In fact, as other types of entertainment and activities including individual and nontraditional sports became increasingly popular, there has been a decline in attendances at baseball games among various age groups. Moreover, many professional teams tend to operate at a deficit during baseball seasons, while some owners have incurred excessive debts because of higher salaries for coaches, managers, and players and because of increases in expenses for equipment and 1

13_256_Jozsa.indb 1

8/8/13 2:58 PM

2

Chapter 1

materials, training and health care costs, and insurance policies and pension programs. Another problem is that for several years some of the most talented athletes have left their home countries to play for teams in the American League (AL) and National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB), and for clubs in the U.S. minor league system. As evidence of this movement, in the 2012 MLB season approximately 27 percent of the baseball players who made the rosters of big-league teams and about 47 percent on the rosters of affiliated minor league clubs were international. Besides these issues, some academics, reporters, and sports officials criticize the economics of MLB. That is, they recommend various reforms for when the league’s teams should recruit and draft international players; why the league should compel teams to invest in and upgrade their baseball academies located in Latin America and elsewhere; and how global policies, rules, and standards could be designed, adopted, and enforced regarding domestic and foreign players’ contracts, compensation, and free agency. For readers to realize and understand how baseball became an international pastime, they will find here relevant historical dates, events, and other information regarding the sport’s presence in nations besides the United States. More specifically, discussed below are the circumstances, extent, and role of amateur and/or professional baseball and baseball organizations in different countries of Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

BASEBALL IN ASIA Japan Baseball is a very important activity to sports fans in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, but relatively unimportant to the people of China, Indonesia, and North Korea. Ever since baseball emerged during the 1870s, it has expanded and prospered as a sport in Japan. Indeed, several of the country’s most competitive baseball teams have won international series, tournaments, and championships by defeating the best clubs from other nations in the Far East. Meanwhile, several Japanese athletes became national heroes when they hit homers and scored runs against MLB and American amateur teams who played exhibition games in Tokyo and other cities. Two years after the nation’s first professional baseball team started in 1934, the Japanese Professional League began its initial season and continued to exist with six to eight teams until 1950. After that year, the organization’s structure permanently changed to model MLB’s AL and NL and included six baseball teams each in the Central and Pacific Leagues.2

13_256_Jozsa.indb 2

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

3

Because they excelled and won a number of titles in their respective leagues, the Yomiuri Giants, Hiroshima Carps, and Seibu Lions have been the three most successful professional baseball teams in Japan. These clubs had several competitive players, such that in 1964, the Giants’ Masanori Murakami joined the NL San Francisco Giants for one season. Eventually, it became apparent to many U.S. baseball officials and fans that Japanese players were talented enough to play for teams in MLB or in America’s minor leagues. Although the Central and Pacific Leagues adopted free agency in 1994, Japanese athletes with contracts must play at least eight years on teams in Nippon Professional Baseball before they can negotiate, sign new contracts with, and perform for clubs in MLB. Baseball in Japan has an impressive history, in part because of its amateur and professional sports organizations and their dedicated, experienced, and well-disciplined players. Since the early to mid-1990s, the quality of teams in Japan’s Central and Pacific Leagues tended to decline because many superior ballplayers—such as Hideo Nomo, Kenchiro Kawabata, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Kazuo Matsui, and Yu Darvish—received opportunities to play for teams in U.S. leagues. Rather than continue playing for the Carps, Lions, or other Japanese clubs, they decided to sign contracts and excel for teams in MLB. This caused some Japanese companies to reduce all or a portion of their subsidies to finance the operations of baseball franchises in the Central and Pacific Leagues. If this trend continues, it would significantly affect future seasons of the sport. Japanese fans will likely attend fewer games, the nation’s baseball business may deteriorate, and some clubs could fold their organizations and withdraw from the Central or Pacific League. Interestingly, a players’ strike occurred in late 2004 because of the owners’ strategy to consolidate two Japanese teams: the Orix Blue Wave and Kintetsu Buffaloes. It is likely that baseball officials in Japan will reform, revamp, or simply downsize their professional leagues before 2015. This would cause MLB franchise owners to consider changing their tactics and be less aggressive about signing the best Japanese players available when their eight-year commitment expires. South Korea After U.S. Missionary Philip L. Gillett introduced baseball to people in Korea during the early 1900s, the game became increasingly popular across the nation. In fact, by the mid-1960s South Korea defeated Japan to win the Asia Amateur Baseball Championship. As a result, the sport continued to develop, entertain fans, and progress throughout the 1970s. Then in 1982, the six-team Korean Baseball Organization League (KBOL)

13_256_Jozsa.indb 3

8/8/13 2:58 PM

4

Chapter 1

formed and completed its first season. After KBOL established a postseason playoff competition in 1986, the league decided to expand by two teams during the early 1990s and agreed to compete every four years in a special Super Game against a team from Japan’s professional leagues.3 Interestingly, during and after the mid-1990s a few significant events occurred that forever changed the structure of baseball in South Korea. For financial reasons, a few current and talented but highly popular Korean pitchers negotiated and endorsed contracts with teams in MLB. These athletes included Chan Ho Park, who signed with the NL Los Angeles Dodgers in 1994, Sang Hoon Lee with the AL Boston Red Sox in 1997, and Byung-Hyun Kim with the NL Arizona Diamondbacks in 1999. In 1996, the majority of Korea’s professional baseball players received permission to play in the Summer Olympics that took place in Atlanta, Georgia. One year later, teams in the KBOL drafted about three dozen non-Korean players. In 1999, the KBOL decentralized as an organization and established the Dream and Magix Leagues, and a free agent system became a reality that same year whereby Korean baseball players with eleven or more years of seniority had the right to negotiate a contract with any of the professional clubs in their league. A year later, Korea won a bronze medal in baseball at the 2000 Sydney Olympics by defeating Japan, and in 2001, each Korean athlete who wished to play professional baseball in the United States had an opportunity to be posted or assigned to one or more of the thirty MLB teams. This policy enabled big-league clubs with the highest bids, such as the AL Chicago White Sox and NL New York Mets, to negotiate a contract with any ballplayer from Korea. Some other facts regarding baseball in South Korea: each of the eight teams in the KBOL has a name that corresponds to the corporation that sponsors it—for example, the Doosan Bears and Nexen Heroes; a team’s typical baseball season consists of 133 games; after the regular season concludes the top four clubs qualify for the playoffs of the Korean Series Championship; and through the 2012 season, the two most successful teams have been the Kia Tigers and Samsung Lions. Since South Korea is a relatively small country, it is common for individual baseball fans and groups to travel to away games of their hometown team. At games, there are frequently cheerleaders who dance to entertain spectators. In addition, each home team has a mascot who rallies the crowd at games by making funny gestures and performing stunts and tricks. Because Korean fans are passionate about the sport, and they applaud the competitiveness and skills of players on KBOL teams, baseball is a successful sport in Korea and comparable in quality to Double A minor league teams in the United States.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 4

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

5

Taiwan About one hundred years after the Japanese exported baseball and introduced the game to this nation of twenty-three million people, the Republic of China’s Professional Baseball League (RCPBL) began to operate in 1990. After gamblers discovered ways to contact players and bet on the sport during the mid-1990s, attendances at RCPBL games dramatically declined because of price-fixing scandals involving some of the league’s elite players. As a result, in 1997 the four-team Taiwan Major League (TML) emerged and gradually signed many of the nation’s best players from its rival league’s teams. Inevitably, competition for players and their inflated salaries led to the establishment of the six-team Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), which was a merger of the RCPBL and TML in 2003.4 With respect to the initial organization and schedule of the CPBL, each team played fifty games per season by rotating among twelve stadiums whose individual capacity varied between 5,000 and 10,000 seats. Generally, the league’s regular season extends for eight or more months since only two to four games occur each week. The average ticket price in U.S. dollars is approximately $6 to $12, and attendance per game averages from 2,000 to 4,000 spectators. Each game is intense and, according to Taiwanese fans, a contest between a tiger and dragon. Such CPBL teams as the First Securities Agan, Makota Gida, and Sinon Bulls pay their players from Taiwan about $58,000 on average, while foreigners earn more than $96,000 per year. Because they have won more titles and/or finished second in the league since 2000, the Brother Elephants and China Trust Whales have been the nation’s most successful professional baseball clubs. Despite a scandal that occurred because gamblers bet on and tried to fix games, Taiwan has a relatively large and talented supply of amateur and professional baseball players. Some of these athletes, who frequently are in their late teens, can hit with power and utilize their quickness and speed in games. Indeed, they may have performed on a world championship Little League club and/or on a competitive high school and college team in Taiwan. Consequently, a number of MLB teams invest money and resources into the sport in order to scout and recruit players; finance and host baseball clinics in Taiwan’s small, midsized, and large cities; and establish business partnerships and licensing agreements with various CPBL clubs. Simply put, baseball in Taiwan is a popular sport that has the potential to provide more players for professional teams in America and elsewhere. China The Shanghai Baseball Club began to play games in 1863. Thirty years later, Huiwen College and Tongzhou College in Beijing, and St. John’s

13_256_Jozsa.indb 5

8/8/13 2:58 PM

6

Chapter 1

College of Shanghai established baseball programs for their students. Before the late 1910s, enthusiasm generated from intercollegiate baseball games held on the mainland, coupled with the approval of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary party, led to the formation of the Chinese Overseas Baseball Club. After a series of economic, political, and social upheavals during the mid-1900s, baseball in China became an official sport after its rehabilitation. As a result, the Communist Party declared it a legal enterprise in 1975 and that led to the formation of a national baseball team. Since the late 1970s, the team has played games in various tournaments, which usually occur on baseball fields in such cities as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangdong. For the first time in the sport’s history, a professional baseball team from Japan competed against China’s national team in 1996.5 The China Baseball League (CBL) is one of the country’s newest and moderately popular professional sports organizations. It consists of four teams that have athletes who, in part, had represented China in baseball at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. To sponsor and assist with the identification, recruitment, and development of players to fill the roster of China’s national baseball team, MLB signed a contract with the nation’s Baseball Association during the early 2000s. One aspect of the agreement is that it allows U.S. collegiate coaches to train Chinese baseball players and for China’s coaches to visit with and learn fundamentals of the sport from various field managers of MLB clubs. Furthermore, the contract stipulated that Chinese government resources were available to conduct baseball clinics there for kids, teenagers, and young adults in cities, towns, and villages. To promote the sport and increase passion for it by people who live in metropolitan areas, the CBL and Major League Baseball International (MLBI) agreed to consolidate their efforts and conduct a tour in large Chinese cities during 2005. The highlight of it was an MLB Road Show. An interactive fan experience, this event taught people how to swing at a baseball while in a batting cage, how to throw baseballs while in a pitching tunnel, and how to learn fundamentals of the sport at a media pavilion. About MLB’s Road Show, the CBL’s cosponsor and vice chairman, Tom McCarthy, said, “The CBL is very excited to have the opportunity to join with MLB to bring to China this fan-oriented activity that is sure to draw great interest and allow fans the opportunity to experience the great game of baseball in a festive atmosphere.”6 To conclude this section of chapter 1, both official and informal baseball organizations exist in each of these four Asian nations. As such, Japan is the most prominent Asian country to develop, finance, and geographically expand the sport, and it has leagues with very competitive amateur, semiprofessional, and professional teams. Even so, the migration of play-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 6

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

7

ers each year from Japanese clubs to those in MLB and the minors creates problems for the owners of franchises in the Central and Pacific Leagues. In comparison to Japan, baseball in South Korea and Taiwan is also competitive among the nation’s teams, and games there are popular and well attended. However, these countries have only a few players each season who are eligible and talented enough to join the roster of a club in MLB or one in the U.S. minor leagues. Meanwhile, athletes in China need to learn such basic techniques as how to catch, hit, and pitch in order to improve their baseball skills. With support from MLB and special assistance from MLBI, the Chinese national baseball team will improve, become more experienced, and eventually win games at tournaments against their rivals from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

BASEBALL IN LATIN AMERICA Since 1970, the Caribbean Confederation (CC) has consisted of baseball organizations located in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. After the winter baseball season ends in each country, there are playoffs between teams to determine a CC champion. In order to compete, the four teams that win their respective playoffs earn the right to compete in a tournament named the Caribbean Series. Historically, clubs in that tournament feature several Latin American players with exceptional skills and the potential to play for the New York Yankees and other clubs in MLB or in baseball’s minor league system. In fact, many Latinos in MLB have played on teams that competed in organized leagues of the CC. It is important for readers to know how amateur and/or professional baseball as a sport is different and unique in these four Latin American nations. Consequently, it is worthwhile to become familiar with their baseball history. Dominican Republic During the mid-1860s, refugees migrated from Cuba and introduced the game of baseball to this small country of ten million people. Because of that, Dominican athletes quickly learned the sport and gradually baseball leagues organized and tournaments among teams were held in ballparks and other places across the country. Between 1894 and 1921, such Dominican teams as the Tigers, Eastern Stars, the Eagles, and Lions of the Chosen One formed and performed as members of the nation’s most prestigious professional league. These four clubs and two others became members of the Dominican Baseball League, whose season ranges each

13_256_Jozsa.indb 7

8/8/13 2:58 PM

8

Chapter 1

year from October to December. Since these months are when production in the country’s sugar mills slows down, a baseball game is a popular event that people in urban and rural areas enjoy and support.7 During winters, the league’s teams play their regular season games at stadiums in Santo Domingo, Santiago, San Pedro de Macoris, San Francisco de Macoris, and La Romana. Compared to the extravagance and specifications of MLB facilities in the U.S. and Canada, these are relatively inexpensive, small, and inferior ballparks. Nevertheless, fans who attend games there are enthusiastic, energetic, and loud. For example, to antagonize opponents, they blow whistles, wave flags, and scream for their favorite local team. While loudspeakers in stadiums broadcast music to entertain the audience, teams’ cheerleaders dance on the dugouts between innings. In short, any games held in the Dominican Republic are festive special events for spectators because the baseball season provides an opportunity for families to ignore their poverty and for people to sing, smile, and rejoice as they celebrate in the streets and at the ballparks. Because of the economy’s high unemployment rate, low per capita income, and people’s shabby living conditions, many of the country’s best athletes migrate to the United States and excel as competitive players on MLB or minor league teams. Some of these Latino ballplayers include the former Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa, former St. Louis Cardinals and now Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim slugger Albert Pujols, former Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez, and current Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz. To learn about and establish relationships with competitive but young players before they join professional baseball teams and become adults, MLB franchises invest in, lease or own, and operate academies and other baseball facilities in the Dominican Republic. The purpose is to recruit, train, and sign to contracts these poor and talented athletes. In fact, when they were kids and teenagers, Sosa and other Dominicans played games in grassy fields and on parking lots, and used broomsticks for bats and tennis balls for baseballs. Besides athletes from Latin America, there are also American and other foreign-born MLB players who need to upgrade their fielding, hitting, running, and pitching skills, including those in the minor league system. Therefore, to improve their abilities and gain experience, they play in the Dominican Republic. Based on their knowledge, love, and respect for the game, Dominican people are personally obsessed with and passionate about baseball, especially male teenagers and adults who are fans, amateur players and their families, and any friends of players. For sure, MLB teams will continue to scout, recruit, train, and sign to contracts the best athletes from the island

13_256_Jozsa.indb 8

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

9

of Hispaniola. Although the chance of a Dominican athlete becoming a big-league player is small, there are tremendous economic incentives for kids from sugar mill towns to practice the game while dreaming about a future as a professional player. Mexico Some historians report that the game of baseball originated in Mexico’s cities and rural areas sometime between 1840 and 1850. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, local athletes and foreign laborers and workers from other nations in Latin America began to play the sport in ballparks across Mexico while they built and installed train tracks for the railroad industry. In the 1920s, sports entrepreneurs met and organized the nation’s most popular baseball league. Mexican people, however, were not truly fascinated with baseball games until 1957. During the summer of that year, a team from Monterrey, Mexico, defeated a rival club from La Mesa, California, 4–0 to win the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. To clinch the championship, Mexico’s Angel Macias was outstanding, pitching a perfect game. After a Mexican team won the World Series again in 1958, baseball surged in popularity and prospered.8 Established in 1925, the Mexican League (MXL) consists of sixteen professional elite baseball teams. Their ballparks are in such cities as Cancun, Puebla, Torreon, Veracruz, Reynosa, and obviously, Mexico City and Monterrey. The league features a 116-game regular season schedule that begins in mid-March and ends in late June. Each season, at least twelve (75 percent) of the teams expect to qualify for the playoffs and then compete until eliminated in the long postseason, which is in July and August. In contrast to the MXL, an eight-team Pacific League exists in Mexico and plays a fifty-eight-game regular season each October through December, with a playoff series in the following January. Regarding specific baseball games in Mexico, tickets at ballparks have relatively low prices and teams frequently score many runs per game because at high altitudes any balls hit hard in the air travel far into the outfield. There are unique food and beverage items for sale at games, and fans can purchase different types of souvenirs at particular stadiums. For games played in Oaxaca, Mexico, vendors sell fried grasshoppers besides the typical menu of tamales, tortes, and empanadas. Indeed, intense competition between teams, location and ambience of local ballparks, low admission prices, and delicious food make MXL games exciting and wonderful events for spectators. Several times in 2003–2004, Mexican billionaire Carlos Bremer made a sincere effort to persuade MLB to move the Expos from Montreal, Canada, to Monterrey, Mexico. Nevertheless, the National League

13_256_Jozsa.indb 9

8/8/13 2:58 PM

10

Chapter 1

eventually—but not surprisingly—selected Washington, DC, instead because of problems with a big-league team existing in that Mexican city. For example, the home team’s games would occur in the 26,000seat Estadio Monterrey, which is an unattractive, undersized, and obsolete facility relative to big-league ballparks in America. Additionally, the terms of Bremer’s bid were likely inferior regarding the total U.S. dollars he offered for the Expos franchise and the timing of payments on its debts owed to the league and creditors. In Monterrey, an MLB franchise would be risky financially and exposed to a devaluation of the Mexican peso. This means that the revenues earned by the club would be valued in cheap pesos while the team’s players would receive their salaries in expensive U.S. dollars. Some interruptions with scheduling evening games and delays in traveling by teams could also occur since Monterrey is in the country’s central time zone and located approximately 2,000 miles from New York City. Regarding other concerns, relatively high ticket prices for premium and even average seats at the ballpark would likely discourage most poor and perhaps many middle-class Mexicans from attending more than one or two home games during a regular MLB season. In short, these and other potential problems suggest it will be at least a decade before MLB considers approving the relocation of an existing AL or NL team, or placing an expansion franchise, in Mexico. As a political matter, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) eliminates trade restrictions and direct investment barriers that exist between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. According to integration effects and international economic theories, because of NAFTA the wage levels of Mexican workers will gradually rise to create a larger middle class with higher disposable income per capita and wealthlier households. If the political leaders of these three countries jointly agree to enact legislation to control the export of drugs and illegal entry of people from Mexico into the United States and Canada, this policy will improve these nations’ cultural, economic, and social relationships. If that occurs, an opportunity may develop to place a MLB franchise or U.S.-based minor league team in one or more cities located in Mexico’s northern or central regions. Puerto Rico Baseball became an official sport in Puerto Rico in 1898, the year Americans occupied the island. During the early 1900s, the sport flourished because kids, teenagers, and young adults formed teams and had fun competing against each other in games. In 1940, the Puerto Rican Winter League (PRWL) opened and scheduled a fifty-four-game regular season

13_256_Jozsa.indb 10

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

11

for its teams from November to January. Each baseball season, the best team from the PRWL qualifies to play in the Caribbean Series. Puerto Rico was successful in the Caribbean Series during the 1950s and won ten more championships between 1970 and 2012.9 Since the mid-1990s, the attendance at PRWL games has been below expectations, causing revenue to marginally decline each season. In fact, the growth and popularity of other sports on the island such as basketball, volleyball, horse racing, soccer, and even professional wrestling, have diminished the number of athletes and fans passionate about baseball. In recent years, Puerto Rican kids, teens, and young adults have fun and experience joy and pleasure while at home by watching movies on television, playing video games, and listening to cable networks that broadcast games of MLB teams. To increase demand specifically for PRWL teams and baseball in general, sports officials in Puerto Rico implemented marketing programs. Several professional teams in the U.S. minor leagues created and had successfully applied these programs during their baseball seasons. For example, to entertain fans who attend games at renovated Hiram Bithorn Stadium, different activities exist for families. These include live music played by a local band, team mascots who focus on entertaining children, between-inning events that involve kids, and interaction of players with people before, during, and after games. A number of famous athletes were born in Puerto Rico. These include baseball legends and MLB Hall of Famers such as Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, and Roberto Alomar. Besides them, four other competitive, popular, and well-known players were from Puerto Rico. They are New York Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams, Seattle Mariners infielder and designated hitter Edgar Martínez, Philadelphia Phillies catcher Ozzie Virgil Jr., and Baltimore Orioles catcher Javy López. In light of the achievements of these former players on teams in MLB, it was extremely disappointing and a letdown to baseball fans in Puerto Rico after the 2004 MLB season when the NL franchise in Montreal relocated to Washington, DC, instead of San Juan. According to professional sports experts, MLB officials were reluctant to transfer the Expos to the island’s largest city, San Juan, even though the AL’s Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays played games against each other there in 2001, and despite the Expos scheduling forty-four games in Puerto Rico during the 2003–2004 regular seasons. In short, the league’s final decision likely depended on differences in the demographics of the two cities, amenities and sizes of their stadiums, conveniences of travelling by automobile, buses, and trains to and from games, and the prices offered for the Expos franchise by ownership groups that represented the Washington, D.C., and San Juan markets.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 11

8/8/13 2:58 PM

12

Chapter 1

Venezuela In the 1920s, U.S. oil workers introduced the game of baseball to this nation whose population in 2012 was twenty-nine million. The sport became so popular during the 1930s that in 1945 the professional Venezuelan Baseball League (VBL) organized and opened its season. Despite the cancellation of regular season games caused by player strikes in 1959 and 1974, and by a nationwide work stoppage to oust then president Hugo Chavez from office in 2003, the VBL operates as the premier baseball organization in the country.10 With respect to a typical baseball season, which begins in October and ends in December, the VBL usually but not always consists of eight teams each that play in the Eastern and Western Divisions. After the regular season concludes, six of the eight teams compete in the playoffs to become the VBL champion. In order to earn a title, a team must win its games during the qualifier round, round robin, and final series. The team that succeeds has the right to play in the Caribbean Series against championship clubs from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Since 1970, Venezuela has been champion in seven of the Caribbean Series tournaments. In 1997, a group of baseball officials established a Venezuelan Summer League (VSL). This is a minor baseball organization because it consists of ten teams whose rosters primarily contain rookie players on teams from countries in Latin American but exclude athletes from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. For various seasons, such MLB clubs as the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Mariners have sponsored one or more VSL teams. A seventy-two-game regular season schedule, which starts in May and finishes in August, occurs on the baseball fields of more than seven Venezuelan cities. When the VSL’s regular season concludes, there is a playoff series to determine the league champion. To improve the education, skills, and welfare of athletes from that country, and to prepare them for playing professional baseball in America, several MLB teams have established academies in Venezuela. Despite criticism from the media and some professors at U.S. colleges, it benefits local communities for major league clubs to operate these academies in cities of Venezuela and other nations. According to a Minnesota Twins’ pitching coach who once lived in the Dominican Republic, “Scouting is tough here. It’s tough to get to the places where baseball is played on this island, and in Venezuela. Having an academy gives you a chance to see a player more than once. A lot of kids down here [in Latin American

13_256_Jozsa.indb 12

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

13

countries] wouldn’t have a chance [to play professional baseball or travel abroad] without the academies.” As of early to mid-2013, MLB’s academies were not open in Venezuela because of crime, politics, and social problems.

BASEBALL IN EUROPE Since the early 1990s, amateur and professional baseball leagues, and their tournaments and other activities, are increasingly popular events for sports fans in the Netherlands and Italy. On the other hand, the sport has experienced low to moderate growth in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. To monitor the baseball leagues of countries and enforce international policies, regulations, and rules of the sport, there is a Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). Each nation has a federation, which is the central organization that controls, manages, and entirely or partially finances the various baseball leagues and teams that exist within them. When professional players from America decide to teach the fundamentals of baseball to European kids, teenagers, and young adults, MLB sponsors youth programs and clinics, and then coordinates these activities and events with the federations of a specific nation or nations. As such, the CEB and MLB promote the development and growth of the sport in Europe and elsewhere.11 According to fans who attend games and reporters from the media, European baseball teams primarily focus on outscoring opponents rather than training their pitchers to throw fastballs, curves, changeups, and sliders into the strike zone and positioning their infielders and outfielders to catch hits, pop ups, and ground balls. During games played in European nations, many fans at ballparks seem confused or unaware about such team strategies as bunting to move a player to the next base, attempting a hit-and-run play, stealing second and third base, and relaying signals to hitters by teams’ first- and third-base coaches and from managers in the dugout. Unless fans and other spectators attending games become informed and knowledgeable about teams’ strategies, baseball will continue to lag behind the growth of men’s basketball and ice hockey, and men’s and women’s soccer in most European nations. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, MLB officials tried various marketing schemes to advertise and further promote baseball to sports fans and other groups in Europe. Besides sponsoring baseball youth programs, tournaments, and clinics at the grassroots level, these activities included

13_256_Jozsa.indb 13

8/8/13 2:58 PM

14

Chapter 1

scheduling exhibition, preseason, and regular season games in such large cities as Amsterdam, London, Munich, Paris, and Rome. Moreover, it would be valuable publicity for national teams from Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine to play one or more games, for example, against Triple-A, Double-A, High Class-A, Low Class-A, Short-Season A, and Rookie league affiliates of the popular Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, and San Francisco Giants. Based on sports trends, it seemed inevitable that some type of international baseball tournament would occur in 2006, since several foreign nations had plans for their national teams to compete at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. While such MLB superstars as Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, New York Yankees infielder Derek Jeter, and Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun might play on an American team, U.S. and global television networks were available to broadcast such an event and transmit it across the world into cities and rural areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, New Zealand, and eastern and western Europe. Simply put, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an excellent forum for national clubs from Europe and elsewhere in the world to evaluate their progress in the sport. Indeed, they have an opportunity to play an experienced team in the WBC from the United States, Japan, the Dominican Republic, or Venezuela, and perhaps a less-competitive national team from China, Greece, Italy, or Russia. Besides its presence in many nations of Latin America and Europe, baseball is also enthusiastically played in Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Furthermore, the sport thrives among fans in such countries as Australia and Cuba. In fact, if Cuba’s form of government became a representative democracy and the nation’s economy an open and free market, the city of Havana would be, in my opinion, an attractive home site for one or more affiliated clubs in MLB’s minor league system.12

GLOBAL BASEBALL ISSUES MLB franchises are businesses that operate in the worldwide sports market. They scout, recruit, train, and sign to contracts young and talented players from foreign countries and Puerto Rico. Moreover, these fourteen AL and sixteen NL enterprises earn millions in revenue from broadcast networks and joint ventures, partnerships, and sponsorships, and from licensing agreements with various types of commercial organizations that exist in the United States and abroad. Because of such relationships, the twenty-nine MLB franchises located in American cities and the Blue Jays in Toronto, Canada, are each influenced by―and particularly sensitive to―differences in other nations’

13_256_Jozsa.indb 14

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

15

cultural environments and their types of economic, legal, political, and social systems. In other words, the business of operating a professional baseball enterprise for profit is risky and complex, since foreign athletes, civic groups, and commercial organizations participate to produce, promote, and distribute sports entertainment to consumers in the global marketplace. In this chapter and other sections of Baseball beyond Borders are topics that involve the history and globalization of baseball. Besides any shortand long-term effects on fans, communities, and the media industry in nations across the world, these topics relate to the decisions, experiences, and policies of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and the league’s executive staff, and to each team’s owner, general manager, coaches, field manager, and players. Indeed, since the 1960s, organized baseball has gradually increased its business with organizations outside the borders of North America. From a global perspective, there are controversial—but interesting— issues about professional baseball, including the role and treatment of current and prospective foreign-born players. Four of these many issues are big-league teams’ academies and other training facilities that operate in Latin America; MLB’s proposals to implement an international draft system that involves eligible players in the United States and abroad; the league’s drug tests and its teams’ prevention and treatment programs for players and especially athletes from nations in Central and South America; and security and safety policies for coaches, managers, and players. Consequently, these are important to discuss, since they affect in some way the globalization of baseball and MLB’s future as a worldwide sports business and entertainment organization. Baseball Academies in Latin America To educate, train, and hire Latino athletes for a career in American professional baseball, MLB franchises organize, finance, build, and operate facilities, including academies, primarily in such Latin American countries as the Dominican Republic and previously in Venezuela. During early 2005, for example, the St. Louis Cardinals announced a plan to open an academy near Villa Mella outside of Santo Domingo, which is the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Completed in 2005, the complex consists of two baseball fields, living quarters for players and the team’s staff, a deluxe clubhouse, modern exercise and training facilities, a dining room, administrative offices, and recreation areas. Jose Mella, a renowned architect who designed buildings in the Dominican Republic, agreed to lease fields and structures to the Cardinals. With respect to its investment in the complex, the Cardinals’ vice president of player procurement Jeff Luhnow said, “We

13_256_Jozsa.indb 15

8/8/13 2:58 PM

16

Chapter 1

are committed to scouting and player development in Latin America. The Cardinals have had operations in Latin America before, but never to this extent. The academy provides these young players the best chance of being ready when they come to the U.S.”13 When they reach sixteen years of age, outstanding Latino baseball prospects are ready and allowed to temporarily live in an academy. If they are admitted into the facility, a MLB franchise will subsidize all or a large part of the expenses for their room and board. Indeed, while they live in an academy under the guidance of a sponsor, these athletes normally receive three meals per day and participate in weight training to develop their muscle mass, strength, and flexibility. In addition, they receive instructions to become somewhat fluent in the English language and learn lessons about life and living abroad to avoid culture shock and personal problems when they arrive to play baseball in the United States. After practicing and a tryout for thirty days, either a player will commit and sign a contract with an MLB team or, if the bonus is unsatisfactory to him or his agent, he may seek a tryout with another club. However, once a player signs a contract and lives permanently in an academy, he receives training while playing in games scheduled full-time during the year. It is apparent, therefore, that baseball academies in Latin America provide their residents with a competitive advantage these two years in comparison to sixteen-year-old athletes from the United States. That is because American baseball players that age are usually only sophomores in high school, and to be competitive then or later, they must perform for three to four months on their school’s baseball team and perhaps on a local spring or summer baseball league. There are several locations and different types of sports academies in Latin American countries. In fact, even inexperienced, shady, and suspicious characters and groups may own and operate them. Free or street baseball agents, called buscones, or bird dogs, for example, have established camps for poor and uneducated Latino ballplayers who expect to improve their athletic skills. Some sign agreements with agents when they are eligible to become a professional. Although these teenagers and young men continue to receive instructions while living in camps and compete in baseball games, their agents try to negotiate a more lucrative contract for them with an MLB team. In exchange for their services, agents receive a portion of their players’ bonus that an MLB team might not prepay. As has been reported in the media, some agents are greedy, selfish, and unscrupulous. Unfortunately, some of these buscones falsify players’ birth certificates, overhype their abilities and performances, and lie about these athletes’ families, names, and histories. When they do, big-league teams are unable to verify official records, or simply fail to do so, and

13_256_Jozsa.indb 16

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

17

eventually realize that these buscones covertly revised the personal documents of players without authorization. To illustrate, in the fall of 2001, U.S. immigration officials discovered that approximately 50 percent of Dominican players in organized baseball had erroneous baseball records and/or personal documents with discrepancies about themselves. In 2003, the coauthors of Stealing Lives: The Globalization of Baseball and the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz harshly but fairly criticized a report published by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s office. The report’s contents, which listed some key provisions and guidelines to regulate existing baseball academies in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, were vague and inconclusive with respect to rules, standards, and enforcement procedures. Consequently, authors Arturo Marcano and David Fidler recommended that the principles of democratization, centralization, harmonization, specialization, and implementation, which were neglected or ignored by MLB, should be included in the report. In other words, Selig’s office needed to ensure that the league’s rules, standards, and procedures were truly binding and directly applicable to all academies in Latin America. In an addendum to their proposal, Marcano and Fidler listed a number of specific requirements that MLB must enact regarding any baseball academies within the two countries. These included, in specific sections, such things as the playing fields, team facilities, types of field equipment, maintenance and safety regulations, public comfort stations, security systems, and first aid supplies. In short, the authors recommended that the commissioner’s office adopt, impose, and enforce rules and standards that improve the treatment and housing conditions of players and any family members who live in baseball academies with them.14 During the early 2000s, two baseball academies were especially unique since they combined baseball and education as important and necessary experiences for student-athletes. Angel Macias, who pitched a perfect game for Mexico to win the Little League World Series in 1957, was the director of La Academia de la Liga Mexicana. When this academy existed in 2004, the sixteen teams in baseball’s MXL funded its operation. Located near the city of Monterrey in northeastern Mexico, the facility consisted then of a computer room, fifty-six dormitory units, a classroom, and study area. In addition, the complex included four baseball fields and batting cages, a weight room, an infirmary, and a plaza where one hundred athletes could meet, talk, and exchange ideas in a social environment. As a part of the academy’s academic mission, players had to enroll in education programs led by instructors who encouraged and taught them in classrooms how to improve their reading, writing, and speaking skills. Indeed, instructors set high standards for student-athletes to meet, while baseball scouts, who had recruited players for the academy, were ethical

13_256_Jozsa.indb 17

8/8/13 2:58 PM

18

Chapter 1

and had to conform to Macias’s expectations. As Patricia Rodriguez, who was the cultural director responsible for educating players in and outside of the academy declared, “We can’t force them to continue their studies, but it is our obligation to give them the opportunity if they choose to. They have the option, and they must realize there is life outside of baseball.”15 Besides Angel Macias’s complex in Mexico, a facility named “Baseball Academy and High School” was established in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. Former MLB pitcher Edwin Correa founded it because there were no academics with the baseball program associated with the nation’s public secondary school system. To that end, Correa contributed $200,000 of his money and organized and supervised a fully accredited private boy’s school whose students were also excellent baseball prospects. Typically, students in Correa’s academy would practice baseball at least three hours in the mornings. Then, they attended classes in such disciplines as history, mathematics, and science for four hours in the afternoon wearing their school uniforms of dark pants and white polo shirts, which displayed the academy’s logo. Approximately 50 percent of the one hundred or more students were eligible to receive full scholarships. When the academic year was over, many MLB teams had an opportunity to draft and sign to professional contracts a significant proportion of these student-athletes. To benefit underprivileged youth in this nation of about four million people, Edwin Correa’s academy was a special place because it paid tribute to and specifically honored the legacy of Roberto Clemente, who is the most revered MLB player from Puerto Rico.16 In the Dominican Republic baseball academies contain a relatively large number of talented teenage and adult athletes. This was also true of Venezuela before its academies were closed. As such, these countries have produced a significant proportion of the world’s best baseball players. Indeed, more than 50 percent of immigrant players on MLB rosters are natives of these Hispanic nations. In retrospect, it was economical and a good strategy during the 2000s that the St. Louis Cardinals joined other clubs in MLB to scout, recruit, and sign to contracts Dominican and Venezuelan players with the most potential from teams in the countries’ summer and winter baseball leagues. Geographically, these baseball teams existed in such cities as Higuey, La Romana, Santo Domingo, and San Cristobal of the Dominican Republic and in Aguirre, Guacara, Los Guayos, and Tronconero of Venezuela.17 International Player Draft In response to higher salaries, expensive bonuses, and bidding wars for players that occurred in professional baseball during the late 1950s and

13_256_Jozsa.indb 18

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

19

early 1960s, AL and NL team owners decided to implement the first amateur draft in 1965. When the Milwaukee Brewers signed a Connecticut high school player born in Puerto Rico for $150,000 on the open market during 1985, all foreign athletes who had attended U.S. high schools, colleges, and universities and wanted to play professional baseball were required to enter MLB’s draft.18 During 1989, ballplayers from Puerto Rico and any other U.S. territories who previously could sign as free agents with MLB teams when they were seventeen years old became eligible for the draft after graduation of their high school class. Then in 1991 and 1993, respectively, Canadian athletes were restricted from the open market and added to the draft, followed by Cuban defectors who were living in America. However, because players’ salaries continued to escalate during the mid-1990s, MLB tried to adopt and implement a pro-rated bonus cap for draftees and those international players who had signed contracts with teams. As expected, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) unanimously opposed this plan and voted against the proposal. Even so, in 1998 the league introduced a fifty-round limit in the draft whereby teams chose thirty players each round until no team selected anyone. For ten or more years, MLB considered whether to officially commit to and then recommend a worldwide or global draft system to the MLBPA as a component of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. There were then and are now a number of practical reasons for these baseball groups to agree and install such a system. One, since the late 1990s, approximately 25 to 30 percent of major leaguers and 40 to 50 percent of minor leaguers on rosters have been from foreign nations. Consequently, an international draft would minimize unscrupulous sports agents’ exploitation of underage players in baseball labor markets, especially young but talented athletes who were born and lived in poor countries of Latin America.19 Two, a worldwide draft would discourage such large-market teams as the AL’s Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, and the NL’s Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets from signing each year the best amateur American-born and international players. That is because these and other wealthy MLB clubs would have to rank players with the greatest potential from their perspective and then if available during any round from one to fifty, attempt to draft and sign them to contracts. Compared to the current draft system in MLB, this would ensure a more equitable distribution of skilled, rookie players among the league’s small, midsized, and large-market teams. Thus, an international draft would increase the probability of attaining a goal of competitive balance among clubs in the East, Central, and West Division of the professional leagues.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 19

8/8/13 2:58 PM

20

Chapter 1

Three, a global draft would establish a consistent, transparent, and uniform process of selecting players from a pool that includes baseball athletes from all nations. As such, this would impede teams from colluding and making illegal deals with U.S and foreign scouts, sports agents, and other officials who could represent these players in the draft. Four, a worldwide draft would improve the sport’s image and reputation among nations since it would allocate bonus money more efficiently and fairly between American and foreign-born players. As a result, athletes from poverty-stricken countries such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico selected in the first round by MLB teams would receive substantial signing bonuses from them. In prior drafts, only players from the U.S. and Canada signed contracts worth relatively large amounts in bonuses. Five, a worldwide draft would provide an incentive for MLB teams to financially invest in and manage their baseball academies and to improve the efficiency of scouting efforts in Asia, Latin America, and other regions of the world. With investments of cash, resources, and time in their operations overseas, such small-market teams as the AL’s Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics, and the NL’s Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates have a real opportunity to scout, recruit, sign, and train young players at on-the-field positions that balance, strengthen, and upgrade their roster. In contrast to proponents, a number of specific individuals and baseball organizations have reasons for why they oppose the implementation of an international player draft system in MLB. These opponents and their disputes about a global draft system are as follows. First, several influential MLB franchise owners prefer the current draft system since it provides them with advantages and financial benefits in comparison to their rivals. For example, teams located in a few midsized and most large U.S. sports markets have a surplus of cash inflows and revenues and are likely to operate at a profit or break even. Therefore, they can afford to pay substantial bonuses and later huge, multiyear salaries that ballplayers demand when they qualify to become free agents. According to these owners, it is idealistic and a waste of time for MLB to reach a consensus and adopt a global draft system that collectively meets the needs of and satisfies all franchises. Second, the MLBPA philosophically opposes an international draft partly because restraint-of-trade issues would affect its members. In fact, baseball’s union is not thrilled about the possibility that players’ bonuses might decline, which could periodically occur because of an increase in the market supply of foreign-born athletes included in a worldwide draft system. Moreover, small and midsized market team owners could offer less money and negotiate lower bonuses if they receive exclusive rights

13_256_Jozsa.indb 20

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

21

to sign foreign-born players in a global draft. Consequently, during the early 2000s, the MLBPA proposed the implementation of two different drafts. The initial one would be eight rounds for amateur players from the United States, while the second draft would consist of eight rounds for non-U.S. amateur players. If not selected in any of these rounds, then undrafted players would be free to negotiate with any MLB club that bids for them. Third, different individuals and groups in opposition are concerned that the proponents of an international draft have not addressed details nor reached an agreement to resolve other significant problems. These include, for example, the number or series of rounds that a draft would entail, and which U.S. and foreign-born players would actually be eligible in a draft and at what age. During its negotiations with the MLBPA in 2002, the league proposed a forty-round draft that included amateur players from every nation in the world except Cuba. Furthermore, any athletes who played on teams in professional baseball leagues of other countries would be eligible for the draft after they applied and had received approval through a posting system, which is the method superstar Ichiro Suzuki used when he left Japan. Indeed, the Seattle Mariners purchased the rights to Suzuki from the Orix Blue Wave team for $13.1 million during the early 2000s and then signed him to a three-year, $14 million contract. Fourth, some sports agents who have successfully represented international baseball players oppose MLB’s adoption of a worldwide draft. Such agents as Joe Cubas and Alan Nero expressed their concerns to the media. Cubas said, “It is interesting that MLB never felt the need to regulate the draft in the decades in which star prospects signed for a pittance. This only became an issue when it hit them [team owners] in the wallet.” Meanwhile, Nero put it this way, “It’s just another infiltration of communism like revenue-sharing and the luxury tax. It’s anti-competition, anti-American.” In my opinion, the real fear of these agents is that their influence, power, and compensation would diminish because they must negotiate contracts with MLB team owners on behalf of their clients selected in a worldwide draft.20 Fifth, former Chicago Cubs Pacific Rim Coordinator Leon Lee said that MLB ignores or mistakenly underestimates bureaucratic problems and the hassle of foreign-born players to be free and then leave their home countries. In Korea, for example, eligible baseball players could have military commitments to complete and, furthermore, they may be restricted to relocate by the territorial rights of their local professional team. “These are company-owned teams,” Lee says. “If they [Korean companies] have a losing product, their stock [price] goes down. The idea of losing their young players [to an MLB team] is a very serious thing.”21

13_256_Jozsa.indb 21

8/8/13 2:58 PM

22

Chapter 1

In 2014 or soon thereafter, MLB and the MLBPA will establish a quarterly, semiannual, and/or annual international draft. The new system will include, in part, ways to determine the total pool of U.S. and emigrant players who are eligible and available for each round or series of rounds of the respective draft. Besides eligibility, the league and union will also agree to set the number of rounds and players’ age requirements, and implement an equitable policy regarding how, when, and where to draft foreign athletes on teams in amateur and professional baseball leagues of all nations. However, for the draft to be administratively effective and universally applied, MLB must consult with important and knowledgeable baseball officials from other countries so that these sports people comply with the new procedures and fully cooperate with the teams. Regarding when to implement a draft, former Boston Red Sox interim general manager Mike Port said, “The devil will be in the details, but with the world in so many respects becoming a smaller place and with baseball growing and expanding and the search for talent expanding, somewhere, at some point, the worldwide draft is something we’re going to see.”22 Comprehensive Drug Prevention and Treatment Program In a series of articles published during the 2000s, the Washington Post reported that a relatively large number of baseball prospects and minor league players from the Dominican Republic injected animal steroids and dietary supplements to increase their strength and perform better in games. When this report appeared in the newspaper, a MLB official declared that a drug prevention program, which randomly tests ballplayers from that nation and Venezuela, must be fair and not prohibitively expensive and impractical to operate. That official’s statement was negative, vague, and unacceptable according to Indiana University professor of International Law David Fidler. To the official, he responded, “They [MLB] have set up this system to recruit Latin American talent. They depend on this talent as an institution. The players are part of the official minor-league system. In terms of the policy objectives, the integrity of the game and the health of the players, it seems like an obvious case.”23 Because of criticism from the sports media, fans, and athletes’ families, in May 2004 MLB announced that it would implement a program to test players on teams in the Dominican Republic’s summer baseball league for using any banned, illegal drugs. All players would be eligible and perhaps tested when the league’s seventy-two-game schedule begun in early June. Later in 2004, information in newspaper articles indicated that several major league players including Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield had used steroids and maybe other performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)

13_256_Jozsa.indb 22

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

23

they obtained from an organization named the Bay Area [California] Laboratory Co-operative. After reports about the league’s proposed drug program prohibiting steroids emerged, former big leaguers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire testified to a committee of the U.S. Congress in early 2005 concerning the extent of drugs used by players in professional baseball. After the testimony of Canseco and McGwire, which appeared on America’s national television networks, the league became more vigilant and increased its frequency of randomly testing players on teams in the major and minor leagues. Regarding the drug tests of Latino players, MLB’s executive vice president of labor, Rob Manfred, said this in a press release. “Commissioner Selig and Major League Baseball are committed to eradicating illegal performance-enhancing substances in the Major and minor leagues, the Dominican Republic and wherever Major League Baseball has jurisdiction.” Manfred further stated, “We [MLB] also are required to follow the laws of the Dominican Republic and every other nation in which we test and will continue to follow those laws. Unfortunately, the laws in the Dominican Republic forbid us from suspending steroid violators and make the operation of an optimal program more difficult.”24 Before mid-May of 2005, three MLB and forty-seven minor league players were suspended from their teams because they tested positive for ingesting PEDs. Two big leaguers suspended were pitchers from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, and the other was an outfielder from Cuba. This occurred even though only 23 percent, or 194, of the players listed on opening day MLB rosters and disabled lists had been born in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, or Venezuela. With respect to the forty-seven drug abusers in the minor leagues, 51 percent, or twenty-four of them, were foreigners or Puerto Rican. In fact, there were eleven players from Venezuela, ten from the Dominican Republic, two from Mexico, and one from Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, the players from these four countries represented approximately 40 percent of total minor leaguers in organized baseball.25 If these incidents accurately reflect the presence of PEDs in professional baseball, why have a disproportionate number of players from Spanishspeaking nations tested positive? Is it because of these athletes’ apathy, ignorance, stupidity, and/or irrational decision making, or for other reasons? Some experts believe that the problem exists because teams are not effectively communicating the league’s drug policy to their players. As a result, Latino players who do not understand or speak the English language are simply unaware of the rules. As such, they consume substances, including over-the-counter supplements and medicines issued by clinics and their physicians and trainers, that they do not know are banned.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 23

8/8/13 2:58 PM

24

Chapter 1

According to Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who is a native of the Dominican Republic, “My English isn’t the best, but I read and write and understand what people say to me and I sometimes have trouble with this stuff, so you can imagine what it is like for the guys who don’t understand English as well.” To inform athletes and better educate them about PEDs, Ortiz recommended that the MLBPA and its officials should periodically meet with all foreigners who play on teams in the major and minor leagues, and clearly speak to them in their own language about the league’s rules, and especially about the consequences of possessing and consuming illegal substances.26 Immigrants affiliated or not affiliated with professional baseball know that ingredients in these products are legal in many countries and easy to obtain in large quantities over the counter at local pharmacies. Indeed, some players or their friends and relatives may walk into food stores in places like Caracas, Santo Domingo, Monterrey, and San Juan during baseball’s off season, purchase pills, and then consume them until they travel to their baseball training camps held in February, March, and early April in Arizona and Florida. With traces of substances in their blood-streams, these players will likely test positive during February or in months thereafter and then be suspended for fifty or more games by MLB. Even so, there are international players who, for one reason or another, seem not to be threatened by or personally interested in the league’s policy regarding the use of banned drugs. For example, José Guillén, who played outfield for several teams including the Washington Nationals in 2005–2006, expressed his views in a statement to the media. He said, “You can trust me on this, they [foreign-born players] all know what’s going on and they’re all aware. They’ve been watching the TV. It’s been all over the place in Spanish and in English.” Undoubtedly, a veteran big leaguer such as Guillén heard rumors and perhaps has evidence of drug use by players or he would not have spoken openly about it to newspaper reporters.27 As it exists, MLB’s drug policy will not be an effective deterrent unless the league demands that team owners, coaches, trainers, and physicians be accountable for players’ actions. This means MLB franchises, in part, should allocate more resources and revenues from operations to communicate with players and to establish and strictly enforce a tough but fair and straightforward drug prevention, detection, and treatment program, despite any opposition and the cost and inconvenience of it. Baseball Security and Safety Terrorist attacks, threats of more bombings of facilities in the United States, and wars in the Middle East influence America’s international

13_256_Jozsa.indb 24

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

25

relations with other countries and the global business, operation, and performance of sports, including baseball. Because of this ongoing strife and implementation of the U.S. Patriot Act, MLB has become increasingly aware and concerned about the security of its franchises and safety of fans and players at ballparks. The league has reacted to threats and potential security issues by initiating actions to protect people, organizations, and facilities involved with the sport. Four days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, in New York City, Washington, D.C., and western Pennsylvania, MLB’s senior vice president for security and facility management, Kevin Hallinan, outlined the league’s short- and long-run responses to these disasters in a question-and-answer interview with a sportswriter from MLB.com. During the interview, Hallinan mentioned precautionary measures taken by teams, including mandatory inspection of individuals’ small bags at gates of ballparks before games and denying admission to anyone carrying coolers, backpacks, or large bags. MLB’s other measures were to assign more police to secure each stadium and closely inspect facilities before fans arrived for a game, inspect teams’ charter flights to away games, and inform coaches, managers, and ballplayers how to be safe when they sign autographs for fans and pose for photographs. As a former New York City police officer and member of a terrorist task force for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hallinan had enough experience to know how and when to protect and ensure the safety of teams’ players and fans.28 For another precaution initiated by organized baseball, in March of 2003 MLB Commissioner Bud Selig canceled a two-game, regularseason opening series between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics scheduled at the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome in Japan. Interestingly, Selig’s decision created a substantial financial loss for the league and each team, since tickets to both games were sellouts, while the Japanese companies sponsoring the series incurred an expense of more than $4 million in cancellation fees. In short, domestic threats and foreign wars were factors that caused Selig to protect the health and welfare of teams’ coaches, managers, and players, and of fans when he terminated the series. Despite the negative impact on revenue, MLBI’s vice president of marketing development, Jim Small, said, “I don’t think any long-term harm has been done. The fans love the game so much. From what I’ve read and had translated in the Japanese newspapers, there’s no animosity.”29 Besides the league’s responsibilities and commitments to deter terrorism and criminal activities at national and international baseball events, there are security issues that involve other global aspects of the sport. For example, it is beneficial and perhaps necessary for U.S. government agen-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 25

8/8/13 2:58 PM

26

Chapter 1

cies to partially subsidize and provide adequate safety coverage for any American amateur baseball teams that travel to foreign countries to play. The latter include such sports events as the Intercontinental Cup, Olympic and Pan American Games, competition in the World Cup, World Junior AAA and World Youth AA tournaments, and the WBC. For the United States to continue as a power internationally in amateur baseball, the nation’s teams need to travel abroad and compete against elite clubs at their home sites in Cuba, Japan, South Korea, and in other countries of the world. Foreign amateur and professional teams must also be safe and protected from terrorist activities while they perform in games at ballparks across the United States. This security applies to these teams when they play in tournaments held in U.S. cities and when they qualify for World Series games in the Little League, Junior League, Senior League, and in the WBC. There should be some effective and reasonable security measures established by local baseball officials at games played among teams in America’s amateur and semiprofessional leagues, and especially those that perform at ballparks in metropolitan areas of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Since these states have large ethnic populations and host daily inflows of foreign tourists, their towns and major cities are vulnerable to attacks by terrorists and/or hostile radical groups. World Baseball Classic Since the early to mid-1990s, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and the league’s franchise owners tried to organize, host, and sponsor some type of international baseball tournament. From their perspective, the event would feature a U.S. team composed of players from baseball’s major and minor leagues, and clubs from amateur and/or professional leagues of different foreign nations. According to Selig and MLB’s team owners, the two-week tournament would take place at least two to four weeks before the MLB regular season opens in early April. Because of relatively warm temperatures, especially during spring months of the year, several baseball stadiums of college and professional teams are used in the U.S. southeast, southwest, and west. Indeed, these facilities were more than adequate in capacity to be satisfactory sites for playing games of an international tournament.30 As a business investment, a worldwide baseball event in the United States has a number of advantages and economic benefits. It increases demand for the sport in various ways and may cause the game to expand globally, particularly among countries in Asia and Europe, and in several

13_256_Jozsa.indb 26

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

27

nations of Central and South America. The event generates cash flow for teams from fans who decide to attend games in their areas. Baseball leagues of countries that participate earn revenues from broadcasts of games on television, radio, and satellite networks, and on the Internet. The competition reveals the abilities and unique skills of U.S. and foreign baseball players. This improves these athletes’ image, prestige, and value relative to the popularity of players on professional basketball, American football, ice hockey, and soccer teams. In February 2004, officials from Commissioner Selig’s office, MLBPA, and the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) jointly agreed to adopt, implement, and enforce a drug-testing program for the future baseball tournament that was consistent with the standards of the World AntiDoping Agency and the Olympic Games. During the next few months, MLB and the MLBPA began to meet with various international federations and baseball leagues to determine the eligibility of players and evaluate which nations were qualified and willing to compete in the tournament. The discussions between these organizations made progress until July 2004. That was when owners of Japanese baseball teams in the Central and Pacific Leagues rejected the plan because of how MLB had structured the tournament. In fact, these Japanese business executives preferred that the IBAF should schedule, control, and manage the event. They disagreed with how Selig’s office and the MLBPA determined and allocated the tournament’s profits among nations. Moreover, they opposed playing it in early spring since the professional baseball season in Japan opens in March. This meant Japanese players in the tournament would have less than two weeks of exhibition games to prepare for their regular season in Japan’s professional leagues. Besides controversy and conflict with Japan, South Korean baseball officials also balked at MLB’s proposal to operate a tournament in the United States. After MLB’s chief operating officer, Bob DuPuy, met and negotiated with individuals from Japanese and Korean baseball leagues during late 2004 and again in early 2005, the groups agreed to settle their differences, name it the World Baseball Classic (WBC), and approve the tournament’s structure and schedule. This agreement included five provisions. First, the tournament will begin before MLB’s training period occurs in late March 2006, 2009, and every four years thereafter. Second, sixteen nations compete in the tournament, whose games during the early rounds will be held at ballparks in Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Third, players are eligible to play for a national team based on the status of their citizenship. Fourth, each national team selects a roster with a minimum of twenty-seven players. Fifth, teams play in the medal rounds at stadiums located in such U.S. cities as

13_256_Jozsa.indb 27

8/8/13 2:58 PM

28

Chapter 1

Los Angeles and San Diego in southern California, Houston in southeastern Texas, Miami in southeastern Florida, and Phoenix in southern Arizona. Regarding the WBC’s financial policies, 47 percent of the net proceeds is prize money for teams, while the remaining 53 percent will be equally distributed between MLB, MLBPA, IBAF, and participating professional organizations. After they discussed and accepted these provisions, Commissioner Selig said, “The concept was approved. The important thing is, it’s another step in the internationalization of the game.” NOTES 1. The development, growth, and success of baseball, and the emergence of amateur and professional leagues and their teams in nations besides the United States are analyzed in Frank P. Jozsa, Jr., Sports Capitalism: The Foreign Business of American Professional Leagues (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), 29-68, and in Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime as Big Business (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), 103–56. A few countries’ baseball programs were discussed in “Globalization of Baseball,” Boston Globe (27 March 1998), F3–F8; Kevin Glew, “Book Details Canada’s Baseball Impact,” www.mlb.com (26 July 2005); and Barry M. Bloom, “A New Pastime in Cambodia,” www.mlb. com (26 July 2005). Two articles about baseball in global markets are “Local Heroes,” Economist (2 August 2008), 10–12; and Phil Sheridan, “Four Commissioners of Four Major Sports Thinking Global Markets,” Philadelphia Inquirer (6 May 2009), 1–2. 2. See Gary Engel, “A History of Japanese Baseball,” www.mlb.com (22 March 2005); “SABR Asian Baseball Committee Japanese Baseball History,” www.robs japanesecards.com (22 March 2005); “SABR Asian Baseball Committee Japanese Baseball Timeline,” www.robsjapanesecards.com (22 March 2005); Bruce Wallace, “Growth of Japanese Baseball Players in the Major Leagues Hurting Japan’s Leagues,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (5 October 2004). Two studies of Japanese baseball are Naoki Chiba, “Pacific Professional Baseball Leagues and Migratory Patterns and Trends, 1995–99,” Journal of Sport & Social Issues 28 (May 2004), 193–211, and Yuka Nakamura, “The Samurai Sword Cuts Both Ways: A Transnational Analysis of Japanese and U.S. Media Representations of Ichiro,” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 40 (December 2005), 467–80. 3. For baseball’s status in South Korea, see “SABR Asian Baseball Committee Korean Baseball History,” www.robsjapanesecards.com (22 March 2005), and “SABR Asian Baseball Committee Korean Baseball Timeline,” www.robsjapanese cards.com (22 March 2005). 4. In addition to the articles contained in notes two and three above, information about baseball and Taiwan is available in Joe Connor, “Teams Investing in Taiwan,” www.mlb.com (29 June 2004), and Thomas Harding, “Tsao First of Many, Rockies Hope,” www.mlb.com (25 July 2003).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 28

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

29

5. A sample of readings includes “MLB, China Baseball League Bring MLB Road Show to Five Cities in China,” www.mlb.com (3 March 2005); Howard W. French, “Bringing Baseball to China,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (26 May 2004); Michael A. Lev, “Baseball in the People’s Republic,” www.sportsbusiness news.com (21 August 2003); L. Jon Wertheim, “The Whole World Is Watching: Diamonds in the Rough,” Sports Illustrated (14 June 2004), 72–86. 6. “MLB, China Baseball League Bring MLB Road Show to Five Cities in China.” www.mlb.com (3 March 2005). 7. References to baseball in this Latin American nation are Bill Bathe, “Dominican Republic Baseball,” www.ezinearticles.com (24 March 2005); “Dominican Baseball,” www.cubanball.com (23 March 2005); Steve Fainaru, “MLB May Be Looking to Regulate Dominican Agents,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (18 September 2003); Kyle Tana, “Realities Behind America’s Favorite Pastime: The Dominican Republic’s Cheap Labor Bazaar,” Washington Report on the Hemisphere (28 May 2010), 1–7; Diana Spagnuolo, “Swinging for the Fence: A Call for Institutional Reform as Dominican Boys Risk Their Future for a Chance in Major League Baseball,” University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law 24 (Spring 2003), 263–87. 8. For different articles about Mexico and its history with baseball, there is Jesse Sanchez, “History of Baseball in Mexico,” www.mlb.com (22 March 2005); Justin Martin, “Can Baseball Make It in Mexico?” Fortune (30 September 1996), 32–33; Jose De Jesus Ortiz, “Mexicans Far from Believers in MLB Dream,” www. sportsbusinessnews.com (16 March 2004); Jonathan Clark, “Baseball in Caribbean,” San Francisco Chronicle (11 July 2004), 1–2. 9. The status of baseball on the island is discussed in E. J. Crawford, “Baseball’s Marked Decline in Puerto Rico,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (28 December 2004); Kevin Baxter, “Los Expos in Puerto Rico,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (6 March 2003); John-Thor Dahlburg, “Looking Beyond Ball and Bat to See What Baseball Really Stands For in Puerto Rico,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003). 10. See “Venezuelan Baseball League,” www.geocities.com (2 October 2003), and Peter Wilson and Nick Benequista, “Not a Great Season for the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (20 January 2003). 11. For European baseball, see “Major League Baseball in the UK,” www.base ballsoftballuk.com (29 March 2005); John Vinocur, “Baseball in Europe,” www .sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003); Rafael Hermoso, “With Los Expos a Success, MLB Looking at Further Expanded Horizons,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (22 August 2003); Gordon Edes, “MLB in Europe in 2005?” www.sports businessnews.com (22 September 2003). 12. The sport in Cuba is described in “History of Baseball in Cuba,” www.cuban ball.com (23 March 2005); Steve Cummings, “Baseball and Cuba,” www.sports businessnews.com (19 August 2003); Mark Hyman, “Where Beisbol Is the Stuff of Revolution,” Business Week (15 May 2000), 28, 30; Timothy Maier, “Fidel’s Baseball Players Safe in U.S. but Out at Home,” Insight on the News (26 June 2000), 16–18. 13. For more about the team’s facility, see “Cardinals to Open Latin American Academy,” www.stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com (3 May 2005). 14. Arturo Marcano and David Fidler, Stealing Lives: The Globalization of Baseball and the Tragic Story of Alexis Quiroz (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 29

8/8/13 2:58 PM

30

Chapter 1

This book is one of the most important critiques of baseball academies in Latin American countries. A summary of the document the authors submitted to MLB is “Preliminary Analysis of MLB Academy Standards and Compliance Inspection Procedure,” www.sportinsociety.org (2 October 2003). 15. After Angel Macias quit playing baseball in 1974, he spent thirty years in human resources at steel and petrochemical exporter Grupo Alfa in Mexico. For Macias’s views about the conditions of baseball academies and their role in developing players, see Jesse Sanchez, “Academy Schools Future Stars,” www.mlb .com (22 March 2005). 16. Young athletes in Puerto Rico train and play hard while living in a baseball academy. Their schedules are described by Bob Edwards in “Profile: Baseball Academy Hopes to Rekindle Puerto Rican Baseball Glory,” www.search.epnet .com (3 May 2005). 17. See Jim Souhan, “Latin American Academies Becoming the Norm,” www .sportsbusinessnews.com (14 January 2003), and Gary Marx, “An Expose on Baseball Training Facilities in Latin America,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003). 18. A brief history of the draft and its relationship with international players and countries is discussed by Gary Rausch in “Evolution of the Draft,” www .mlb.com (3 May 2005), and by Paul Hoynes in “Draft Should Span the Globe,” Cleveland Plain Dealer (8 September 2002), C5. For a study on an international draft in sports leagues including baseball, see Heather Houston Morrow, “The Wide World of Sports Is Getting Wider: A Look at Drafting Foreign Players into U.S. Professional Sports,” Houston Journal of International Law 26 (March 2004), 649–706. 19. Several writers review the various economic, social, and political aspects of adopting a worldwide draft by MLB. For example, Josh Robbins, “Baseball Weighs Expanding Draft Worldwide,” Orlando Sentinel (3 June 2001), 1; Gary Klein, “Global Draft,” Los Angeles Times (3 June 2003), 6; Thomas Harding, “MLB and MLBPA Still Working on World-Wide Draft Plan,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (25 November 2002). 20. Wayne Coffey, “Global Warming: Baseball Works to Implement Worldwide Draft,” New York Daily News (30 May 2002), 6–8. 21. Coffey, “Global Warming.” 22. Some specific problems and other concerns of an international draft are expressed by Tom Singen in “MLB.com Looks at the Concept of a WorldWide Baseball Draft,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (3 December 2002); Dave Shenin, “A World-Wide Baseball Draft Could be a Logistical Nightmare,” www .sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003); Kevin Kelly, “Worldwide Draft Caps Wealthy Teams’ Monopoly,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003); Arturo Marcano, “Worldwide Draft,” www.baseballguru.com (17 March 2005). 23. For professor Fidler’s comments, see Steve Fainaru, “MLB to Consider Drug Testing for Foreign Players,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (19 September 2003). 24. Rob Manfred has presented MLB’s views about a drug-testing program for international players in “Major League Baseball Statement,” www.mlb.com (3 May 2005). In addition, see Steve Fainaru, “Baseball Ponders Drug Testing of Foreign Prospects,” Washington Post (2 July 2003), D1.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 30

8/8/13 2:58 PM

International Pastime

31

25. These numbers were cited in “MLB Steroid Rules Trip Up Latin Americans,” www.cnnsi.netscape.com (6 May 2005), and by Ronald Blum, “Suspended Players Are Largely Latino,” Charlotte Observer (5 May 2005), 5C. 26. Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz’s concerns are highlights of “Miscommunication? Language Problems Complicate Drug Policy for Latins,” www .cnnsi.com (11 May 2005), and in Gordon Edes, “A Slow Death to Baseball in the Dominican,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (5 October 2004). 27. Blum, “Suspended Players Are Largely Latino,” 5C. 28. See “A Q&A with MLB’s Head of Security,” www.mlb.com (9 May 2005). 29. To read the circumstances of this decision, and how extraordinary it was for MLB officials, see Larry Stone, “Selig Discusses Cancellation of Overseas Opener,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (27 March 2003). 30. Some insightful articles about aspects of MLB’s World Baseball Classic in 2006 are Barry Bloom, “World Cup Given Owners’ Blessing,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (1 October 2004); “Japan’s Baseball Owners Reject World Cup Plan,” www.cnnsi.com (15 July 2004); “MLB Drug World Cup Testing Agreement in Place,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (27 April 2004); Ronald Blum, “Players Approve World Cup Drug Testing,” www.cnnsi.com (24 February 2005); Amy Shipley, “Baseball Looking to Internationalize,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003); “First World Baseball Classic Set For March,” www.mlb.com (15 July 2005); “WBC Groups Revealed,” www.cnnsi.com (15 July 2005).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 31

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 32

8/8/13 2:58 PM

2

American League Immigrant Players

B

esides the National League (NL), which Chicago business executive William Ambrose Hulbert formed in 1876, other prominent but temporary and unstable groups of professional baseball teams existed in the United States prior to 1900. These were the National Association in 1871–1875, the American Association in 1882–1891, the Union Association in 1884, and the Players League in 1890. When the NL streamlined itself and eliminated clubs in Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville, and Washington, D.C., in early 1900, newspaper sports editor and entrepreneur Byron “Ban” Johnson established the American League (AL) with eight teams competing in the 1901 season. After Johnson encouraged team owners to hire unemployed ballplayers and raid NL rosters for pitchers and other talent, the AL challenged its rival in 1901 by putting franchises in three NL cities (Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia), and in Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C. Then in 1903, the AL and NL agreed to honor the reserve clause in player contracts and allow the winning team in the final standings of their league to compete against each other in a best-of-nine championship playoff. This was baseball’s first World Series.1 For business and sports-specific reasons, the AL consisted of eight clubs each year from 1901 to 1960. Nonetheless, because of economic and population growth nationally, the growth in household income, savings, and wealth, an increase in demand for amateur and professional baseball, and availability of ballparks in U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas, franchise owners decided to expand and locate new teams in different

33

13_256_Jozsa.indb 33

8/8/13 2:58 PM

34

Chapter 2

markets of North America. AL expansion clubs opened for their first MLB season in Los Angeles and Minneapolis in 1961 and then in Kansas City and Seattle soon to move to Milwaukee in 1969, Seattle again and Toronto in 1977, and finally Tampa Bay in 1998. Likewise, various teams affiliated with the AL’s expansion teams joined the minor leagues. As a result, there were more ballplayers from the United States and foreign countries in organized baseball, especially after 1960.2 It is important, therefore, to reveal and discuss historical information about foreign-born and Puerto Rican athletes who became professional baseball players and members of teams in the AL of Major League Baseball (MLB). This requires identifying and examining memorable performances of several of these players and their impact, role, and success in the sport. The information highlights their experiences, including why and when some of them immigrated to the United States and how they and others conquered or failed to overcome problems that affected their personal lives and abilities to perform in baseball games as batters and on the field as pitchers, catchers, infielders, and/or outfielders. A few of these AL ballplayers had exceptional skills and significant accomplishments. Consequently, they received enough votes for admission into the Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF) in Cooperstown, New York.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION On opening day of MLB’s 1902 regular season, there were 450 players on sixteen teams. In total, that group included twenty-five athletes born in foreign countries and Puerto Rico. In fact, ten of these players were from Canada, five each from Germany and Ireland, three from England, and one each from Scotland and Switzerland. Then 110 years later, approximately 1,200 ballplayers appeared on the 40-man rosters of thirty big-league teams. More than 27 percent of them were from countries other than the United States. According to the websites baseball-almanac. com and baseball-reference.com, the countries with the largest number of players on teams in the history of MLB through 2012 were from the United States followed by the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Canada, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, and Japan. Meanwhile, twenty countries with one player each included Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Greece, Singapore, and South Vietnam.3 Interestingly, two of the earliest foreign-born players on AL teams in 1902 were the Philadelphia Athletics’ Luis Castro from Medellin, Colombia, and the Cleveland Broncos’ Otto Hess from Bern, Switzerland. As an infielder and outfielder, Castro played in only forty-two games for the Athletics in 1902, while pitcher and leftfielder Hess performed for

13_256_Jozsa.indb 34

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

35

ten seasons in MLB and retired in 1915. After Castro and Hess, a player from China joined the New York Yankees in 1914, another from Finland played for the Chicago White Sox in 1921, and then others from foreign nations became members of AL teams throughout the years of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Most recently, the first player from Brazil, catcher and infielder Yan Gomes, was a rookie on the roster of the Toronto Blue Jays beginning in May of 2012. Since the late 1950s, an increasing number of international baseball players have been talented enough to make the rosters of MLB teams. In fact, as a proportion of these teams’ rosters, immigrants were approximately 3.6 percent of ballplayers in 1958, 6.9 percent in 1969, 8.8 percent in 1978, and 19.8 percent in 1998. During the 2000s, they existed on rosters from a low of 25.3 percent in 2001 to a high of 29.2 percent in 2005.4 Table 2.1 is a distribution of immigrant players by nation and position on the forty-man rosters of fifteen AL teams in the 2013 MLB season. Because coaches and managers emphasize throwing baseballs with velocity Table 2.1. American League: Number of Immigrant Players, by Nation and Position, 2013 Nation Australia Brazil Canada Colombia Cuba Dominican Republic Germany Italy Jamaica Japan Mexico Netherlands Nicaragua Panama Puerto Rico South Korea Taiwan Venezuela

Pitcher

Catcher

Infielder

Outfielder

DH

3 1 4 2 2 43 0 0 1 4 8 0 1 4 1 0 3 17

0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 9

0 0 3 0 1 25 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 2 1 0 13

0 1 2 0 3 11 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4

0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Note: These forty-man rosters are for teams in the 2013 MLB season. DH is designated hitter. The teams’ rosters include players on the disabled list, in the minors, and suspended. While its people are American citizens when born there, Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. It is a self-governing, independent territory and an island whose border is not contiguous to a U.S. state. Baseball beyond Borders includes Puerto Rican athletes and non-athletes among groups from the Caribbean in professional baseball leagues. Source: “2013 Team Rosters,” www.espn.go.com (11 April 2013).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 35

8/8/13 2:58 PM

36

Chapter 2

during games and the ability to catch them when hit by batters, it was pitchers, infielders, and outfielders from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela who were the most common type of athletes on AL teams’ rosters, and then designated hitters (DHs) from these two Latin American nations. Besides them, other countries with above-average numbers of players in positions on AL rosters were Mexican pitchers, Puerto Rican catchers, Canadian infielders, and Cuban outfielders. This distribution indicates, in part, that athletes who immigrated are able and qualified infielders and outfielders. They excelled in those positions as teenagers and young adults while competing on amateur, high school, and semiprofessional teams, and on professional clubs in their nation’s minor and independent baseball leagues, or perhaps while living in baseball academies within their countries. After scouts from AL teams evaluated these players’ talents, they recruited and signed them to contracts. What was the distribution of players between nations and among positions that appears in table 2.1? There was, for example, one pitcher on AL teams’ rosters from Brazil, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico, catchers and infielders from Canada, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, and no outfielders from eleven, or 61 percent, of the countries. In contrast to these groups, five, or 27 percent, of the countries had only one player each in the AL while two each were natives of Colombia and the Netherlands. Although baseball is very popular in Panama, South Korea, and Taiwan, players from these nations were surprisingly underrepresented on the rosters of AL teams in April 2013 according to data in the table. For sure, AL team owners, scouts, coaches, and managers recruit and depend on players primarily from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela because of their potential to excel as professionals, but perhaps these officials simply ignore, overlook, and underestimate the skills of athletes from other places. If true, how did the fifteen teams in the league compare to each other by division and after assigning these international players to positions to start the 2013 MLB season? These data are in table 2.2 Based on information in table 2.2, the number and percent of immigrants on forty-man rosters of AL teams in April 2013 ranged from a low of six, or 15 percent, for the Los Angeles Angels to a high of nineteen, or 47 percent for the Detroit Tigers. Other important data in the table from a numerical perspective show that AL teams in the Central Division (CD) had sixty-five foreign-born players, the West Division (WD) sixty-four, and the East Division (ED) sixty. In addition to those distributions, the AL’s CD ranked highest with the most international pitchers and catchers but least number of outfielders while the WD had the fewest pitchers and catchers but most outfielders and designated hitters (DHs). Because of differences in MLB teams’

13_256_Jozsa.indb 36

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

37

Table 2.2. American League Numbers of Immigrant Players, by Team and Position, 2013 Team

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

DH

4 7 8 9 3

0 1 1 2 2

4 1 2 2 6

0 0 4 0 3

0 1 0 0 0

8 5 9 8 3

1 3 2 2 1

2 2 6 3 4

2 0 1 0 2

0 0 1 0 0

7 2 6 7 8

1 0 0 1 2

5 4 1 2 5

1 0 1 6 3

1 0 0 1 0

East Division Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Tampa Bay Rays Toronto Blue Jays Central Division Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Minnesota Twins West Division Houston Astros Los Angeles Angels Oakland Athletics Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers

Note: These forty-man rosters are for teams in the 2013 MLB season. DH is designated hitter. Teams’ rosters include players on the disabled list, in the minors, and suspended. Source: “2013 Team Rosters,” www.espn.go.com (9 April 2013).

scouting, recruiting, and training tactics abroad and their strategies to win games and championships, there was less variation in numbers of these players among clubs in the CD than in the ED and WD. Consequently, the Orioles and Red Sox in the ED, Indians and Twins in the CD, and Angels and Athletics in the WD each had less than eleven of these players. Apparently, they filled their rosters in 2013 mostly with minor league ballplayers from the United States, and especially with pitchers from America’s high schools, colleges, and universities―and not with those from such regions globally as Asia, Europe, or Latin America. In sum, tables 2.1 and 2.2 reveal the distributions of international players among different countries and five baseball positions, including DHs, for fifteen AL teams during early April in the 2013 MLB season. Based on results in the tables, the Dominican Republic and then Venezuela provided the majority of players, while in total, teams in CD and ED had the most immigrants on their rosters and the WD the least. The most popular positions in this season were pitchers and then infielders, outfielders, catchers, and DHs.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 37

8/8/13 2:58 PM

38

Chapter 2

PERFORMANCES Award Winners After each MLB season, a few players receive awards for their outstanding performances. For the highest hitting average during a regular season, there is an AL and NL batting champion, while the most outstanding pitcher in each league wins a Cy Young Award. In addition, there is Most Valuable Player (MVP), Rookie of the Year (ROY), and Rolaids Relief (RR) Awards to players in each league. This section discusses awards won by foreign-born players in the AL and highlights those who were on the league’s all-star team and others elected to the BHOF.5 Batting Champion To be eligible to win a batting title in the AL, a player must make at least 3.1 appearances at bat per game, or 502 for his team during a 162game MLB season and have the highest batting average (BA) or number of hits per appearance. In 1901, Philadelphia Athletics’ Nap Lajoie hit .426 and became the AL’s first official batting champion. Later, Detroit Tigers’ outfielder Ty Cobb won twelve batting titles during his career and finished with a lifetime .366 BA, which is the highest in MLB history. Regarding foreign-born and Puerto Rican players on teams in the AL, four infielders and five outfielders were batting champions (table 2.3). Within the group, the Minnesota Twins’ Rod Carew from Panama won seven titles and had the highest single-season average at .388 in 1977. Although Carew hit few home runs, he rarely struck out. Given these nine champions, Carew had the highest lifetime BA at .328. In 1972, however, he hit only .318 but nonetheless won a title. Other popular batting champions in the AL were the Twins’ Tony Oliva from Cuba, who won three titles, and the Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki from Japan and the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera from Venezuela, each with two titles. In contrast to such line-drive, singles hitters as Carew, Oliva, Suzuki, and the former Cleveland Indians second baseman Bobby Avila from Mexico, other batting champions were power hitters and most of them frequently slugged doubles, triples, and/or home runs in their careers. In addition, Rod Carew was an allstar in eighteen AL seasons, Manny Ramirez in twelve, and Suzuki in ten. In short, these nine champions were among the greatest hitters in all of MLB history.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 38

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 39

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Country Mexico Cuba Panama Dominican Republic Puerto Rico Japan Dominican Republic Venezuela Venezuela Cuba Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Venezuela Dominican Republic Venezuela Cuba Panama Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Cuba Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Japan Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Canada Dominican Republic

Batting Champion Bobby Avila Tony Oliva Rod Carew Julio Franco Bernie Williams Ichiro Suzuki Manny Ramirez Magglio Ordonez Miguel Cabrera

Cy Young Mike Cuellar Willie Hernandez Pedro Martinez Johan Santana Bartolo Colón Felix Hernandez

MVP Zoilo Versalles Rod Carew Willie Hernandez George Bell Jose Canseco Juan González Ivan Rodriguez Ichiro Suzuki Miguel Tejada Vladimir Guerrero Justin Morneau Miguel Cabrera

Minnesota Twins Minnesota Twins Detroit Tigers Toronto Blue Jays Oakland Athletics Texas Rangers Texas Rangers Seattle Mariners Oakland Athletics Anaheim Angels Minnesota Twins Detroit Tigers

Baltimore Orioles Detroit Tigers Boston Red Sox Minnesota Twins Los Angeles Angels Seattle Mariners

Cleveland Indians Minnesota Twins Minnesota Twins Texas Rangers New York Yankees Seattle Mariners Boston Red Sox Detroit Tigers Detroit Tigers

Team

American League Immigrant Award Winners, by Country, Team, and Year

Name

Table 2.3.

1965 1977 1984 1987 1988 1996, 1998 1999 2001 2002 2004 2006 2012

1969 1984 1999, 2000 2004, 2006 2005 2010

(continued)

1954 1964–65, 1971 1969, 1972–75, 1977–78 1991 1998 2001, 2004 2002 2007 2011–12

Year

13_256_Jozsa.indb 40

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Venezuela Cuba Panama Dominican Republic Venezuela Cuba Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Japan Japan Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Panama Venezuela Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Rookie of the Year Luis Aparicio Tony Oliva Rod Carew Alfredo Griffin Ozzie Guillén Jose Canseco Sandy Alomar Jr. Carlos Beltrán Kazuhiro Sasaki Ichiro Suzuki Ángel Berroa Neftalí Feliz

Rolaids Relief José Mesa Mariano Rivera Francisco Rodriguez Rafael Soriano José Valverde

Cleveland Indians New York Yankees Los Angeles Angels Tampa Bay Rays Detroit Tigers

Chicago White Sox Minnesota Twins Minnesota Twins Toronto Blue Jays Chicago White Sox Oakland Athletics Cleveland Indians Kansas City Royals Seattle Mariners Seattle Mariners Kansas City Royals Texas Rangers

Team

1995 1999, 2001, 2004–05, 2009 2006, 2008 2010 2011

1956 1964 1967 1979 1985 1986 1990 1999 2000 2001 2003 2010

Year

Source: George Vass, “The Wide World of Baseball,” Baseball Digest (February 2003), 11–16; “Batting Average Year-by-Year Leaders,” www.baseball-almanac.com (24 November 2012); “MLB Most Valuable Player MVP Awards & Cy Young Awards Winners,” www.baseball-reference.com (24 November 2012); “MLB Rookie of the Year Awards,” www.baseball-reference.com (24 November 2012); “2012 American League All-Star Roster,” www.espn.go.com (27 November 2012).

Note: MVP is Most Valuable Player

Country

Name

Table 2.3. (Continued)

American League Immigrant Players

41

Cy Young From 1956 to 1966, a Cy Young Award went to the most outstanding pitcher in MLB. The first recipient of it was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Don Newcombe, because he won twenty-seven games in 1956. Beginning in 1967, however, there were pitchers from both the AL and NL who won a Cy Young. That year, they were, respectively, Jim Lonborg of the Boston Red Sox and Mike McCormick of the San Francisco Giants. Since 2010, members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BWAA) and one representative from each team vote for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth most outstanding starting or relief pitcher in the AL and NL. Mathematically, the formula to determine the Cy Young winner is a weighted sum of votes. The AL and NL pitchers who receive the highest scores win the award. As of 2012, six different international pitchers won a Cy Young in the AL. Between 2000 and 2012, Venezuela’s Johan Santana won two of them, and so did Dominican Pedro Martínez in the 1999 and 2000 seasons. In addition, Martínez played eighteen seasons and has the highest number of victories among this group of pitchers at 219, with eight appearances on all-star teams. Puerto Rico’s Willie Hernandez and Venezuela’s Felix Hernandez were not necessarily starting pitchers on their teams, as relief pitchers they came in sometime during the mid- to late innings to stop rallies and prevent the rival team from scoring any runs. Interestingly, each of them had won fewer than one hundred games in the AL as of 2012. Cuba’s Mike Cuellar pitched for AL pennant winners and World Series teams with the Baltimore Orioles, while Dominican Bartolo Colón’s record was 21-8 in 2005. That season, he had a very low earned run average (ERA) for the Los Angeles Angels. Truly, these six foreignborn men were outstanding players in their ability to control pitches and throw them in or near the strike zone, winning many games for their teams. Most Valuable Player Each season since 1931, the AL and NL choose the winner of the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. Currently, members of the BWAA vote to select the leagues’ MVPs. When baseball’s first commissioner died of a heart attack in November 1944, the MVP official title became the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award. That year, the winners of it were two Americans―Detroit Tigers pitcher Hal Newhouser in the AL and St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion in the NL.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 41

8/8/13 2:58 PM

42

Chapter 2

As indicated in the third part of table 2.3, twelve different players were successful enough during a season to win an MVP Award in the AL. Puerto Rico’s Juan González, who played seventeen years, including thirteen with the Texas Rangers, had a .316 BA and earned the award twice. Besides being an outstanding hitter, he was a three-time all-star and had 1,404 runs-batted-in (RBIs) during his career. Regarding achievements of two other MVPs, Cuba’s Zoilo Versalles played shortstop for the Minnesota Twins and in 1965 scored 126 runs, hit forty-five doubles, and had 308 total bases. Equally impressive, Japan’s Ichiro Suzuki batted .350 for the Seattle Mariners in 2001. Moreover, he stole fifty-six bases and had 242 hits in 157 games. Except for Versalles, Suzuki, batting champion Rod Carew, and Cy Young winner Willie Hernandez, the other MVPs were sluggers in the AL. Indeed, they hit numerous home runs, batted in at least one hundred runs during some MLB regular seasons, and occasionally had a .300 or higher BA. For example, their BAs and RBIs during MVP years were, respectively, .332 and 113 for Puerto Rico’s Ivan Rodriguez in 1999, .308 and 131 for Dominican Miguel Tejada in 2002, .337 and 126 for Dominican Vladimir Guerrero in 2004, .321 and 130 for Canadian Justin Morneau in 2006, and .330 and 139 for Dominican Miguel Cabrera in 2012. In addition to them, Dominican George Bell and Cuban Jose Canseco were valuable players and had more than one excellent season for their respective teams. They swung with power and frequently hit home runs. In 1987, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Bell had 369 total bases, hit fortyseven home runs, and led the AL with 134 RBIs. One year later, the Oakland Athletics’ Canseco led the league with forty-two home runs and 124 RBIs. During their careers, Bell played on five and Canseco six AL all-star teams. Since they are still active players on teams’ rosters, the former Mariner and now New York Yankee Suzuki, the Twins’ Morneau, and the Tigers’ Cabrera may win another MVP before they retire from the sport. Rookie of the Year To qualify for Rookie of the Year (ROY), a player must have at least 130 at bats or fifty innings in games during a season, and be available for fortyfive days on a team’s active roster before September 1. In 1947, ROY became a national award and on April 15, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the big leagues. He played in the infield for the Brooklyn Dodgers and won ROY, which in 1947 was a single award for the AL and NL combined. From 1949 to 2012, twelve different international players were ROY in the AL. The first was Venezuela’s Luis Aparicio. In 1956, he played shortstop for

13_256_Jozsa.indb 42

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

43

the Chicago White Sox, averaged .266 while at bat, and had 143 hits and 215 total bases in 152 games. Then, during their ROY season in the 1960s, Cuba’s Tony Oliva and Panama’s Rod Carew each had a BA of at least .292 and 150 hits. In addition, Dominican Alfredo Griffin won his award in 1979 because of his .281 BA, 179 hits, and eighty-one runs. In the 1980s, Venezuelan Ozzie Guillén and Cuban Jose Canseco had special years for teams because of their above-average number of hits, RBIs, and total bases in games. Sandy Alomar Jr. and Carlos Beltrán, both from Puerto Rico, each won a ROY Award in the AL during the 1990s. They excelled while at bat, scored many runs, and made few errors. During their respective ROY seasons in the 2000s, Japanese pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki had thirtyseven saves, seventy-eight strikeouts, and a 3.16 ERA for the Seattle Mariners; Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki batted .350, had 242 hits, and stole fifty-six bases for the Seattle Mariners; Dominican infielder Ángel Berroa had 163 hits and scored ninety-two runs for the Kansas City Royals; and Dominican pitcher Neftalí Feliz finished fifty-nine games with a 2.73 ERA for the Texas Rangers. In comparison to other rookies in the AL, these twelve professional athletes performed well enough to win ROY and become heroes among fans in their communities and home countries. Rolaids Relief Pitcher Since 1976, five foreign-born pitchers have won a Rolaids Relief (RR) Award in the AL. Rather than win it according to the number of votes cast from members of the BWAA, players earn the award based on their statistical performance in a regular season. That is, the result depends on a relative but explicit point system. Specifically, five points are given for a save, two for a win, negative two for a loss, one for a “tough” save, and negative two for a “blown” save. The AL and NL relief pitchers that receive the most points win the award. Rolaids sponsors the event, in part, because the company’s historic slogan that R-O-L-A-I-D-S spells relief from indigestion. After saving forty-six games for the Cleveland Indians with an ERA of 1.13 and fifty-eight strikeouts, Dominican pitcher Jose Mesa won an RR in 1995. Four years later and again in 2001, 2004–2005, and 2009, Panama’s Mariano Rivera had enough saves, low ERAs, and numbers of strikeouts for the New York Yankees to be the best relief pitcher during these five seasons. Technically, he won these awards primarily because his “cut” fastball moved downward or simply dropped as it approached batters, and he threw it consistently somewhere in or near the strike zone. After Mariano retires, he will receive enough votes and unanimous approval for his entry into the BHOF.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 43

8/8/13 2:58 PM

44

Chapter 2

Another great relief pitcher, especially in 2006 and 2008, was Venezuelan Francisco Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Angels. During each of these seasons, he saved more than forty-five games, had a low ERA, and struck out more than seventy-five batters. Besides Rodriguez, Dominican pitchers Rafael Soriano in 2010 and José Valverde in 2011 kept their teams competitive in their respective divisions. While in relief of their teams’ starting pitchers, they were effective at fooling or tricking batters with their pitches and getting them to hit baseballs in the air or on the ground for an out. Soriano, for example, had a 1.73 ERA for the Tampa Bay Rays while Valverde saved forty-nine games for the Detroit Tigers. In other words, they deserved to win an RR Award for their outstanding performances on AL teams. Other Awards Awarded to players for the 1957 season, one year later AL and NL players at each position won a Gold Glove (GG) for their superior fielding performances. The Rawlings Group, a company with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, manufacturer’s gold lamé–tanned leather gloves, affixes them to a walnut base, and then presents the gloves to AL and NL players who receive the most votes from teams’ coaches and managers.6 From 1958 to 2012 in the AL, the international players with the most GGs by position include pitcher Johan Santana of Venezuela, catcher Ivan Rodriguez of Puerto Rico, first baseman Rafael Palmeiro of Cuba, second baseman Roberto Alomar of Puerto Rico, and third baseman Adrián Beltré of the Dominican Republic. Besides them, there were shortstops Luis Aparicio of Venezuela and Omar Vizquel of Venezuela, and outfielders Ichiro Suzuki of Japan, Minnie Minoso of Cuba, and Sixto Lezcano of Puerto Rico. From 1980 to 2012, MLB coaches and managers have voted for and awarded a Silver Slugger (SS) to the best offensive player at each position in the AL and NL. To win a SS, players must excel in such categories as BA, slugging and on-base percentages, number of RBIs, and a general impression of their overall value and leadership to their team on offense. Manufactured by Hillerich & Bradbsy, the company that also makes Louisville Slugger bats, the award is a three-foot bat-shaped trophy engraved with the name of the winner at each position in each league.7 Of the thirty-three Silver Sluggers awarded thus far in the AL, international players with the most by position are catcher Ivan Rodriguez, first baseman Carlos Delgado, and second baseman Roberto Alomar, all of Puerto Rico, and shortstop Miguel Tejada and third baseman Adrián Beltré, both of the Dominican Republic. Also among the foreign-born

13_256_Jozsa.indb 44

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

45

winners are outfielders Manny Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero of the Dominican Republic and Juan González of Puerto Rico, and designated hitter David Ortiz of the Dominican Republic. Strong wrists and arms, and the ability to swing bats with speed and power generated from their hips and legs are the factors that make an SS winner. Baseball Hall of Fame Since 1936, the most prestigious honor for retired professional ballplayers and baseball managers, umpires, pioneers, executives, and organizers is their induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF). For players to be eligible there are requirements. They must have been retired for five years, had at least ten years of experience in MLB or the former Negro Leagues, and received a preliminary review and approval by a screening committee. Qualified members of the BWAA or a Veterans Committee vote and may submit ballots to admit up to ten players in each election. Any player who receives 75 percent or more of the ballots wins admission. Those voted for in less than 5 percent of all ballots will be ineligible as candidates in future BHOF elections. However, under special circumstances such as illness and/or sudden death, a player and other candidates may be eligible for induction without meeting all of these requirements.8 As of 2012, there are four international players from AL teams in the BHOF. The first to be inducted was former Chicago White Sox infielder Luis Aparicio from Venezuela. During his eighteen years, he never played a single inning in games at any other position than shortstop. Admired, popular, and respected for his slick fielding and ability to steal bases and score runs, Aparicio led all AL shortstops in fielding percentage for eight consecutive seasons. He won nine GG Awards and once held White Sox all-time records for games played and assists, and AL records for putouts and total chances. Although his lifetime BA was mediocre at .262, Aparicio had 2,677 hits and 506 stolen bases in 2,599 games. He won a ROY Award in 1956 and played on ten AL all-star teams. Being a team leader, Luis Aparicio contributed outstanding defense, played solid but fundamental offense, and did intangible things that never appeared in a game’s box score. Undoubtedly, he belongs in the BHOF. Seven years after Aparicio’s induction, Rod Carew from Panama joined him as the second foreign-born player in the BHOF. Carew used a variety of crouched batting stances to hit over .300 in fifteen consecutive seasons, nine of them with the AL’s Minnesota Twins and six with the California Angels. Besides his ROY Award in 1967 and MVP in 1977, Carew won seven batting titles and had 3,053 career hits. He played on eighteen AL allstar teams and in 1969 successfully stole home seven times. With respect

13_256_Jozsa.indb 45

8/8/13 2:58 PM

46

Chapter 2

to MLB records, he ranks second all-time in stealing home behind only the Detroit Tigers’ Ty Cobb. Another big-league player said this about Carew as a hitter, “He has an uncanny ability to move the ball around as if the bat were some kind of magic wand.” Given his achievements in the AL, Rod Carew was an outstanding player who deserves to be in the BHOF. Bert Blyleven is the only foreign-born pitcher from the AL in baseball’s hall of fame. A native of Zeist, Netherlands, he played on five different teams (four in the AL) for a total of twenty-two seasons. Blyleven had outstanding control, a wicked curveball, and fluid motion on the mound. Nicknamed the “Dutch Master,” he had 287 wins and 3,701 strikeouts, or 6.7 per nine-inning game. In addition, he racked up sixty shutouts, 242 complete games, and 4,970 innings pitched to 20,491 batters. Blyleven was a key figure in World Series victories for the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and again for the 1987 Minnesota Twins. In fact, he started a game and won another for the Pirates against the Baltimore Orioles, and won a game but lost another for the Twins despite pitching a shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals for five innings. In short, Bert Blyleven was a competitive and durable pitcher. Undoubtedly, he is a great addition to the BHOF. Elected to the BHOF on January 5, 2011, Roberto Alomar of Puerto Rico was a twelve-time all-star and ten-time GG winner who performed as an infielder for seventeen MLB seasons with seven different teams. During his career, he had 2,724 hits, 210 home runs, and averaged .300 as a batter. In 1996, Alomar had a heated exchange with umpire John Hirschbeck during a Baltimore Orioles game. Because of the argument, he spit in Hirschbeck’s face and then said that personal stress caused the umpire to make mistakes calling balls and strikes. After the game, Hirschbeck tried to pick a fight with Alomar in the Orioles’ locker room. Incredibly, the two of them eventually became friends. As a player, Alomar earned $76 million. Despite his inexcusable behavior and poor relations with an umpire, Roberto Alomar was a marvelous player who accomplished enough while on teams in the AL for admission to the BHOF. Four foreigners are in baseball’s hall of fame besides those who played in the major. These men were Cubans Cristobal Torriente, Martin Dihigo, and Jose Mendez of the Negro National League (NNL) and Germany’s Barney Dreyfuss, a sports pioneer and executive. Left-handed power hitter Torriente, who performed for several Negro teams, led the Chicago American Giants to consecutive titles from 1920 to 1922. In addition, he was a key player on one of the best all-time defensive outfields in the NNL. During the winter of 1920, while playing as a member of a Cuban club named Almendares, Torriente outplayed New York Yankees’ legend Babe Ruth in a nine-game exhibition series.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 46

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

47

Martin Dihigo was perhaps the most versatile player in baseball history. Known as El Maestro, he played all nine positions skillfully. Dihigo became a national institution in his native Cuba but also starred in many other countries, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, and also spent twelve seasons in the Negro leagues. Playing in the Mexican League (MXL) in 1938, he went 18-2 and led the league with a 0.90 ERA, while also winning the batting crown with a .387 BA. Other than playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, Jose Mendez was a right-handed pitcher of the Cuban Stars from 1908 to 1926. Nicknamed “Black Diamond,” he had a blazing fastball and a sharp curve, and in 1909 he pitched a perfect ten-inning game. As a player-manager of the Monarchs, Mendez led the NNL team to consecutive pennants in 1923–1925. A Negro league committee inducted Dihigo into the BHOF in 1977, and twenty-nine years later, Mendez and Torriente. An innovative baseball team owner and policy maker, Barney Dreyfuss merged his NL Louisville Colonels franchise with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1900. From then to 1932, the Pirates won six NL pennants, two World Series, and finished no lower than third place in twenty-one MLB seasons. Furthermore, he was an original advocate for a commissioner’s office in MLB and served as the NL’s first vice president. A Veterans Committee elected Dreyfuss to the BHOF in 2008. 2013 Hall of Fame Ballot Based on their careers in MLB, the names of several international players appeared on the 2013 ballot for the BHOF. Six former players from AL teams were Rafael Palmeiro from Cuba, Bernie Williams, Sandy Alomar Jr., and Roberto Hernandez from Puerto Rico, and Julio Franco and José Mesa from the Dominican Republic. Each of them was a competitive player and had an outstanding career in the sport.9 Rafael Palmeiro played infield most of his career for the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles. Besides being an all-time leader in walks, runs, at bats, and games for the Rangers as of 2012, he is one of four players with at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. Palmeiro finished fifth, sixth, and eighth in votes for MVP in three AL seasons, played on three all-star teams, and won three GG Awards as a first baseman. Unfortunately, three months after testifying to Congress under oath that he never used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), MLB suspended him in 2005 after he tested positive for steroids. Despite his great career in professional baseball, Palmeiro will never receive enough votes from writers in the BWAA for his admission into the BHOF. A former New York Yankee, Bernie Williams was an outstanding outfielder because of cat-like speed and his diving catches of line drives. His

13_256_Jozsa.indb 47

8/8/13 2:58 PM

48

Chapter 2

Yankees’ teams won five pennants and four World Series. Williams was a three-time GG winner, finished seventh and tenth in votes for MVP in the AL, led the league in BA in 1998 and intentional walks in 1999, and earned an MVP Award in the 1996 AL Championship Series. After retiring following the 2006 season, he became a classical guitarist. Based on performances with the Yankees, Bernie Williams will eventually get a sufficient number of votes for his well-deserved induction into the BHOF. An older brother of Roberto Alomar, catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. of Puerto Rico played twenty years in the big leagues and spent the majority of his career as a catcher for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. He appeared in 1,377 regular season games and on six all-star teams from 1990 to 1998, and had a lifetime .273 BA, .406 slugging percentage, and 4,530 at bats in 1,377 games. In 1990, he was ROY in the AL and seven years later, an MVP of MLB’s All-Star Game. After retirement, he was a catching instructor for the New York Mets. Sandy Alomar Jr. is a worthy candidate for admission to the BHOF. During his seventeen-year career, Roberto Hernandez of Puerto Rico pitched effectively for ten different teams. He had 326 saves, 945 strikeouts, and a 3.45 ERA. Hernandez played on two AL all-star teams and as a “closer,” had thirty-eight saves for the Chicago White Sox in 1996. In addition, he had twenty-five or more saves during ten seasons before retiring in 2007 at the age of forty-two. Given his performances as a relief pitcher, Roberto Hernandez is likely to win admission into the BHOF on a ballot sometime after 2013. With a unique hitting stance, Dominican Julio Franco played in the big leagues for more than two decades for such AL teams as the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, and Chicago White Sox. He was runner-up for ROY in 1983 and three-time all-star in the AL, hit higher than .300 during four consecutive seasons, and won the AL batting title in 1991 with the Rangers. In his career, Franco had a total of 2,586 hits, 281 stolen bases, more than 8,600 at bats, 1,280 runs, 1,190 RBIs, and a .417 slugging percentage. He was the oldest player in MLB history to pinch hit, slug a grand slam home run, and steal two bases in a game. Based on his performance and longevity as an infielder, Julio Franco has a better-than-average probability of induction into the BHOF during 2013 or in some year thereafter. Dominican Jose Mesa was an excellent relief pitcher throughout his nineteen-year career, especially for the AL’s Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and Seattle Mariners. In 1995, he saved forty-six games for the Indians, which was a franchise record, had a 1.13 ERA, and finished second for a Cy Young Award. Mesa played on two all-star teams and his 321 saves ranks fourteenth all-time. Despite his accomplishments, Jose Mesa will struggle to earn enough votes for entry into the BHOF.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 48

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

49

2012 All-Stars Publicized and promoted by Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, MLB’s first All-Star Game between players from the AL and NL occurred in conjunction with the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. A special MLB committee decides on the site for each All-Star Game, which usually takes place on the second Tuesday in July and symbolically marks the halfway point in the leagues’ regular season. Except in 1951, when the AL Detroit Tigers hosted the game to celebrate the city’s 250th birthday, and in 2007 when the NL San Francisco Giants were the host, the event’s venue traditionally alternates between each league every year. From 1959 to 1962, there were two All-Star Games each year. Since that type of format caused scheduling problems for teams, it did not continue in 1963 and thereafter. Regarding the selection of players, fans vote for and choose each team’s starting catchers, infielders, and outfielders, while managers select pitchers, and managers and players pick reserves.10 There were ten foreign-born players on the 2012 AL all-star team. Four of them started the game, which the NL won 8-0. Besides two infielders, one outfielder, and a designated hitter being in the starting lineup, other foreigners on the AL team included three pitchers, two shortstops, and a third baseman. Discussed in alphabetical order, following are the performances of these players in the 2012 MLB season and other information about their careers. During his fourth year with the Texas Rangers, reserve shortstop Elvis Andrus from Venezuela became a first-time all-star in 2012. That season, he had a .286 BA, 180 hits, 238 total bases, and thirty-one doubles. To his right in the Rangers infield, Adrián Beltré from the Dominican Republic played third base and started in the All-Star Game. Besides being a threetime AL all-star and four-time MVP candidate, he hit with power and in 2012 had a .321 BA, .561 slugging percentage, and 102 RBIs. Indeed, these performances by Andrus and Beltre were reasons that the Rangers finished only one game behind and second to the Oakland Athletics in the AL’s WD. A three-time all-star and two-time MVP candidate, Dominican outfielder José Bautista was a competitive player for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2012. However, his .241 BA, eighty hits, sixty-five RBIs, and 175 total bases did not rank him anywhere near the top among all AL players. In contrast to Bautista, Cleveland Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera from Venezuela had impressive statistics at bat in 2012. These included 150 hits, 235 total bases, seventy runs, thirty-five doubles, and .338 on base percentage. After Andrus and the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter, Asdrubal Cabrera was the third best shortstop in the AL.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 49

8/8/13 2:58 PM

50

Chapter 2

Although he was a reserve player on the 2012 AL all-star team, Detroit Tigers’ third baseman Miguel Cabrera from Venezuela had a very productive season. Indeed, he led the league in BA, slugging percentage, home runs, RBIs, and total bases, and won the Triple Crown and MVP Award. This was Miguel Cabrera’s third appearance on an all-star team for the Tigers.11 During eight seasons while playing second base for the New York Yankees, Dominican Robinson Canó was runner-up for ROY in 2005 and in his career a four-time all-star and five-time MVP candidate. For the 2012 season, he batted .313 and had .379 on base and .503 slugging percentages, respectively, because of his sixty-one walks and hitting forty-eight doubles and thirty-three home runs. Indeed, Robinson Canó led the Yankees to a victory in the AL Divisional Series against the Baltimore Orioles. Right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish from Japan was a rookie in 2012. While winning sixteen games for the Texas Rangers, he pitched 191 innings and had a 3.90 ERA and 221 strikeouts. In the AL, Darvish ranked third in votes for ROY and ninth for a Cy Young Award. Another all-star pitcher was the Tampa Bay Rays’ Fernando Rodney from the Dominican Republic. Because he saved forty-eight games in seventy-four innings for his team, Rodney placed fifth for a Cy Young Award and thirteenth for MVP. In short, Texas Rangers’ manager Ron Washington was smart to select these two successful pitchers for the All-Star Game. Felix Hernandez from Venezuela was a pitcher for the AL in the 2012 All-Star Game for several reasons. Besides his thirteen wins for the Seattle Mariners, he pitched 232 innings and had a 3.09 ERA and 223 strikeouts. In 2012, Hernandez ranked fourth for a Cy Young Award and twentysecond for MVP in the league. While Hernandez played in his third AllStar Game, it was the eighth for David “Big Papi” Ortiz of the Dominican Republic. Being a veteran who played ten seasons for the Boston Red Sox and six for the Minnesota Twins, he hit .318 in 2012 with twenty-three home runs and a .611 slugging percentage. Although injured during the season, Ortiz was the most effective DH in the AL and perhaps among all teams in MLB. As of 2012, twelve foreign-born players won twenty games or more in the AL (see the appendix, table A2.1). The most successful of these foreigners were Cuba’s Mike Cuellar and Luis Tiant. They each won at least twenty games in four different seasons. Following them with two twentygame seasons each, were Russ Ford from Canada, Pedro Martínez from the Dominican Republic, and Camilo Pascual from Cuba. Interestingly, pitchers Mike Cuellar, Pedro Martínez, Johan Santana, and Bartolo Colón won Cy Young Awards but none of them were ROY or won an MVP in the AL or has been elected to the BHOF.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 50

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

51

However, to win twenty games in one or more seasons, these pitchers had confidence in themselves and their teammates and managers, and the ability to throw fastballs, curveballs, changeups, sliders, and other pitches into the strike zone accurately, consistently, and effectively. If they avoid injuries and receive support from others on their team, the Oakland Athletics’ Bartolo Colón and New York Mets’ Johan Santana may win twenty or more games after 2012.

EXPERIENCES First Foreigners on Teams Between 1901 and 2012, several international athletes became the first ballplayers from their country to perform on AL teams. Some of them had migrated from abroad to the United States because their parents moved there and they played sports while in elementary school, high school, and/or college. Others were simply outstanding amateur players on a local baseball team or teams in their home nation. Because of their talent, they signed contracts with big-league franchises and then relocated to live somewhere in the United States to temporarily play on a club in baseball’s minor leagues and later, in the major leagues.12 From 1900 to the 1950s, nine foreign athletes became the first from their country to play on an AL team. In chronological order by their first year in the majors, they included: Luis Castro (Colombia) and Otto Hess (Switzerland) in 1902; Olaf Henriksen (Denmark) in 1911, Harry Kingman (China) in 1914, John Michaelson (Finland) in 1921, Mel Almada (Mexico) in 1933, Julio Bonetti (Italy) in 1937, Alex Carrasquel (Venezuela) in 1939, and Elmer Valo (Czechoslovakia) in 1940. Luis Castro attended Manhattan College in New York and played one season in the infield and outfield for the Philadelphia Athletics. While there, he had thirty-five hits, one home run, fifteen RBIs, and a .245 BA. Otto Hess, who served awhile in the U.S. military, pitched six years for the AL Cleveland Broncos and four for the Boston Red Sox. Despite a win-loss record of 70-90, he had an ERA of 2.98 and 580 strikeouts in 1,418 innings. When not pitching, Hess played outfield and batted .216, with five home runs, fifty-eight RBIs, and 154 hits during his career. Essentially a pinch-hitting outfielder, Olaf Henriksen played seven years for the Boston Red Sox. In addition to his .269 BA, he had 131 hits, one home run, and forty-eight RBIs in 321 games during his career. Born to missionaries in China, infielder Harry Kingman had a brief career in MLB, spending part of the 1914 season with the New York Yankees; however, he never got a hit in a game. Similarly, John Michaelson

13_256_Jozsa.indb 51

8/8/13 2:58 PM

52

Chapter 2

was a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox for a single big-league season. As such, he appeared in two games, pitched two innings, and finished with an astronomical ERA of 10.13. More successful was Mexican outfielder Mel Almada, who started with the Boston Red Sox in 1933 and finished seven years later with the Brooklyn Dodgers. During his MLB seasons, Almada had a .284 BA with fifteen home runs and 197 RBIs in 164 games. A native of Genoa, Italy, pitcher Julio Bonetti spent two years with the St. Louis Browns and then one with the Chicago Cubs. His win-loss record in MLB was 6-14 with fifty strikeouts and a 6.03 ERA in forty-six games. Alex Carrasquel, whom Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith had recruited, pitched seven years for the Senators and one for the Chicago White Sox. Carrasquel won fifty and lost thirty-nine games, and had a 3.73 ERA in 861 innings. With a much longer career, Elmer Valo was an outfielder and pinchhitter for the Philadelphia Athletics and some other teams during his twenty years in professional baseball. He was known for aggressively challenging fences in the ballpark to prevent extra base hits. Valo finished playing with a lifetime 1,420 hits, fifty-eight home runs, 601 RBIs, and a .282 BA in 1,806 games. Between the late 1960s and 1990s, nine men became the first athlete from their country to perform on AL teams. These included Tony Solaita (American Samoa) in 1968; Dennis Martínez (Nicaragua) in 1976; Hensley Meulens (Curaçao) in 1989; Chito Martínez (British Honduras) in 1991; Jeff Bronkey (Afghanistan) in 1993; and in 1996 Gene Kingsale (Aruba), Brian Lesher (Belgium), Bobby Chouinard (Philippines), and Danny Graves (South Vietnam). Tony Solaita was an infielder and strong hitter with tremendous power. While playing for five different teams in seven seasons, his BA was .255, and that included 336 hits, fifty home runs, and 203 RBIs in 525 games. Although troubled by personal problems, Dennis Martínez pitched competitively for twenty-three years in the big leagues. He had a good but not great 3.70 ERA and in total, won 245 games and lost 193 for the Baltimore Orioles and four other teams. Signed to a MLB contract as an undrafted free agent in 1989, infielder/ outfielder Hensley Meulens played five seasons with the New York Yankees and one each with the Montreal Expos and Arizona Diamondbacks. While batting only .220, he had 109 hits, fifteen home runs, and fifty-three RBIs in 182 games. Infielder/outfielder Chito Martínez performed for the Baltimore Orioles for three seasons. Even so, Martínez’s .259 BA, eighteen home runs, 111 hits, and fifty-eight RBIs in 158 games were mediocre results for his career in the big leagues.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 52

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

53

After attending Oklahoma State University, Jeff Bronkey had a short MLB career, pitching one year for the Texas Rangers and two for the Milwaukee Brewers. He finished with a won-loss record of 2-2 and a 4.04 ERA in forty-five games. Bronkey underperformed because of control problems. Gene Kingsale joined the Baltimore Orioles in 1996. He was speedy in the outfield and a switch-hitter for seven seasons. While at bat, he had 134 hits, three home runs, fifty-three RBIs, and a .251 BA in 211 games. Because Kingsale had few extra base hits and a relatively low slugging percentage, he was primarily a substitute outfielder who occasionally played a few innings. Born in Wilrijk, Belgium, infielder/outfielder Brian Lesher spent five years with three different AL teams. Although Lesher was a right-handed batter, he threw with his left arm. Lesher was an inferior player, with a .224 BA and only nine home runs, fifty-nine hits, and thirty-eight RBIs in 108 games. Like Jeff Bronkey, Bobby Chouinard and Danny Graves were righthanded pitchers. During his five-year career, Chouinard won eleven and lost eight games, had a 4.57 ERA, and pitched initially for the Oakland Athletics and then three other teams. Graves, meanwhile, had a better performance than Chouinard. He won forty-three games with an ERA of 4.05 in 808 innings of eleven seasons. Interestingly, Graves’s father served with the U.S. military in South Vietnam and his mother was a Vietnamese citizen. After 2000, three other nations sent athletes to the big leagues for the first time. These ballplayers were John Hattig (Guam) and Tom Mastny (Indonesia) in 2006, and Yan Gomes (Brazil) in 2012. After a few years on teams in the minor leagues, Hattig played one season as an infielder for the Toronto Blue Jays. Despite a .333 BA, he had zero home runs, only eight hits, and three RBIs in thirteen games. After the 2006 season, Hattig became a free agent and signed with the NL New York Mets. For some reason, the Mets released him shortly thereafter. Then in May 2008, Hattig signed with the Reno Silver Sox of the Golden Baseball League. Born in Bontang, Indonesia, and raised in Zionsville, Indiana, Tom Mastny pitched effectively for teams in the minor leagues. Then in 2006, he joined the Cleveland Indians and played with that club for three seasons. During his career with the Indians, Mastny won nine games and lost five, and had a 6.13 ERA in ninety-four innings. Mastny catapulted onto the national scene after earning a victory in Game 2 of the 2007 AL Championship Series. He faced the heart of the Boston Red Sox lineup in the bottom of the tenth inning and successfully pitched to David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Mike Lowell. The Indians scored seven runs in the top of the eleventh inning, handing the victory to Mastny.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 53

8/8/13 2:58 PM

54

Chapter 2

After a roster battle in 2008 spring training with pitcher Jorge Julio, Mastny expected to begin the season with the Triple A International League (AAA-IL) Buffalo Bisons. However, he was recalled to the Indians on April 15 when pitcher Joe Borowski went on the fifteen-day disabled list. Mastny made his first career start in early June against the Texas Rangers. Six months later, however, the Indians sold Mastny’s contract to the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japanese Central League. While there, he had a 1-5 record in 2009 with a 5.69 ERA in fifteen games. Yan Gomes made his debut in professional baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate in the Rookie-Gulf Coast League (R-GCL) in 2009, but later that season, the Blue Jays promoted him to the Auburn Doubledays in the Short Season A-New York Pennsylvania League (SSA-NYPL). In 2010, he played for the Lansing Lugnuts in the Low Class A-Midwest League (LCA-ML) and the Dunedin Blue Jays in the High Class A-Florida State League (HCA-FSL). Gomes played most of the 2011 season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in the Double A-Eastern League (AA-EL) but then received a brief promotion to the Las Vegas 51s in the Triple A-Pacific Coast League (AAA-PCL). During his first three professional seasons, Gomes spent most of his time as a backup catcher on teams, but also played at first and third base. After batting .359 with five home runs and twenty-two RBIs at the start of the 2012 season with the Las Vegas 51s, Gomes went to the AL Toronto Blue Jays when the club sent struggling Adam Lind to Las Vegas. In his MLB debut on May 17, 2012, in Toronto, Gomes became the first Brazilian player in MLB history and got his first hit for the Blue Jays, a single off New York Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes. Later in the season he hit his first home run and won a game. Following several transfers from and to Las Vegas, the Blue Jays recalled Gomes after the 51s’ season ended in September 2012. Two months later, the Blue Jays announced the trade of Gomes and infielder Mike Aviles to the Cleveland Indians for Dominican right-handed pitcher Esmil Rogers. As a player, Yan Gomes helped Brazil qualify for its first ever berth in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) by leading the country in the 2013 WBC Qualification Games. In fact, he was the only major leaguer on Brazil’s team among the qualifiers and helped it advance despite other teams boasting several professional players. Of all these MLB players who were the first from their respective countries, pitcher Dennis Martínez of Nicaragua had the most successful career, primarily because of his 245 victories, 3.70 ERA, and 3,999 innings pitched in 692 games. As a batter, Elmer Valo of Czechoslovakia was superior to the others because he played twenty seasons, had more than

13_256_Jozsa.indb 54

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

55

1,400 hits and 600 RBIs, and averaged .282 while at bat. For current players, despite his dismal performance as a rookie in 2012, Yan Gomes has the most potential of the group to be a prominent player for the Cleveland Indians. Steroid Suspensions Over the years, various MLB commissioners have struggled with the drug problems pervading the sport. To research incidents and bring them under control, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (1969–1984) compiled and implemented the first formal set of policies and procedures that focused on drug-related problems in professional baseball. However, the use of steroids by players was not an urgent issue throughout Kuhn’s tenure as commissioner.13 During the mid-1980s, baseball’s next commissioner, Peter Ueberroth (1984–1988) abolished Kuhn’s drug program because there were no provisions in it for mandatory testing. Instead, Ueberroth contacted players through his office and requested they voluntarily test themselves for illegal drugs. Although he failed to consult with the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) about his plans to deal with the problem, Ueberroth proceeded to develop and then introduce a drug policy and prevention program for teams in the league. Unfortunately, the program did not allow for or permit random and unannounced drug tests of players. In short, Ueberroth’s policy was ineffective without the cooperation of the MLBPA and support of several franchise owners. Although he did not consider steroids to be a significant problem in professional baseball, Commissioner Francis “Fay” Vincent Jr. (1989– 1992) sent a groundbreaking memorandum to all MLB clubs regarding the use of steroids by players. Essentially, Vincent proposed to lay the groundwork in an attempt to control a potential drug and steroid problem from developing and destroying the reputation of the game. In his memorandum to MLB teams, Vincent said, “There is no place for illegal drugs in baseball. Their use by players and others in baseball can neither be condoned nor tolerated. Baseball players and personnel cannot be permitted to give even the slightest suggestion that illegal drug use is either acceptable or safe. It is the responsibility of all baseball players and personnel to see to it that the use of illegal drugs does not occur, and if it does, to put a stop to it.”14 Rather than accept and enforce the provisions contained in Vincent’s memorandum, his replacement, Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig (1992– present) refused to allow anyone or anything to interfere with team owners’ prerogatives in dealing with the MLBPA about policies. However,

13_256_Jozsa.indb 55

8/8/13 2:58 PM

56

Chapter 2

after a series of steroid and other drug-related scandals that involved some of baseball’s superstar players during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Selig decided to establish a new steroid policy, with tougher penalties, in 2002. One year later, MLB and the MLBPA agreed to implement the policy on a trial basis but did not agree to test players for other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) or such illegal drugs as cocaine. Then in 2004, MLB announced a different and potentially more effective drug policy. In part, Selig’s new program included random, off-season tests and the suspension of first-, second-, third-, and fourth-time offenders for violating it. Because of Commissioner Selig and team owners’ negotiations with the MLBPA, MLB’s 2007–2011 Basic Collective Bargaining Agreement (BCBA) contained penalties for players who tested positive for steroids and amphetamines, and penalties for any convictions and the distribution of these drugs. In the league’s most recent five-year BCBA (2012–2016), the drug program’s scope expanded to include tests for human growth hormone (HGH). In fact, starting in spring training of 2012, all players became subject to HGH blood tests for “reasonable cause” anytime during the season. In addition, players are also subject to random, unannounced tests for HGH in the off-season. To research and finally rid the sport of PEDs, MLB’s team owners and the MLBPA agreed to jointly study the expansion of blood tests and include samples collected from players during the league’s regular seasons. According to data in the literature, following are the number of international players suspended for steroids on teams in the AL and their proportion of all suspensions in MLB (see appendix, table A2.2). Specifically, there were six foreign players (50 percent of all suspensions) in 2005, zero in 2006, four (50 percent) in 2007, zero in 2008, 2009, and 2010, one (50 percent) in 2011, and one, (16 percent) in 2012. With respect to each of these twelve drug incidents, here are some facts and baseball history about the suspensions of foreign-born players and their penalties. On April 3, 2005, Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ outfielder Alex Sanchez of Cuba became the first AL player suspended for violating MLB’s new drug policy. Suspended for ten days and fined about $32,000 of his annual salary, Sanchez did not appeal the penalty and publicly stated that he purchased multivitamins, protein shakes, and muscle relaxers over the counter and had consumed them to increase his energy. Indeed, he was not aware that MLB had banned nutritional supplements as of January 2005. Although PEDs are frequently associated with big and strong baseball batters, Alex Sanchez had hit only four home runs in his career when MLB suspended him. During late April of 2005, Dominican Agustín Montero was the second AL player who tested positive for steroids and was suspended for ten days. A relief pitcher for the Texas Rangers, Montero and the MLBPA

13_256_Jozsa.indb 56

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

57

filed a grievance with the league after his suspension and claimed that the penalty was disciplining him without just cause. MLB upheld his suspension and in June 2007, Montero signed a minor league contract to play for an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. In early May of 2005, Minnesota Twins pitcher Juan Rincón of Venezuela became the fifth player, and third in the AL, to be suspended for ten days because he violated MLB’s policy by consuming PEDs. In a statement to the media, Rincón said, “Baseball is my life and I was devastated after becoming aware that I tested positive for a violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The details are confidential and I have asked the player’s association to challenge the suspension.” After pitching three more years with the Twins, Rincón rejected a minor league assignment, became a free agent, and signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians organization in 2008. Cleveland Indians relief pitcher Rafael Betancourt of Venezuela tested positive for steroids and on July 8, 2005, MLB suspended him for ten days. Angry and very disappointed with the league’s decision, he planned to file a grievance. After apologizing to his family, teammates, and fans, Betancourt looked forward to resolving the matter, clearing his name, and returning to pitch again for the Indians. During the summer of 2009, the Indians traded Betancourt to the NL Colorado Rockies in exchange for a minor-league pitcher. Five months after appearing at a U.S. congressional hearing about steroids and denying under oath he had ever used them, Baltimore Orioles infielder/outfielder Rafael Palmeiro of Cuba tested positive for steroids and was suspended from baseball for ten days in 2005. Later, the league denied his appeal, after which he said, “I have never intentionally used steroids. Ultimately, although I never intentionally put a banned substance into my body, the independent arbitrator ruled that I had to be suspended under the terms of the program.” Before an Orioles home game at Camden Yards on August 14, 2005, the club cancelled “Rafael Palmeiro Appreciation Day.” In fact, it was an event to celebrate his baseball career of hitting more than 500 home runs and 3,000 base hits. When he became eligible in 2011, Palmeiro received only sixty-four votes, or 11 percent of total ballots, regarding his potential induction into the BHOF. For entry, ballplayers need to get at least 75 percent of the ballots. Although he had seventy-two votes, or just 12.6 percent, on the 2012 BWAA ballot, Palmeiro’s name will probably appear on ballots in elections for the BHOF until 2025. Despite his repeated denials in public statements of ever using steroids either accidently or knowingly, there is too much controversy, uncertainty, and suspicion about whether he actually lied to Congress and the media. Because his name was in the Mitchell Report alleging that he used PEDs during his career, in my opinion

13_256_Jozsa.indb 57

8/8/13 2:58 PM

58

Chapter 2

Palmeiro will not receive enough votes from the BWAA in any year to become a member of the BHOF.15 After he failed a steroids test, MLB officials suspended Texas Rangers pitcher Carlos Almanzar for ten days in 2005. A native of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, he planned to appeal the suspension but did not publicly comment about it to reporters. After the incident, however, Rangers owner Tom Hicks responded, “It’s disappointing, it really is. Our players know the rules. They know they are going to be tested. If any of them get caught, shame on them.” Despite Tommy John surgery to heal his injured elbow, Almanzar abandoned MLB and a few years later pitched for a baseball team in the Dominican Winter League (DWL). While pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays during late spring of 2007, Dominican Juan Salas tested positive for PEDs and was suspended for fifty games by MLB. The suspension cost him approximately $126,000 or about one-third of his annual salary from the team. Salas made no comments to the media about his penalty, but a spokesperson for the club said, “The Tampa Bay Devil Rays fully support Major League Baseball’s drug testing policy. We will do all we can to help Juan Salas get his career headed back on a positive course.” In early 2009, the Rays (former Devil Rays) traded Salas to the Cleveland Indians. Later that year, the Indians realigned their roster and decided to release him. During the 2007 season, Detroit Tigers infielder Neifi Perez tested positive for amphetamines twice and was suspended for twenty-five games on July 6, and then for eighty games on August 3. Following the first suspension, Perez said, “I say to my fans that I am not stupid. I know the difference between good and bad and there are things that are going to be known going forward, but my lawyer has advised me not to talk for now.” After his eighty-game suspension he stated, “It’s not fair. They called [discovered] three different positives in a twenty-day-period. I was using a medicine that was supposedly authorized by the doctors due to a personal condition.” In October of 2007, the Tigers released Neifi Perez after he filed documents with the league to become a free agent and negotiate a contract with another team. Linked to using PEDs in the Mitchell Report, Kansas City Royals infielder José Guillén was suspended for fifteen games in 2007. Two years later, he acknowledged being friends and working with personal trainer Angel Presinal, who was associated with PEDs and officially banned from teams’ clubhouses. After MLB investigated Guillén for receiving shipments of HGH in 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency intercepted a package of fifty HGH syringes that was on its way to Guillén’s house. Although Guillén refused to comment to sports reporters about his suspen-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 58

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

59

sion in 2007, Royals’ General Manager Dayton Moore said, “We signed Jose knowing that it [PEDs] was a possibility. While our initial reaction is one of disappointment, I am thoroughly convinced that Jose will put this behind him as he begins a new chapter in his baseball life as a member of the Kansas City Royals.” After playing for fourteen years on ten different teams, Guillén’s career ended following his 2010 season with the San Francisco Giants. Two years after his fifty-game suspension while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL, Tampa Bay Rays Dominican outfielder Manny Ramirez violated MLB’s drug policy again. Rather than accept and fulfill his new one hundred-game suspension in 2011, he retired on April 8 of that year but later requested reinstatement and a fifty-game suspension if a big-league team signed him. Subsequently, Ramirez signed a minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics and played a few games in 2012 with the club’s AAA-PCL affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats. Unable to demonstrate his former hitting power, the Athletics released him in June of 2012. While competing for the Cleveland Indians for eight years and then the Boston Red Sox from 2001 to 2007, Manny Ramirez had a spectacular career as an outfielder. He was a twelve-time all-star and played on two World Series championship teams, became an RBI champion in 1999, won titles as a batter in 2002 and home runs in 2004, and twice led the league in outfield assists. Despite those highlights and a lifetime .312 BA, 555 home runs, and 1,833 RBIs in 2,302 games, Ramirez will not receive enough votes from the BWAA for admission into the BHOF, primarily because of his two drug suspensions. From 1997 to 2012, Dominican pitcher Bartolo Colón won 171 games. Besides his 4.05 ERA and 1,833 strikeouts, he was a two-time all-star and in 2005 received a Cy Young Award and led the AL with twentyone wins. However, in 2012, while playing for the Oakland Athletics, he tested positive for synthetic testosterone and received a fifty-game suspension from the league. After the season ended, the Athletics offered Colon another opportunity to pitch and thus signed him to a one-year, $3 million contact. Based on incentives in his new contract, Bartolo Colon could earn more than $5 million in 2013. There were no foreign-born players on teams in the AL who tested positive for steroids or any other PEDs in 2006 and from 2008 to 2010. Nevertheless, in the NL, two foreign-born players received suspensions in 2006, one in 2008, three in 2009, and two in 2010. The variation between the leagues in the number of suspensions from testing players for steroids occurred for various reasons in these four years. Most likely, the causes were differences in the policies of each team’s drug prevention and treatment program, the two leagues’ number, quality, and type of tests,

13_256_Jozsa.indb 59

8/8/13 2:58 PM

60

Chapter 2

which players on teams were tested and how frequently, and whether these tests were random and announced or unannounced. Alternatively, perhaps more NL than AL players simply decided to risk a suspension during 2006 and 2008–2010. In other words, they attempted to improve their potential to perform competitively by taking PEDs or other illegal substances. Salaries For decades, the international labor market for professional baseball players has steadily improved, especially for athletes from foreign countries and Puerto Rico who slug home runs and hit for high averages, and for pitchers who throw fastballs with power, control their pitches, and have low ERAs. The reasons these players’ opportunities and salaries increased during previous years were, in part, the expansion of AL and NL franchises into new metropolitan areas of North America, significantly more revenue for MLB teams because of broadcasts by television networks and cable systems based primarily in the United States, and the location of baseball academies and other training facilities for players in cities, towns, and villages within Latin America. In addition, there was growth in attendances and gate receipts at ballparks, and a larger and more affluent fan base for baseball in the United States, Canada, and other regions of the world. Various statistics and other data show, measure, and reflect the popularity, prosperity, and success of immigrant players previously and currently on rosters of MLB teams. For example, of the one hundred players who earned the most in career salaries, eighteen of them played the majority of their years for clubs in the AL. As reported on the website baseball-reference.com, five of these foreign players and their rankings and amounts in career salaries were, respectively, Manny Ramirez in third with $206.8 million, Mariano Rivera in eighth with $159.4 million, Carlos Beltrán in thirteenth with $147.9 million, Carlos Delgado in fourteenth with $146.2 million, and Ichiro Suzuki in sixteenth with $146.1 million. Except for Suzuki, the other players were in the big leagues at least fifteen years, and three of them had outstanding performances in hitting, while Rivera saved and won numerous games for the New York Yankees as a relief pitcher.16 While many ballplayers in the top one hundred in career salaries are no longer active, a few besides Rivera, Beltrán, and Suzuki will continue to perform for AL teams and earn millions more during their lifetime if they avoid injuries and hitting slumps and decide not to retire soon. That group includes Adrián Beltré, David Ortiz, Miguel Cabrera, and Hideki Matsui. Although DH Ortiz is near the end of his career with the Boston

13_256_Jozsa.indb 60

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

61

Red Sox, the others will play in the majority of their teams’ games. In fact, for the 2012 MLB season, Cabrera was MVP and won the Triple Crown (highest batting average, RBIs, and home runs) in the AL and played in the World Series with the Detroit Tigers. The website baseball-reference.com also contains a list of U.S. and international players with the highest single-season salaries and their respective rank, year, and amount. Within that group are several foreigners on prior or current AL teams. Ranked among the top fifty in single-season salaries were Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox at $22.5 million in 2004, $22 million in 2005, and $20 million in 2003, and the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera at $21 million in 2012 and $20 million each in 2010 and 2011. Interestingly, the final foreign-born player from an AL team on the list was the Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki, who earned $18 million each year in 2009–2011. Since they are truly productive, Cabrera and Suzuki will certainly rank higher in career salaries among the group after 2012 and perhaps even higher in a single season. In the AL, one other foreign-born but current player whose salary of $18.5 million ranked in the top one hundred in 2012 was Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez from Venezuela. In the 2005–2012 seasons, he won 56 percent of his games and pitched 1,620 innings. In addition, Hernandez played on three AL all-star teams and finished first in 2010, second in 2009, and fourth in 2012 of the votes cast for a Cy Young Award. Indeed, because Hernandez is one of the most valuable players in the AL, his career earnings will increase in 2013 and years thereafter. Regarding payments by teams in the 2012 season, financial data from various sources reveal the high and low salaries of foreign-born players by team and position. Among pitchers, the highest paid in the group was Felix Hernandez and then the Texas Ranger Ryan Dempster of Canada, New York Yankee Mariano Rivera of Panama, Kansas City Royal Ervin Santana of the Dominican Republic, and the Boston Red Sox’s Daisuke Matsuzaka of Japan. That year, each of these players earned at least $10 million. In contrast, the lowest amount paid by clubs for one or more foreign-born pitchers was $480,000. In fact, it was the league’s minimum salary in 2012. There are only a few catchers on each team’s roster, so several AL clubs had no international players in this position. Some of the highest paid foreigners in the group, however, were the Texas Rangers’ Geovany Soto of Puerto Rico at $4.3 million, the Seattle Mariners’ Miguel Olivo of the Dominican Republic at $3.7 million, the Kansas City Royals’ Brayan Pena of Cuba at $875,000, and the Oakland Athletics’ George Kottaras of Canada at $700,000.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 61

8/8/13 2:58 PM

62

Chapter 2

Similarly to the minimum salaries of pitchers, infielders, and outfielders, $480,000 was the smallest amount spent by teams for foreign-born catchers in the 2012 season. Perhaps AL clubs prefer to recruit and sign catchers who played on teams in American colleges and then train them while in their minor league system. The catcher position requires players to speak some English during games and communicate with their coaches and managers in the dugout, with pitchers on the mound, and with other players in the infield and outfield. According to various sources in the literature, at least six foreign-born infielders on different AL teams earned in excess of $10 million for the 2012 season. Ranked from highest to lowest in salary, the group included the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera of Venezuela; the Minnesota Twins’ Justin Morneau of Canada; the New York Yankees’ Robinson Cano, the Los Angeles Angels’ Albert Pujols, and the Toronto Blue Jays’ José Reyes, each from the Dominican Republic. Besides those infielders, at least five other teams had foreign-born players at one or more positions in the infield whose salary was at least $1 million. Because of their strong fielding skills these infielders had relatively high salaries. Even the lower salaries of infielders on AL teams were above average for some foreign-born players. For example, the Tampa Bay Rays decided to pay shortstop Yunel Escobar of Cuba $5 million in 2012. Other foreign ballplayers earning millions from their teams were infielders as well. These included the Los Angeles Angels’ Erick Aybar of the Dominican Republic and Alberto Callaspo of Venezuela, Texas Ranger Elvis Andrus of Venezuela, and for the Detroit Tigers, besides third baseman Miguel Cabrera, there were Omar Infante of Venezuela, and Jhonny Peralta and Ramón Santiago of the Dominican Republic. Based on their batting and fielding averages in the 2012 MLB season, some of these players had salaries in excess of what they contributed to their clubs’ wins and losses while other infielders did not receive enough salary for their performances. With respect to AL teams’ rosters during 2012, the two highest salaries of outfielders from foreign nations were the New York Yankees’ Ichiro Suzuki of Japan at $18 million and the Toronto Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista of the Dominican Republic at $14 million. Ballplayers that ranked lower than Suzuki and Bautista in salary included such outfielders as the Oakland Athletics’ Yoenis Céspedes of Cuba at $6.5 million and the Texas Rangers’ Nelson Cruz of the Dominican Republic at $6.3 million. Regarding a few other clubs in the league, the salaries of outfielders were at least $1.5 million in 2012 for one or more players on the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and Seattle Mariners. Because they must have excellent fielding skills and make accurate throws to the appropriate bases, these outfielders received excellent salaries for their efforts.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 62

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

63

Among the international outfielders on an AL team in 2012 with a relatively low salary of $495,000 was Chicago White Sox center fielder Alejandro De Aza of the Dominican Republic. Before the White Sox, he played in the AAA-IL for the Charlotte Knights and led the team as a batter and fielder. After the White Sox recalled him from the Knights, the twentyeight-year-old De Aza took advantage of the opportunity to succeed and became a productive player in Chicago. His salary will significantly increase in the future if he remains on the roster and continues to improve as an outfielder and hit well. The majority of Designated Hitters (DHs) were born in the United States. However, those from foreign countries and their salaries in 2012 include Boston’s David Ortiz of the Dominican Republic at $14.5 million, the Los Angeles Angels’ Kendrys Morales of Cuba at $2.9 million, and the Seattle Mariners’ Jesus Montero of Venezuela at $486,900. DHs are in the lineup to hit home runs and generate RBIs and total bases for their teams, thus some may be inferior infielders or outfielders or run bases slowly. Some compete as veterans who expect to finish their careers soon. As of 2012, for example, Ortiz was thirty-seven years old and had played six seasons for the Minnesota Twins and ten for the Red Sox. With 401 home runs, a .285 BA, and 1,326 RBIs in 1,832 games during his career, he may retire in 2013 or 2014. Five years later, he will be eligible for and very likely will be inducted into the BHOF. In contrast to David Ortiz’s career, Kendrys Morales was twenty-nine years old in 2012, had played six seasons for the Angels, and had hit seventy-nine home runs with 265 RBIs in 464 games. Although his .281 BA was mediocre for a DH, he has the ability to play more seasons. The other DH, twenty-three-year-old Jesus Montero, is also a part-time catcher, and through two seasons, batted .267 and hit nineteen home runs in 153 games. To continue as a DH, Montero needs to hit with more power for any team that hires him. Otherwise, his annual salary will not increase above $500,000 for several years. An interesting way to analyze the real value or worth of professional baseball players, including those born in foreign countries and Puerto Rico, is to compare their contribution to the wins and losses of a team during a 162-game MLB season relative to the salary paid them. In order to measure their value or worth, one method is to determine each player’s salary and performance as percentages, respectively, of a team’s total payroll and results in a regular season. While some of these players are very valuable to a team and are compensated accordingly, others underperform at their position and/or at bat. Consequently, they are not worth the salaries paid to them. The following

13_256_Jozsa.indb 63

8/8/13 2:58 PM

64

Chapter 2

is an analysis of eight foreign-born players from different AL teams. The list includes four players who had multimillion-dollar salaries in 2012 and then another four whose salaries were less than $500,000 in the second group. In 2012, pitcher Felix Hernandez of Venezuela underperformed for the Seattle Mariners. Although he made the league’s all-star team and finished fourth for a Cy Young Award, Hernandez was paid $18.5 million by his club but won only thirteen games and had a disappointing 3.06 ERA. Partly because of Hernandez’s performance, the Mariners finished fourth and nineteen games behind the Oakland Athletics in the AL West Division. Like Hernandez’s mediocre contribution to the Mariners, the performance of Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau of Canada also did not measure up to his salary in 2012. Certainly he did not earn $14 million based on his .267 BA, nineteen home runs, and seventy-seven RBIs in 134 games. As a member of the league’s CD, the Twins ended the season in fifth place and twenty-two games behind the champion Detroit Tigers. Two international players from the Dominican Republic had very good seasons and contributed great value to their teams in 2012. These were Texas Rangers shortstop Adrián Beltré and New York Yankees pitcher Rafael Soriano. To justify his $15 million salary, Beltré had a .321 BA, 102 RBIs, and thirty-six home runs in 156 games. He was on the league’s allstar team and finished third for an MVP Award, and the Rangers finished second in the AL WD. To support his salary of $11 million, Soriano had a 2.26 ERA and saved forty-two of his team’s games. In addition, the Yankees won the ED and Soriano placed twentieth in votes among players for the league’s MVP. In contrast to those in the previous group, each of the following foreign-born players earned less than $500,000 in salary during the 2012 season. Interestingly, two of them were valuable pitchers and contributed to several victories for their teams while the other two underperformed for their clubs. Both from the Dominican Republic and pitchers, the productive players were the Detroit Tigers’ Luis Marte and the Kansas City Royals’ Kelvin Herrera. Marte had a 2.82 ERA and pitched twenty-two innings in thirteen games while Herrera had four wins, an ERA of 2.35, and pitched eighty-four innings in seventy-six games. These players, although effective as relief pitchers, received a salary near the league’s minimum of $480,000. Each from Venezuela, the underachievers in the group were Cleveland Indians pitcher Jeanmar Gómez and Tampa Bay Rays catcher José Lobatón. Gómez had a 5.96 ERA and pitched ninety innings in twenty games. Mean-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 64

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

65

while, Lobatón hit .222 with two home runs and twenty RBIs in sixty-nine games. These performances suggest that both players did not contribute much to improve their teams. During the 2012 season, other players on AL teams were examples of overachievers with high salaries. These included infielder Miguel Cabrera of Venezuela and designated hitter David Ortiz, outfielder José Bautista, and infielder Robinson Canó of the Dominican Republic. For underachievers with relatively low salaries, they were Seattle Mariners’ infielder Alex Liddi of Italy, Boston Red Sox pitcher Felix Doubrant of Venezuela, and Texas Rangers pitcher Alexi Ogando of the Dominican Republic. Liddi hit only .222 with two home runs in sixty-nine games while Doubrant had a 4.80 ERA and Ogando won merely two games. Despite these results, a number of players with annual salaries greater than $10 million in 2012 did not contribute enough while performing for their team. As such, they were overpaid. On the other hand, many players who received at or near the minimum salary of $480,000 were frequently undercompensated based on their contribution in wins and losses to their team. In short, these players deserved more income for their services. Other Experiences Besides awards for their performances or induction into the BHOF while in retirement, some immigrant ballplayers had special experiences before, during, and after their careers. In 2005, for example, fans voted to select a Latino Legends baseball team. The honorees that played most of their years for AL clubs included Puerto Rico’s Ivan Rodriguez, Panama’s Rod Carew and Mariano Rivera, and the Dominican Republic’s Manny Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero. In short, next is an overview of their outstanding accomplishments while on teams in MLB.17 • Catcher Rodriguez was a fourteen-time all-star, won ten consecutive and thirteen total GG Awards, and played at least one hundred games during seventeen seasons. • Infielder Carew won seven batting titles, hit .300 or higher in fifteen consecutive seasons, and was named the league’s ROY in 1967 and ten years later its MVP. • Pitcher Rivera, a twelve-time all-star, saved forty or more games in a season eight times for the New York Yankees, ranks in the top ten all-time among pitchers in career saves, and won the 1999 World Series MVP Award. • Outfielder Ramirez was a twelve-time all-star, won SS Awards ninetimes and a batting title in 2002, and was the 2000 World Series MVP.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 65

8/8/13 2:58 PM

66

Chapter 2

• Outfielder Guerrero was an eight-time all-star, won Silver Slugger Awards eight times, slugged 449 home runs, and had 200 or more hits during four seasons. Five of the other players on the Latino Legends team played most of their seasons for clubs in the NL, while New York Yankees’ infielder Alex Rodriguez and Seattle Mariners’ infielder Edgar Martínez were born in New York City. Except for Manny Ramirez, who violated the league’s drug policy and was suspended twice for using illegal substances, in my opinion four Latino Legends on AL teams will join Rod Carew and be inducted into the BHOF on their first, second, or third ballot. While they were on prior or current rosters of teams in the league, several foreign-born players struggled with personal problems before, during, and/or after their careers. Some of them had difficulty coping with American culture, learning English and speaking the language in conversations, adjusting to different U.S. time zones, and remembering specific details of the game. To an extent, this was especially true for such players as Japan’s Akinori Otsuka, Hideki Matsui, and Ichiro Suzuki; Cuba’s Alex Sanchez, Orlando Hernandez, and José Contreras; Venezuela’s Juan Rincón, Edgardo Alfonzo, and Omar Vizquel; and the Dominican Republic’s Agustín Montero, Alfonso Soriano, and Bartolo Colón. Former New York Yankees’ outfielder Hideki Matsui, for example, experienced trouble with grammar and speaking words properly and interpreting them in the English language, but not with ordering and eating different foods in restaurants or with his lifestyle while living in New York City. During interviews with reporters and commentators, he had only a vague understanding of questions and such phrases as “What’s up, dawg.” To overcome his language problems, Matsui read numerous magazines and newspapers, watched and carefully listened to television programs, and had detailed conversations with his Yankee teammates about economic, political, and social events in the United States and across the world.18 Regarding another sensitive issue, a number of Latino players seemed confused and were upset about Arizona’s anti-immigration movement and particularly Senate Bill 1070. It, in effect, legalized racial profiling by requiring police to question people about their immigration status under certain circumstances. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ infielder Adrian Gonzalez and even players on AL teams located in California, Florida, and Texas said they might boycott the game if the proposal became a law and was enforced by the police. Besides Gonzalez, Toronto Blue Jays’ slugger Jose Batista expressed disappointment with the legislation and offered his support to Latin communities especially in Arizona and elsewhere in the Southwest.19

13_256_Jozsa.indb 66

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

67

NOTES 1. See the Introduction and significant events for the 1899–1903 MLB seasons in Official Major League Baseball Fact Book 2005 Edition (St. Louis, MO: Sporting News, 2005), 170–85. Other information is available in “Ban Johnson,” www.wikipedia .org (3 December 2012), “History of Major League Baseball from Early Beginnings to Current,” www.thepeoplehistory.com (25 November 2012), and in Nate Penn and Paul Forrester, “The First Real World Series,” Gentlemen’s Quarterly (March 2004), 252–53. 2. For the history, performance, and success of new teams in the AL, see Frank P. Jozsa Jr., Major League Baseball Expansions and Relocations: A History, 1876–2008 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010), and Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime as Big Business (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006). 3. Besides books, directories, and periodicals, two online sources of players on MLB teams are “Famous First Foreign Born Baseball Players,” www.baseballalmanac.com (29 October 2012), and “Major League Players by Birthplace,” www .baseball-almanac.com (25 November 2012). 4. Various readings report the number of foreign-born players on MLB teams for different seasons of the AL and NL. For example, there is “Opening Day Rosters Feature 229 Players Born Outside the U.S.,” www.mlb.com (29 October 2012), “Record High for Foreign-Born Players,” www.si.com (4 April 2007), and “Percentage of Foreign Players Rises,” www.espn.go.com (29 October 2012). 5. Three Internet sources that have information about awards and their winners are “Batting Average Year-by-Year Leaders,” www.baseball-almanac.com (24 November 2012), “MLB Most Valuable Player MVP Awards & Cy Young Awards Winners,” www.baseball-reference.com (24 November 2012), and “MLB Rookie of the Year Awards,” www.baseball-reference.com (24 November 2012). 6. All the recipients of this fifty-six-year-old award, listed by name, year, and position, are in “American League Gold Glove Award Winners,” www.baseballreference.com (17 December 2012). 7. Pitchers receive the award only in the NL, as AL pitchers are replaced in batting lineups with the DH. See “Silver Slugger Award Winners―American League,” www.baseball-reference.com (17 December 2012). 8. For data and historical information about the careers of former and current MLB players from the United States and foreign countries and the Baseball Hall of Fame, see Teddy Mitrosilis, “Foreign-Born Players in Baseball’s Hall of Fame,” www.thepostgame.com (5 November 2012); “Deep List of Candidates Rounds Out Hall’s List,” www.losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com (30 November 2012); “National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum,” www.wikipedia.org (30 November 2012); “Baseball Biographies,” www.baseball-almanac.com (30 November 2012); “Sports Biographies,” www.hickoksports.com (1 December 2012); and “Baseball Hall of Fame,” www.baseballhall.org (3 December 2012). 9. Former players and their accomplishments for admission into the BHOF are mentioned in sources in note 8 above. For statistics about their lifetime performances, see such websites as www.baseball-reference.com, www.baseballalmanac.com, www.milb.com, and www.mlb.com.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 67

8/8/13 2:58 PM

68

Chapter 2

10. See “Major League All-Star Game,” www.wikipedia.org (3 December 2012), and “2012 American League All-Star Roster,” www.espn.go.com (27 November 2012). Results of the game and performances by AL and NL players are in articles online at www.mlb.com. 11. Miguel Cabrera was the first foreign-born player to win a Triple Crown in the AL. In the 2012 MLB season, he led the league with a .330 BA, forty-four home runs, and 139 RBIs. For this award, see “Triple Crown Winners,” www.baseballreference.com (26 February 2013). 12. See, for example, the sources in note 3, as well as Stuart Anderson and L. Brian Andrew, Coming to America: Immigrants, Baseball and the Contributions of Foreign-Born Players to America’s Pastime (Arlington, VA: National Foundation for American Policy, October 2006); George Gmelch, Baseball without Borders: The International Pastime (Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2006); and Jim Witte, “American as Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and . . . Immigrants,” www2.timesdispatch.com (5 November 2012). 13. Steve Fainaru, “MLB to Consider Drug Testing for Foreign Players,” www .sportsbusinessnews.com (19 September 2003), Ronald Blum, “Suspended Players Are Largely Latino,” Charlotte Observer (5 May 2005), 5C, “Steroid Suspensions,” www.baseball-almanac.com (26 November 2012), and “Major League Players Suspended for Performance-Enhancing Drugs,” www.wikipedia.org (26 November 2012). 14. See “Baseball Commissioner Francis Vincent and Steroids,” www.steroidsinbaseball.net (5 December 2012). Vincent’s memorandum contained the following provisions: The possession, sale, or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by major league players and personnel is strictly prohibited. Those involved in the possession, sale, or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance are subject to discipline by the commissioner and risk permanent expulsion from the game. In addition to any discipline this [commissioner’s] office may impose, a club may also take action under applicable provisions of and special covenants to the uniform player’s contract. This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual in possession of the drug does not have a prescription. MLB recognizes that illegal drug use has become a national problem, and that some players and baseball personnel may fall victim to drugs. Baseball will not hesitate to permanently remove from the game those players and personnel who, despite our efforts to treat and rehabilitate, refuse to accept responsibility for the problem and continue to use illegal drugs. If any club covers up or otherwise fails to disclose to this office any information concerning drug use by a player, that club will be fined $250,000, the highest allowable amount under the Major League Agreement. MLB believes that its testing program is the most effective means available to deter and detect drug use. For admitted or detected drug users, testing will be a component of that individual’s after-care program for the balance of his or her professional baseball career. This office will continue to search for positive and constructive methods of dealing with drug use. While baseball will attempt to treat and rehabilitate any player or personnel who falls victim to a drug problem, we [MLB] will not hesitate to impose discipline, especially in those cases involving repeated offenses or refusals to participate in a recommended and appropriate course of treatment.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 68

8/8/13 2:58 PM

American League Immigrant Players

69

15. “The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball,” or informally the “Mitchell Report,” is the result of former U.S. Democratic senator from Maine George J. Mitchell’s twentyone-month investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in MLB. The 409-page report, released on December 13, 2007, covers the history of the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances by players and the effectiveness of the MLB Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The report also advances certain recommendations regarding the handling of past illegal drug use and future prevention practices, and names eighty-nine MLB players who allegedly used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. See “Baseball’s Mitchell Report Players,” www.baseball-reference.com (26 February 2013), and “Mitchell Report,” www.files.mlb.com (26 February 2013). 16. For information about amounts in the contracts of MLB players, see “MLB Average Salary Up to $3.2 Million,” Charlotte Observer (8 December 2012), 3C, “Highest Career and Single-Season Salaries,” www.baseball-reference.com (7 December 2012), “Team Player Rosters,” www.espn.go.com (7 December 2012), and “Baseball Players Salaries,” www.baseballplayerssalaries.com (7 December 2012). 17. In 2005, approximately 1.6 million baseball fans voted online and in participating Chevrolet automobile dealerships across the United States on a ballot that consisted of sixty Latino players, by position, who represented seven countries and territories. According to Commissioner Bud Selig, “This program was created to reflect those contributions [to the national pastime] and to honor the indelible mark they have left on the game.” For more details, see Jesse Sanchez, “Latino Legends Team Announced,” www.mlb.com (27 October 2005). 18. To read more about Hideki Matsui’s troubles in America and the problems of other foreign-born players, read Ken Davidoff, “A Major League Adjustment,” Baseball Digest (January 2004), 42–45, and “Interpreters a Lopsided Luxury in the Bigs,” www.sportsillustrated.netscape.cnn.com (18 June 2005). 19. On immigration topics see Murray Chass, “Mitchell Report Could Have Impact on Visas,” New York Times (25 November 2011), 7; Marc Lacey, “Dominican Crackdown Leaves Children of Haitian Immigrants in Legal Limbo,” New York Times (25 May 2008), 6; Johnathan Mahler, “For Latino Stars, a Sad State of Affairs,” Charlotte Observer (19 June 2011), 5C; Jim Litke, “Selig Hiding From All-Star Issue in Ariz.,” Charlotte Observer (28 June 2011), 4C; Bob Preston, “What If Major League Baseball Had H-1B Caps?” Information Week (11 May 2009), 72; Stuart Anderson, “America’s Pastime Should be Baseball, Not Complaints about Immigrants,” www.forbes.com (4 November 2012); Dan Moffett, “U.S. Officials Investigate Baseball Visa Fraud,” www.immigration.about.com (5 November 2012); Jeff Passan, “Baseball Alarmed by Arizona Immigration Law,” www.sports.yahoo .com (5 November 2012); William Rhoden, “Selig Can Send Message on Arizona Immigration Law,” www.nytimes.com (5 November 2012).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 69

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 70

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Roberto Clemente: Puerto Rico, 1973. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb A

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Juan Marichal: Dominican Republic, 1983. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb B

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Luis Aparicio: Venezuela, 1984. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb C

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Ferguson Jenkins: Canada, 1991. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb D

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Rod Carew: Panama, 1991. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb E

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Orlando Cepeda: Puerto Rico, 1999. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb F

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Tony Pérez: Cuba, 2000. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb G

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Bert Blyleven: Netherlands, 2011. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb H

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Roberto Alomar: Puerto Rico, 2011. Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY.

13_256_Jozsa.indb I

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb J

8/8/13 2:58 PM

3

National League Immigrant Players

E

stablished in 1857, the mission of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was to operate as an amateur organization of clubs whose founding members represented the five boroughs of New York City. However, while expanding to include more than 300 baseball teams during the early-to-mid-1860s, the NABBP became increasingly like a professional sports league due to such things as legal but under-thetable payments to ballplayers, charging admission prices to teams’ games, and otherwise operating like a business. Because of these activities, the NABBP reorganized in 1869. That is, each team in the Association identified its role and status in the sport as being either amateur or professional. Subsequently, this provided an opportunity for the NABBP’s Cincinnati Red Stockings team to tour other cities in the United States and play baseball games for fans like an event of a commercial enterprise.1 Because of conflicts and uncertainty within the NABBP, several of its prominent professional teams withdrew in 1871 and formed the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, or simply the National Association (NA). Although this was the first organized group of professional baseball teams in America, Major League Baseball (MLB) and later the Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF) do not consider the NA to be an authentic “major” baseball league. The NABBP quickly became irrelevant and then folded in the early 1870s. During the NA’s existence from 1871 to 1875, the Boston Red Stockings were the dominant team. They won four championships, and the Philadelphia Athletics won one. Unfortunately, because of instability, weak competition among teams, and no central authority within the NA, several 71

13_256_Jozsa.indb 71

8/8/13 2:58 PM

72

Chapter 3

of its franchises ceased to operate after one or two years. In addition, gamblers and crooks became involved in the sport and likely influenced games by bribing teams’ owners, players, and managers. These and other problems undermined and ruined the NA and caused its eventual collapse. After a series of meetings between William Hulbert—a successful Chicago business executive, influential leader, and part owner of the Chicago White Stockings—and several other baseball team owners in late 1875 and early 1876, these sports entrepreneurs organized the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs (NL). Originally, it had eight charter members. That included six from the NA plus independent teams that existed in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky.2 The NL was an organization of clubs rather than an association of players, and its power, strategy, and structure originated with a board of directors. That group, led by a former NA and current Hartford Dark Blues franchise executive named Morgan Buckley, made important but strict policy decisions and rules for the NL, especially about regulating fans’ rowdiness, eliminating players’ illegal gambling and alcohol abuse, and ensuring teams’ scheduling commitments. It was Hulbert and Buckley who assumed responsibility to establish integrity, respectability, and a sound foundation to manage and operate the new NL. In fact, after its 1876 regular season, Hulbert expelled the Philadelphia Athletics and Mutual of New York franchises from the league because they refused to make western road trips and preferred to play some games against competitors in other baseball leagues to improve their win-loss record and generate revenue for themselves. After the Blues, St. Louis Brown Stockings, and Louisville Grays folded in late 1877, the NL admitted professional teams from Indianapolis, Indiana, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This chapter will discuss some historical information and other details about foreign-born and Puerto Rican baseball athletes who became players on teams in the NL during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Their characteristics and performances explain why they were special and how they succeeded in the sport. Moreover, some players had interesting experiences including their migration to the United States; annual and career salaries; suspensions for using steroids and other illegal substances; and problems adjusting to American culture, lifestyles, and sports fans. A few NL foreign-born players had exceptional talent and accomplishments during their careers and thus were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF) at its site in Cooperstown, New York.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION From 1876 to 1899, the NL varied in size each baseball season between a low of six and a high of twelve clubs. During this twenty-four-year pe-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 72

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

73

riod, a number of athletes emigrated from different countries, including Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales to play on teams in the league or, if they existed, on any affiliates of them in minor or independent baseball organizations. From 1900 to 2012, the number of foreigners on MLB teams gradually increased. As denoted in chapter 20 of Baseball, Inc., the growth in employment of international ballplayers on NL teams occurred, in part, because the league and some commissioners of it were ambitious, innovative, and risk-taking business executives who decided to expand into different U.S. metropolitan areas and markets and a province of Canada. These decisions caused new NL teams to play in such cities as Houston and New York City beginning in 1962, San Diego and Montreal in 1969, Denver and Miami in 1993, and Phoenix in 1998. Due to expansion and other factors, the proportion of foreign-born ballplayers, which was 3.6 percent in 1958 and 6.9 percent in 1969, rose to 8.8 percent in 1978 and 19.8 percent in 1998. From 2000 to 2012, even more young and veteran baseball players born in countries of Asia, Europe, Latin America, and other regions of the world appeared on various teams’ opening-day rosters. Indeed, they ranged from a low of 25.3 percent in 2001 to a high of 29.2 percent in 2005.3 To report the extent of international players on recent rosters of sixteen clubs in the NL, table 3.1 depicts their distribution by nation and position as of April 11, 2013. Among thirteen different countries, there were eighty-six pitchers, nineteen catchers, forty-four infielders, and thirty outfielders. While the majority of these players had migrated from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, where they played in baseball academies, high schools, and amateur and semiprofessional teams, several others competed for professional baseball organizations in different nations. This group included some pitchers from Canada and Mexico, catchers from Panama and Puerto Rico, infielders from Cuba and the Netherlands, and one outfielder each from Colombia and three other countries. Although as youths they lacked modern equipment and fancy uniforms, and usually played games on dusty fields and vacant lots in neighborhoods near their homes and schools, these players had great raw potential, were passionate about baseball, and devoted their leisure time to catching, hitting, and throwing baseballs. Most of them were also competitive in other sports. Many of them grew up poor and uneducated in such places as Romana, San Cristobal, and Santo Domingo of the Dominican Republic, and in Caracas, Maracaibo, and Puerto Cabello of Venezuela. Despite being a popular sport there, only 5 percent of all international players on the rosters of NL teams at the beginning of the 2013 season were from Mexico, 2 percent from Panama, and approximately 1 percent from Japan. This distribution suggests that these and such countries as

13_256_Jozsa.indb 73

8/8/13 2:58 PM

74

Chapter 3 Table 3.1. National League Number of Immigrant Players, by Nation and Position, 2013 Nation Canada Colombia Cuba Dominican Republic Germany Japan Mexico Netherlands Nicaragua Panama Puerto Rico South Korea Venezuela

Pitcher

Catcher

Infielder

Outfielder

Total

6 1 4 38 1 2 6 1 1 1 3 1 21

1 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 9

2 1 3 17 0 0 3 2 1 1 0 0 14

0 1 2 14 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 1 8

9 3 10 72 1 3 9 4 2 4 8 2 52

Note: Teams’ rosters are for the 2013 MLB season. There are no designated hitters on teams in the NL. Each teams’ forty-man roster includes international players on the disabled list, temporarily in the minors, and suspended. While its people are American citizens, Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the U.S. It is a self-governing, independent territory and an island whose border is not a contiguous state of the United States. Baseball beyond Borders treats Puerto Rican athletes and nonathletes among groups from the Caribbean in professional baseball leagues. Source: “2013 Team Rosters.” www.espn.go.com (11 April 2013).

Cuba, South Korea, and Taiwan have their own competitive and local baseball leagues with popular amateur and semiprofessional teams that attract many of their youngest and most talented ballplayers. Other reasons for the small percentages of emigrants from these nations in MLB are problems caused by current U.S. and foreign immigration laws, and language and cultural barriers in North America. In addition, it is expensive for NL franchises to scout, recruit, sign, train, and import baseball athletes. Regarding additional historical information about this topic, table 3.2 reveals the distribution of players from various foreign nations and Puerto Rico across four positions on the rosters of fifteen NL teams for the 2013 season. The table has interesting data to report about these foreign-born professional baseball players. For example, while the Brewers and the Cubs had the largest numbers of pitchers on their rosters, the Mets and Reds each had zero catchers. The Giants and then Cubs and Brewers had the most infielders, and the Mets, Padres, and Giants each had three outfielders, while three other teams played with only one. To compare distributions by division in April 2013, most pitchers were in the league’s CD and catchers, infielders, and outfielders in the WD. Meanwhile, the fewest infielders and total players were in the East Division (ED).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 74

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

75

Table 3.2. National League Number of Immigrant Players, by Team and Position, 2013 Team

Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Total

5 4 7 5 3

1 1 0 2 2

4 3 1 2 0

1 2 3 2 2

11 10 11 11 7

9 7 10 6 7

2 0 1 1 1

5 4 5 1 1

2 2 2 2 1

18 13 18 10 10

2 8 3 4 6

2 2 1 1 2

2 2 4 4 6

2 2 1 3 3

8 14 9 12 17

East Division Atlanta Braves Miami Marlins New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Washington Nationals Central Division Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Milwaukee Brewers Pittsburgh Pirates St. Louis Cardinals West Division Arizona Diamondbacks Colorado Rockies Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants

Note: Teams’ rosters are for the 2013 MLB season. Rosters include international players on the disabled list, in the minors, and suspended. Source: “2013 Team Rosters,” www.espn.go.com (11 April 2013).

The data also show that there were more players on the Cubs, Brewers, and Giants than other teams, while the fewest number played for the Nationals and then the Diamondbacks and Dodgers. This distribution occurred, in part, because of differences in how many resources and assets they budget, allocate, and invest to scout, recruit, and hire young baseball athletes from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, which affects their ability to discover ballplayers with the potential skills to compete in MLB and the minor league system. Perhaps such clubs as the Cubs and Brewers had experience and more success with getting productivity from using foreign players on their rosters in previous seasons than did others like the Braves and Marlins in the ED, Pirates and Cardinals in the CD, and Diamondbacks and Dodgers in the WD. In short, tables 3.1 and 3.2 reveal some historical but insightful and diverse relationships that existed among the home countries and four baseball positions of international players on rosters of five NL teams each in the ED, CD, and WD for the 2013 season. Given data in these tables, it is important to highlight the most significant achievements of these athletes

13_256_Jozsa.indb 75

8/8/13 2:58 PM

76

Chapter 3

as batters and/or pitchers, catchers, infielders, and/or outfielders in different types of performances. To research players and their achievements, this information was available from articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers, from such websites as baseball-reference.com, baseballalmanac.com, and mlb.com, and from statistics, studies, and reports of players in the BHOF at baseballhof.org.

PERFORMANCES Award Winners When regular seasons end and following a World Series, ballplayers from the AL and NL receive awards that reflect their outstanding performances. These include such accomplishments as having the highest batting average (BA) and being outstanding pitchers. For specific contributions to their team, they may win Most Valuable Player (MVP), Rookie of the Year (ROY), and other awards for their slugging and fielding abilities. This section discusses awards earned by foreign and Puerto Rican players who competed most if not all of their years for teams in the NL and those with exceptional careers who received enough votes for their induction into the BHOF.4 Batting Champion To be eligible to win a batting title in the NL, a player must make at least 3.1 appearances at bat per game or 502 for his team during games in a regular season and have the highest average or number of hits per appearance. Born in the United States, the Chicago White Stockings’ infielder Ross Barnes won the NL’s first award when he hit .403 in 1876 and led all batters in runs, hits, and total bases. He specialized in “fair-foul hits,” which were squib bunts that landed fair, rolled across the foul line, but remained in play under the rules of that year. After his retirement, Barnes became an umpire in 1890 for the Players League. For the highest BA in a career among NL players, American infielder Rogers Hornsby, who played thirteen seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and four with the Chicago Cubs in the NL but also a few with the American League (AL) St. Louis Browns, hit .358. He led the NL in BA seven times and ranks fourth in MLB history. In addition, Hornsby led the league nine times in on-base and slugging percentages, five times in runs scored, four times in doubles and runs-batted-in (RBIs), and twice in triples and home runs. According to BHOF standards, he ranks as the third-greatest of alltime among all MLB players. Meanwhile, the former San Diego Padres out-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 76

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

77

fielder Tony Gwynn and Louisville Colonels/Pittsburgh Pirates infielder/ outfielder Honus Wagner each led the NL eight times in BA during, respectively, their twenty and twenty-one years in the league. As denoted in table 3.3, nine immigrants had the highest BA of all players in different seasons of the NL. Among these great hitters, the most successful was outfielder Roberto Clemente from the city of Carolina in Puerto Rico, and then infielder/outfielder Larry Walker from Maple Ridge in British Columbia, Canada. While playing eighteen years in 2,433 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Clemente had a .317 BA and won four batting titles. He appeared in twelve all-star games, won the league’s MVP Award in 1966, and seven years later, was elected to the BHOF. Clemente was, of course, a dark-skinned Hispanic at a time when American society had not yet fully accepted minorities in baseball’s major leagues. This prejudice―or at least provincialism plus insensitivity―was reflected in his Topps baseball cards. For much of his career, these cards referred to him as “Bob Clemente,” as did the persistent practice of even some highly sympathetic sportswriters, who quoted Clemente’s heavily accented English utterances phonetically. Although not a member of the BHOF as of 2012, Walker won three batting titles in seventeen years, including six seasons with the Colorado Rockies and others with the Montreal Expos. He was a five-time all-star and the league’s MVP in 1997. Twelve years later, Walker became a member of the Canadian BHOF and Museum. He was a nine-time winner of the Tip O’Neill Award for being the top Canadian baseball player of the year and a member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.5 Truly, Roberto Clemente and Larry Walker were two of the greatest ballplayers in the NL’s 138-year history. Besides Clemente and Walker, three other foreign-born NL batting champions were Venezuelan Andrés Galarraga in 1993 with .370, Dominican Rico Carty in 1970 with .366, and Dominican Albert Pujols in 2003 with .359. Following Pujols, other players and their BAs were .337 for Dominican José Reyes in 2011, .336 for Venezuelan Carlos González in 2010, and .342 each for Dominicans Matty Alou in 1966 and Hanley Ramirez in 2009. Except for Gonzalez and Alou, the other players were on multiple NL all-star teams, while Pujols won three MVP Awards between 2001 and 2012 as an infielder and slugger for the St. Louis Cardinals. Based on their lifetime BAs, Pujols has the highest of the group at .325 in twelve seasons and Galarraga the lowest at .288 in nineteen seasons. Roberto Clemente, Larry Walker, and these seven players are heroes among sports fans across the world and especially for kids and teenagers who play on baseball teams in their home countries.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 77

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 78

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Country Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Venezuela Canada Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Venezuela Dominican Republic Canada Mexico Dominican Republic Canada Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Canada Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Canada Puerto Rico Mexico Puerto Rico

Batting Champion Roberto Clemente Matty Alou Rico Carty Andres Galarraga Larry Walker Albert Pujols Hanley Ramirez Carlos González José Reyes

Cy Young Ferguson Jenkins Fernando Valenzuela Pedro Martinez Éric Gagné

Most Valuable Player Roberto Clemente Orlando Cepeda Larry Walker Sammy Sosa Albert Pujols Joey Votto

Rookie of the Year Orlando Cepeda Fernando Valenzuela Benito Santiago

San Francisco Giants Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres

Pittsburgh Pirates St. Louis Cardinals Colorado Rockies Chicago Cubs St. Louis Cardinals Cincinnati Reds

Chicago Cubs Los Angeles Dodgers Montreal Expos Los Angeles Dodgers

Pittsburgh Pirates Pittsburgh Pirates Atlanta Braves Colorado Rockies Colorado Rockies St. Louis Cardinals Florida Marlins Colorado Rockies New York Mets

Team

National League Immigrant Players, Award Winners, by Country, Team, and Year

Name

Table 3.3.

1958 1981 1987

1966 1967 1997 1998 2005, 2008–09 2010

1971 1981 1997, 1999–2000 2003

1961, 1964–65, 1967 1966 1970 1993 1998–99, 2001 2003 2009 2010 2011

Year

13_256_Jozsa.indb 79

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Canada Dominican Republic Canada

Rolaids Relief Antonio Alfonseca Armando Benítez Éric Gagné José Valverde John Axford Florida Marlins New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers Arizona Diamondbacks Milwaukee Brewers

Los Angeles Dodgers Los Angeles Dodgers Atlanta Braves St. Louis Cardinals Florida Marlins Chicago Cubs 2000 2001 2003–04 2007 2011

1994 1995 2000 2001 2006 2008

Source: George Vass, “The Wide World of Baseball,” Baseball Digest (February 2003), 11–16; “Batting Average Year-by-Year Leaders,” www.baseball-almanac.com (24 November 2012); “MLB Most Valuable Player MVP Awards & Cy Young Awards Winners,” www.baseball-reference.com (24 November 2012); “MLB Rookie of the Year Awards,” www.baseball-reference.com (24 November 2012); “2012 National League All-Star Roster,” www.espn.go.com (27 November 2012).

Note: The table excludes Hall of Fame players from the Negro Leagues in America.

Dominican Republic Japan Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Puerto Rico

Raúl Mondesí Hideo Nomo Rafael Furcal Albert Pujols Hanley Ramirez Geovany Soto

80

Chapter 3

Cy Young From 1956 through 1966, the most outstanding pitcher in MLB won a Cy Young Award. The first recipient was the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Don Newcombe, and in 1966, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax won the eleventh award. Then from 1967 through 2012, a pitcher in each league won a Cy Young. During these forty-six years of the NL, four foreignborn players won the award. These men were right-hander Ferguson “Fergie” Jenkins of Canada in 1971, left-hander Fernando Valenzuela of Mexico in 1981, and right-handers Pedro Martínez of the Dominican Republic in 1997, 1999, and 2000, and Éric Gagné of Canada in 2003. During the year he won a Cy Young, the Chicago Cubs’ Jenkins had a 2.77 Earned Run Average (ERA) and won twenty-four games. Although batters frequently hit home runs off his pitches, he gave up so few hits and almost no walks that the home runs did not hurt his team very much. Jenkins was also a good hitter, slugging three homers in 1970 and another six in 1971. To earn their Cy Young Awards, the ERAs and number of wins were 2.48 and thirteen for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Valenzuela, and respectively 2.93, 2.07, 1.74 and seventeen, twenty-three, and eighteen for the Montreal Expos’ Martínez, and 1.20 and two for the Dodgers’ Gagné. Similarly to the majority of NL batting champions, these four pitchers played on three or more all-star teams. Except for Gagné, they each pitched at least eleven years in the league and won more than 170 games during their careers. Gagné pitched for nine years and won 33 games.

Most Valuable Player Except in 1915–1923 and 1930, some ballplayer has won an MVP Award since the 1911 season. As of 2010, BWAA members vote to determine who will receive the award. From 1911 to 1914 and then for forty-two years, only American-born players won MVPs in the NL. At different positions, four of them were, for example, St. Louis Cardinals’ infielder Frank Frisch in 1931, Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher Jim Konstanty in 1950, Brooklyn Dodgers’ catcher Roy Campanella in 1955, and Cincinnati Reds’ outfielder Frank Robinson in 1961. In the NL, the first MVP among international players was Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. Although he did not lead the league statistically in any categories as a hitter during 1966, Clemente had a .317 BA, twenty-nine home runs, .536 slugging percentage, and 119 RBIs in 154 games. Additionally, he made few errors or mental mistakes playing

13_256_Jozsa.indb 80

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

81

outfield. Runners did not challenge Clemente because of his ability to throw any baseball he caught with velocity and accuracy to teammates on the infield and at home plate. Arguably, Roberto Clemente is the greatest Latino player in the history of MLB. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Orlando Cepeda was the second immigrant to win an MVP Award in the NL. In 1967, he was successful in contributing to the Cardinals’ pennant and World Series championship. That season, Cepeda led the league with 111 RBIs, hit twenty-five home runs, and had a .325 BA in 151 games. He was one of the best defensive infielders in the league and a natural leader at his position. Orlando Cepeda won an MVP primarily because of his tremendous power as a hitter and flexible skills in the Cardinals’ infield. Because Cepeda lived and played in years when the United States was at a crossroads of social change and racial intolerance, he was often the target of racial slurs from fans and the media. Nevertheless, Cepeda always managed to remain a proud and dignified man, and a pioneer, role model, and spokesperson for Hispanic players everywhere. One year before he became an NL batting champion in 1998, Colorado Rockies outfielder Larry Walker of Canada won an MVP Award. Besides his amazing .720 slugging and .452 on-base percentages, he had 130 RBIs and led the league with 409 total bases and forty-nine home runs. Although the Rockies finished seven games behind the San Francisco Giants and in third place of the league’s WD, Walker’s .366 BA ranked in the top five among all players. In 1997, Larry Walker was an MVP and ranked ahead of all active ballplayers in the NL. Following awards to Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, and Larry Walker, Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa was the fourth foreignborn player to win an MVP in the NL. In 1998, Sosa was awesome on offense as he scored 134 runs, hit sixty-six home runs with 158 RBIs, accounted for 416 total bases, and had a .308 BA and a .647 slugging percentage. Sosa and the Cardinals’ Mark McGwire competed for MLB’s home run title and caused attendances to soar for their teams, especially against each other in Chicago and St. Louis. After playing eighteen seasons with four different teams, Sosa retired after the 2007 season. Dominican Albert Pujols won MVP Awards in 2005, 2008, and 2009 while playing infield for the St. Louis Cardinals. During those three seasons, his highest and lowest performances as a hitter on his teams were .357 and .327 in BAs, forty-seven and thirty-seven in home runs, 135 and 116 in RBIs, .658 and .609 in slugging percentages, and 161 and 148 in number of regular season games. If he avoids injury, Albert Pujols will challenge Roberto Clemente to become the greatest Latino player in MLB history, and

13_256_Jozsa.indb 81

8/8/13 2:58 PM

82

Chapter 3

five years after retirement, will be unanimously inducted into the BHOF on the first ballot. The NL’s MVP in 2010 was Cincinnati Reds’ infielder Joey Votto of Canada. Besides being an all-star player, he had a .324 BA with thirtyone home runs and 113 RBIs in 150 games. Remarkably, Votto led the league in on-base, slugging, and on-base-plus-slugging percentage. While playing first base, he committed only five errors and achieved a fielding percent of .996 in 1,283 innings. Rookie of the Year To qualify for Rookie of the Year (ROY), a player must have a minimum of 130 at bats or fifty innings in games per season and be available for forty-five days on a team’s active roster before September 1. During 1947 and 1948, one player received a ROY Award for both leagues. In 1947, it was Brooklyn Dodgers’ first baseman Jackie Robinson and one year later, Boston Braves’ shortstop Alvin Dark. Then from 1949 through 2012, a player in the AL and NL each won ROY. Between 1958 and 2008, nine international players won ROY Awards in the NL. Five of them retired before 2012, while the other four continue to perform. The first group includes Orlando Cepeda and Benito Santiago of Puerto Rico, Fernando Valenzuela of Mexico, Raúl Mondesí of the Dominican Republic, and Hideo Nomo of Japan. Following are the highlights of their performances in the years when they won their ROYs. First baseman Cepeda had a .312 BA with twenty-five home runs and ninety-six RBIs for the third-place San Francisco Giants in 1958. Twentythree years later, Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw pitcher Valenzuela won thirteen and completed eleven games, struck out 180 batters, and had a 2.48 ERA in 192 innings. Then in 1987, San Diego Padres catcher Santiago batted .300 with eighteen home runs and seventy-nine RBIs in 146 games. Additionally, he won a Silver Slugger (SS) Award for being a very powerful hitter.6 Retired in 2005 after playing thirteen years, Dodgers outfielder Mondesí was ROY in 1994 because in 112 games of the regular season he hit .306 with sixteen home runs and fifty-six RBIs. Since he was productive and had a .516 slugging percentage, the Dodgers won the league’s WD. However, because of disputes between team owners and the MLBPA about the leagues’ revenue-sharing plan and other economic issues, the union began its strike against the league on August 12, 1994. Consequently, MLB teams participated in fewer regular season games that year and the league cancelled the playoffs and World Series.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 82

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

83

For his performance as a pitcher, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hideo Nomo won a ROY Award in 1995. He played in twenty-eight games, pitched 191 innings and had thirteen victories, led the league in striking out 236 batters, and established a 2.54 ERA. In the NL Division Series (NLDS), Nomo pitched five innings in game three against the Cincinnati Reds, but the Dodgers lost 10–1. Even so, Hideo Nomo was the most productive rookie in the league. As such, he became the fifth foreign-born player to receive a ROY Award in the NL. Since they are on the current rosters of teams in MLB, the second group of ROY winners still has an opportunity to contribute their talents and win additional awards in the sport. These athletes include Rafael Furcal, Albert Pujols, and Hanley Ramirez of the Dominican Republic and Geovany Soto of Puerto Rico. As a batter, Atlanta Braves’ shortstop Rafael Furcal was mediocre, since he hit only four home runs and fifty-six RBIs in 2000. Nevertheless, he had 134 hits, 174 total bases, and a .382 slugging percentage in 131 games. As a clever, quick, and reliable fielder, Furcal was spectacular in that he had 289 assists and committed just twenty-three errors. Additionally, the Braves won the league’s ED that season but were later defeated in three games by the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS. Being an NL all-star, infielder/outfielder Albert Pujols won ROY in 2001 because he had a .329 BA and slugging percentage of .610, and hit thirtyseven home runs with 130 RBIs in 161 regular season games for the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite his outstanding performance during the regular season, the Cardinals lost three games to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS. Florida Marlin Hanley Ramirez won an ROY Award in 2006 for several reasons. During 1,323 innings of 158 games, he had seventeen home runs and fifty-nine RBIs but also 185 hits and 304 total bases. While playing at shortstop and third base, Dominican Ramirez had 410 assists and only twenty-six errors. Given his .292 BA, Hanley Ramirez outperformed other rookies to become ROY in the NL. The most recent international ROY in the NL was former Chicago Cubs’ catcher Geovany Soto. After playing in only thirty games during the 2005–2007 MLB seasons, he excelled in 2008 for the Cubs. As a hitter, he had a .285 BA, twenty-three home runs, eighty-six RBIs, and a .504 slugging percentage. While catching, Soto had 762 putouts and made only four errors in 847 innings of 104 games. The next category of award winners is foreign-born relief pitchers, those who come in during the middle and/or late innings of games to relieve the starting pitcher. These relief pitchers’ primary goal is to confuse batters and get them out by throwing different combinations of pitches including cut fastballs, curves, sliders, and changeups.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 83

8/8/13 2:58 PM

84

Chapter 3

Rolaids Relief Pitcher Rather than receiving the most votes from members of the BWAA, a bigleague pitcher wins a Rolaids Relief (RR) Award based on the statistics of his performances during a season. More specifically, he earns five points for a save and two for a win, negative two each for a loss and “blown” save, and one for a “tough” save. Since 1976, its first year, five foreignborn pitchers have won an RR Award in the NL. To identify them, next is an overview of their accomplishments. The winners of an RR Award in the NL as of 2012 include the Dominican Republic’s Antonio Alfonseca in 2000 and Armando Benítez in 2001, Canada’s Éric Gagné in 2003 and 2004, the Dominican Republic’s José Valverde in 2007, and Canada’s John Axford in 2011. In other years, U.S.born pitchers won the award. These five athletes, indeed, were outstanding relief pitchers for their teams during the regular season. Alfonseca had forty-five saves and finished sixty-two games in relief for the Florida Marlins in 2000. One year later, Benítez won six and saved forty-three games for the New York Mets. For the Dodgers, Gagné had respectively in 2003 and then 2004, fifty-five and forty-five saves, 1.20 and 2.19 ERAs, and 137 and 114 strikeouts. Then Valverde had forty-seven saves and a 2.66 ERA for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007, and four years later, Axford finished sixty-three and saved forty-six games for the Milwaukee Brewers. While he was a relief pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in the AL, José Valverde also received an RR Award in 2011. He won only two games but saved forty-nine, struck out sixty-nine batters, and had a 2.24 ERA. During his ten-year career, Valverde was a three-time all-star, finished 489 games and won twenty-six of them, and had 277 saves in 590 innings. Based on their performances and the number of RR Awards they have won since 1976, the most successful in each group of teams has been the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Éric Gagné of Canada in the NL and, as discussed in chapter 2, the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera of Panama in the AL.

Other Awards Since 1958, a few players in the NL and AL have won a Rawlings Gold Glove (GG) Award for their superior performances at specific fielding positions. Teams’ coaches and managers vote for players who, because of their outstanding performances, receive a gold lamé-tanned leather glove affixed to a walnut base. For the 1957 season, Chicago White Sox outfielder Minnie Minoso of Cuba won a GG. In fact, there was only one

13_256_Jozsa.indb 84

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

85

award given to players at each position in the infield and outfield on AL and NL teams combined.7 Some foreign-born and Puerto Rican players have won multiple GG Awards during their careers in the NL. These individuals and their number of GGs, in parentheses, include catchers Tony Peña (four) of the Dominican Republic and Yadier Molina (five) and Benito Santiago (three) of Puerto Rico; first baseman Andrés Galarraga (two) of Venezuela, and second basemen Luis Castillo (three) of the Dominican Republic; Manny Trillo (three) of Venezuela; and Felix Millan (two) of Puerto Rico. Others who won multiple GGs in the NL were shortstops Omar Vizquel (eleven) of Venezuela, Edgar Renteria (two) of Colombia, Rey Ordonez (three) of Cuba, and Dave Concepción (five) of Venezuela, and outfielders Larry Walker (seven) of Canada, Andruw Jones (ten) of Curaçao, Cesar Geronimo (four) and César Cedeño (five) of the Dominican Republic; and Roberto Clemente (twelve) of Puerto Rico. Besides these players, several other foreigners won only one GG Award in the NL including pitchers Fernando Valenzuela of Mexico and Joaquín Andújar of the Dominican Republic. Since 1980, players in each league have won a Silver Slugger (SS) Award for being the best hitter at their position during a season. Given to players annually by U.S. manufacturer Hillerich & Bradsby and based on votes from teams’ coaches and managers, the award is a ninety-onecentimeter, sterling silver–plated, bat-shaped trophy engraved with the winner’s name. A few international players at each position on a baseball field have won multiple SS Awards in the NL. These individuals and their number of awards, in parentheses, include pitchers Carlos Zambrano (three) of Venezuela and Fernando Valenzuela (two) of Mexico, catcher Benito Santiago (four) of Puerto Rico, first basemen Albert Pujols (four) of the Dominican Republic and Andrés Galarraga (two) of Venezuela, and second baseman Manny Trillo (two) of Venezuela. Besides them, other foreigners who won by position were third baseman Vinny Castilla (three) of Mexico, and shortstops Hanley Ramirez (two) of the Dominican Republic, Edgar Renteria (three) of Colombia, and Dave Concepción (two) of Venezuela. The outfielders with multiple SS Awards were Larry Walker (three) of Canada, Sammy Sosa (six) and Vladimir Guerrero (three) of the Dominican Republic, and Carlos Beltrán (two) and José Cruz (two) of Puerto Rico. Additionally, several other foreign players won one SS Award at their position between 1980 and 2012. For details about their performances, see the data on the website baseballreference.com. For other events in MLB, several foreign players on NL teams won awards for being the MVP on All-Star, Championship Series, and World

13_256_Jozsa.indb 85

8/8/13 2:58 PM

86

Chapter 3

Series teams. Some of these MVPs, for example, were infielder Tony Pérez of Cuba and outfielder Melky Cabrera and pitcher Juan Marichal of the Dominican Republic in an All-Star game, outfielder Marco Scutaro and infielder Manny Trillo of Venezuela in a Championship Series, and pitcher José Rijo and infielder/outfielder Pedro Guerrero of the Dominican Republic in a World Series. With his impressive performance in 1877, Boston Red Stockings pitcher Tommy Bond of Ireland became the NL’s first and only Triple Crown champion born in a foreign country. He led the league by winning forty games and having a 2.11 ERA and 170 strikeouts. Besides these statistics, Bond pitched fifty-eight complete games in 521 innings that year and won forty or more games in three consecutive seasons. After ten years in the big leagues, he retired in 1984 and four years later, coached baseball at Harvard University. Tommy Bond was a baseball umpire in 1883 and 1885 and then worked in the Boston assessor’s office for thirty-five years. He died in 1941. Baseball Hall of Fame Established in 1936 in Cooperstown, New York, the Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF) honors former professional players and others for their exemplary contribution to the game. For anyone to be eligible for the BHOF and then elected to it by active and honorary members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BWAA) or a Veterans Committee, there are specific requirements regarding their career in and retirement from MLB or the Negro Leagues. Each year, a BWAA screening committee prepares ballots that list candidates who are eligible for the first time (at least five years after retirement) and were nominated by any two of six members of the committee or received a vote on a minimum of 5 percent of the ballots cast in the preceding election. For admission into the BHOF, an eligible candidate must get at least 75 percent of votes on a ballot.8 As of 2012, five immigrants, who performed primarily as players for clubs in the NL and then retired, are in the BHOF. In chronological order of their induction, they are Roberto Clemente of Puerto Rico in 1973, Juan Marichal of the Dominican Republic in 1983, Ferguson Jenkins of Canada in 1991, Orlando Cepeda of Puerto Rico in 1999, and Tony Pérez of Cuba in 2000. Next are highlights of their performances in regular season and postseason games.9 During his eighteen seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Roberto Clemente played in 2,433 games and won an MVP Award and four batting

13_256_Jozsa.indb 86

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

87

championships. He hit 240 home runs with 1,305 RBIs, and had 3,000 hits and 4,492 total bases. Clemente was equally brilliant in right field, where he displayed a precise and powerful arm. Besides being on twelve all-star teams, most sports fans remember him for his generosity, humility, and efforts to help others. At thirty-eight-years-old, he died in a plane crash while transporting relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Roberto Clemente was the first foreign-born player inducted into the BHOF. Juan Marichal pitched most of his sixteen-year career with the San Francisco Giants. In 471 total games, he won 243 of them and had a 2.89 ERA with 2,303 strikeouts. He hurled a no-hitter in 1963 and played on nine NL all-star teams. As a right-handed pitcher, he had a smooth motion but lifted his left leg very high in the air when throwing. After retiring from baseball in 1975, Juan Marichal became a minister of sports in the Dominican Republic. During his nineteen years in MLB, Ferguson Jenkins pitched for four different teams including ten seasons with the Chicago Cubs. In 664 career games, he won 284 of them and had 3,192 strikeouts and a 3.34 ERA in 4,500 innings. Jenkins was an all-star three times and won a Cy Young Award in 1971. While pitching, he was a diligent workhorse, had pinpoint control with an easy, uncomplicated motion, and effectively changed speeds to keep batters off balance, especially in such hitter’s ballparks as Wrigley Field in Chicago. Interestingly, Ferguson Jenkins is the only member of the BHOF who struck out more than 3,000 batters during his career but walked fewer than 1,000. While playing for seventeen years, Orlando Cepeda had a .297 BA, .499 slugging percentage, 379 home runs, and 1,365 RBIs in 2,124 games. He was ROY in 1958 with the San Francisco Giants, earned an MVP in 1967 with the St. Louis Cardinals, and was selected to seven all-star teams. Despite a series of knee injuries, Cepeda was a powerful hitter and competent infielder whose father, Pedro Cepeda, was also a professional ballplayer and known as the “Babe Ruth of the Caribbean.” As a member of four different teams during his twenty-three-year career, including Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine clubs of the early to mid1970s, Tony Pérez had 2,732 hits, 379 home runs, and 1,652 RBIs in 2,777 games. Besides playing on seven all-star and two world championship teams, he was an MVP candidate in several seasons. Respected for his ability to get hits yet control his swing, Pérez belted three home runs in the 1975 World Series won by the Reds in seven games. On July 11, 1967, his fifteenth-inning home run off Oakland Athletics and future Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter propelled the NL to victory in the longest all-star game in MLB history.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 87

8/8/13 2:58 PM

88

Chapter 3

2012–2013 Hall of Fame Ballots According to the distribution of votes in 2012 for the BHOF, there were three international players with much experience in the NL who appeared on the ballot. In his second year of eligibility for induction, former Colorado Rockies’ outfielder Larry Walker of Canada received 22.9 percent of votes cast. Although he had a .313 BA and hit 383 home runs and 1,311 RBIs in 1,988 games during his seventeen-year career, Walker needs at least 75 percent of votes in a future election for admission to the BHOF. In their first year of eligibility, former Colorado Rockies infielder Vinnie Castilla of Mexico and Atlanta Braves catcher Javy López of Puerto Rico each received less than 5 percent of votes on the BHOF ballot in 2012. Compared to the performance data of Larry Walker, their lifetime BAs were less than .300 and they each hit fewer than 325 home runs and 1,200 RBIs. Given these statistics and the small percentage of votes in 2012, Castilla and López will not appear again on ballots in future BHOF elections unless nominated by a Veterans Committee. Regarding results of foreign-born and Puerto Rican players from AL teams on the 2012 BHOF ballot, former Baltimore Orioles infielder/ outfielder Rafael Palmeiro of Cuba received only 12.6 percent of votes, New York Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams of Puerto Rico only 9.6 percent, Texas Rangers outfielder Juan Gonzalez of Puerto Rico merely 4 percent, and Texas Rangers outfielder Ruben Sierra of Puerto Rico a disappointing zero percent. Unless nominated by a Veteran’s Committee, Gonzalez and Sierra will not be included on any ballots in future elections. Besides Larry Walker from the Colorado Rockies, former Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa of the Dominican Republic will also be on the 2013 official hall of fame ballot. In thirteen seasons with the Cubs and five with other teams, Sosa had a .273 BA and 609 home runs, a .534 slugging percentage, and 1,667 RBIs in 2,354 games. Despite his outstanding performances, Sosa is unlikely to receive enough votes from BWAA members to enter the BHOF because he supposedly used steroids and other illegal substances, especially during the late 1990s and perhaps in other years of his career. Most baseball fans remember Sosa for when he and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire competed to hit home runs and break MLB records established by former New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth and the Atlanta Braves’ Hank Aaron. The 2013 BHOF ballot will also include a few international players who retired from teams in the AL since 2008. Besides Rafael Palmeiro and Ber-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 88

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

89

nie Williams, they are Texas Rangers infielder Julio Franco and Cleveland Indians pitcher José Mesa of the Dominican Republic, and Chicago White Sox pitcher Roberto Hernandez and Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. of Puerto Rico. Since this is their first year of eligibility, they will receive votes but not a sufficient percentage for induction into the BHOF in 2013.

2012 All-Stars On July 10, 2012, a number of players from each league competed in the 2012 MLB All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. By a score of 8–0, the NL defeated the AL and thus won its third consecutive game since 2010. The MVP was San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera of the Dominican Republic. After hitting a single while batting in the first inning, Cabrera clouted a home run three innings later, and that performance led his team to a victory. When the 2012 season ended, however, the Giants traded Cabrera to the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL. In fact, he signed a two-year, $16 million contract with his new team.10 In the 2012 All-Star Game on July 10, there were eleven foreign-born players on the NL’s roster. Each of them performed like all-stars during the regular season. Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto of Canada, for example, had a .337 BA and hit fourteen home runs and fifty-six RBIs in 111 games but missed parts of the season because of injuries and other reasons. Nevertheless, he received enough votes from fans to start in the All-Star Game. At two other starting positions in the NL’s infield were San Francisco Giants’ third baseman Pablo Sandoval of Venezuela and St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal of the Dominican Republic. As a player for the Giants, who won the World Series in October, Sandoval had 112 hits, sixty-three RBIs, and twelve home runs in 108 games. Despite his mediocre performance at bat during the season, Sandoval had several key hits that won games for the Giants and motivated his teammates to compete and win an NL pennant and then a championship. Rafael Furcal, a thirteen-year veteran, batted only .264 in 2012 but hit five home runs with forty-nine RBIs in 121 games for the Cardinals. Besides being a popular player among American and Dominican baseball fans that year, he was an excellent infielder who was good at catching difficult ground balls and converting them into double plays. As such, Furcal was an all-star primarily because of his skills at playing shortstop and for being well known among baseball fans, especially in the metropolitan area of St. Louis, Missouri.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 89

8/8/13 2:58 PM

90

Chapter 3

Besides the San Francisco Giants’ Melky Cabrera, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Carlos Beltrán of the Dominican Republic played in the outfield on the NL all-star team. In 2012, he had a .269 BA and hit thirty-two home runs with ninety-seven RBIs in 151 games. Meanwhile, Cabrera led the league with a .346 BA and had eleven home runs, sixty RBIs, and a .516 slugging percentage in 113 games. This was Cabrera’s first appearance in an All-Star Game, Sandoval’s second, and Furcal’s third. The Cincinnati Reds’ Aroldis Chapman of Cuba was the only foreignborn pitcher on the NL all-star roster in 2012. During the season, he saved thirty-eight games for the Reds and had a 1.51 ERA and 122 strikeouts in seventy-one innings. Although Chapman won only five games for the Reds during the regular season, former St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa selected him for the all-star team. That was because of his ability to intimidate batters with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and get them out in late innings of games. In 2012, five international players were reserves on the NL’s all-star team. They included Houston Astros second baseman José Altuve and Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos González, both of Venezuela, Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro of the Dominican Republic, and as catchers, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Yadier Molina of Puerto Rico and the Philadelphia Phillies’ Carlos Ruiz of Panama. While batting early in the Astros’ lineup, José Altuve hit .290 with seven home runs and thirty-seven RBIs in 147 games. Similarly to Rafael Furcal at shortstop, Altuve was able to catch difficult and tricky ground balls yet not commit many errors. Additionally, he had 167 hits and an above-average on-base percentage. In contrast to performances by Altuve and Furcal, Carlos González had more power than they, since he hit twenty-two home runs with eighty-five RBIs in 127 games for the Rockies. Because of his .303 BA, a .510 slugging percentage, and GG Award, González played in his first All-Star Game. Starlin Castro, meanwhile, had fourteen home runs and batted .283 with seventy-eight RBIs and 183 hits in 162 games for the Cubs. He was accurate, consistent, and reliable as a shortstop throughout the season and contributed in some way to most of his team’s victories. A Puerto Rican and Panamanian were reserve catchers on the NL’s allstar team in 2012. In the regular season, Yadier Molina hit .315 and Carlos Ruiz .325. Each of them had more than sixteen home runs, sixty-seven RBIs, and 120 hits, and finished the season with slugging percentages respectively of .501 and .540. As catchers, they were confident, dependable, and smart while giving signals to their pitchers and coordinating the defensive positions of infielders and outfielders. Based on their per-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 90

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

91

formances, Yadier Molina and Carlos Ruiz certainly played well enough to be on the NL’s all-star team. Pitchers Performances As of 2012, ten foreign-born players had won at least twenty games during their careers while pitching for teams in various NL seasons. The most successful of them was Scotland’s Jim McCormick. From 1879 to 1886, he won twenty or more games for three different clubs, including the Cleveland Blues and Chicago White Stockings of the NL, and the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the Union Association. Two pitchers, who each won twenty games in six seasons for NL teams were Canada’s Ferguson Jenkins in 1967–1972 for the Chicago Cubs and the Dominican Republic’s Juan Marichal in 1963–1966 and 1968–1969 for the San Francisco Giants.11 Besides McCormick, Jenkins, and Marichal, four foreigners pitched multiple twenty-game seasons for NL teams. These were Ireland’s Tommy Bond in 1876–1880 for the Hartford Dark Blues and Boston Red Stockings, Ireland’s Tony Mullane in 1891–1892 for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, Wales’s Ted Lewis in 1897–1898 for the Boston Beaneaters, and the Dominican Republic’s Joaquín Andújar in 1984–1985 for the St. Louis Cardinals. Three other pitchers from foreign countries each had one twenty-game season, including the Dominican Republic’s Ramón Martínez in 1990 for the Los Angeles Dodgers and José Lima in 1999 for the Houston Astros, and Mexico’s Fernando Valenzuela in 1986 for the Los Angeles Dodgers. To win numerous games, Jim McCormick and the other nine foreignborn pitchers were fortunate to avoid seriously injuring their arms. Yet, they pitched often and did not allow their opponents to score many runs in single innings. After the late 1980s, however, teams trained and frequently used relief pitchers in the middle and late innings of games to prevent or stop rallies. Consequently, when replacing starting pitchers became a common and effective strategy, it reduced the opportunity for them to win at least twenty games in any regular season. This concludes the section about foreign-born players on NL teams who won various awards and exceptionally talented players that later became members of the BHOF. For different reasons, their historical contributions to MLB were memorable and significant. The next section focuses on some important, interesting, and unique experiences of international professional baseball players while living in America and as members of NL teams.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 91

8/8/13 2:58 PM

92

Chapter 3

EXPERIENCES First Foreigners on Teams Between 1876 and 2012, a number of foreign-born players and one Puerto Rican were the first baseball athletes from their home countries to join rosters of NL teams. Some of these individuals performed less than one season while others became veterans. The following information reveals characteristics about them and their contributions, if any, to professional baseball in America.12 Prior to 1900, players from eleven different countries were the first foreigners on NL teams according to data on websites baseball-reference .com, baseball-almanac.com, and baseballlibrary.com. In chronological order by their original year in the league, they include: Al Nichols of England and Andy Leonard of Ireland in 1876, Jim McCormick of Scotland in 1878, Bill Phillips of Canada in 1879, and Charlie Getzien of Germany in 1884. Subsequent to that group was Charlie Hallstrom of Sweden in 1885, John Houseman of the Netherlands and John Anderson of Norway in 1894, Joe Woerlin of France in 1895, Ted Lewis of Wales in 1896, and Jake Gettman of Russia in 1897. After playing one season each for the New York Mutuals and Louisville Grays, the league suspended infielder Al Nichols in late 1877 because he cheated and tried to throw games for money. For his performances on these teams, he had a .171 BA, sixty-two hits, and eighteen RBIs. Infielder/outfielder Andy Leonard was on the rosters of Boston Red Stockings and Cincinnati Reds teams a total of four years. He played in 215 games for them and had a .267 BA with 259 hits and eighty-seven RBIs. In the Irish Baseball League, the MVP is an award that honors Leonard. As an underhanded pitcher for five NL clubs, Jim McCormick won 265 games in ten seasons and had a remarkable 2.43 ERA. After retiring as a player in 1887, he managed the Cleveland Blues for a few years. While McCormick was pitching for the Blues, Bill Phillips joined the team playing catcher and other positions and then later played for the Brooklyn Grays and Kansas City Cowboys in the American Association. In his six years with the Cleveland Blues, Phillips had a .264 BA, eleven home runs, and 242 RBIs. Following his career as a player, Phillips managed the Indianapolis Hoosiers, who in 1914 won a pennant in the Federal League (FL). From 1884 to 1892, Charlie Getzien won 145 games and had a 3.46 ERA in 2,539 innings while pitching for the Detroit Wolverines and four other teams in the NL. Nicknamed “Pretzels,” or “Pretzel Twirler” by managers and team officials because of his unorthodox motion

13_256_Jozsa.indb 92

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

93

on the pitcher’s mound, he also had 209 hits and 109 RBIs as a batter. While Getzien was playing for the Wolverines, Charlie Hallstrom pitched one game for the Providence Grays and in it allowed eighteen hits and sixteen runs in nine innings. Shortly thereafter, the Grays decided to release him. In 1894, two foreign-born infielders/outfielders became big-league ballplayers. They were the Chicago Colts’ John Houseman of the Netherlands and the Brooklyn Grooms’ John Anderson of Norway. In eighty-four games of two NL seasons, Houseman had a .253 BA, seventy-four hits, and twenty-five RBIs. Anderson, a switch-hitter but inferior fielder, played six years in the NL and hit .299 with twenty-nine home runs and 421 RBIs in 597 games. As such, they were mediocre players for their teams. Born in Trenheim, France, Joe Woerlin played one game in 1895 for the Washington Senators in the NL. Although he had a hit, Woerlin’s career in American baseball ended that year. Then in 1896, Williams College graduate Ted Lewis joined the Brooklyn Beaneaters. In five seasons with the Beaneaters, he pitched 1,088 innings and won seventy-eight games. Nicknamed the “Pitching Professor,” Lewis retired and coached baseball at Harvard University for a while, and in 1924 he became the president of Massachusetts Agricultural College and later the University of New Hampshire. In 1897, Jake Gettman became the first Russian to play on a team in the NL. Born in the village of Frank, he left the country because his family members were immigrants from Germany and not welcome by local people. After coming to America, Gettman played three seasons as an outfielder for the Washington Senators and averaged .278 with eight home runs and seventy-eight RBIs in 197 games. After his productivity as a hitter declined in 1898 and 1899, Gettman’s career ended with the Senators and in professional baseball. Between 1900 and 1950, international athletes migrated to America from six other countries to play in the NL. In chronological order of their rookie year, these players and their countries were Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans of Cuba in 1911, Alfredo Cabrera of Spain in 1913, Henry Peploski of Poland in 1929, Hi Bithorn of Puerto Rico in 1942, Al Campanis of Greece in 1943, and Kurt Krieger of Austria in 1949. Following are the highlights of their accomplishments. Both mediocre ballplayers, infielder Rafael Almeida and outfielder Armando Marsans each spent less than five years on the rosters of the Cincinnati Reds. Marsans, who had more success as a player than did Almeida, violated the terms of his contract with the Reds in 1914 and joined the St. Louis Terriers of the FL. After two seasons there, he left the Terriers to play for the AL’s St. Louis Browns and then the New York Yankees.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 93

8/8/13 2:58 PM

94

Chapter 3

Meanwhile, Almeida finished playing for the Reds midway during the team’s 1913 season but later managed the Cuban national baseball team to a gold medal in the Central American Games of 1930. Born in the Canary Islands of Spain, Alfredo Cabrera played in only one game for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1913 and did not get a base hit while at bat. Nevertheless, he was an infielder on various amateur and professional baseball teams in Cuba from 1901 to 1920. Then in 1942, Cabrera received recognition for his athletic career in that country and became a member of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame. Infielder Henry Peploski of Poland played in six games for the NL Boston Braves in 1929. In total, he had two hits and struck out twice in ten times at bat. Peploski was the first of four players from Poland in the history of MLB. Thirteen years after Peploski’s career ended with the Braves, Hi Bithorn of Puerto Rico pitched in three seasons for the Chicago Cubs and then in another for the AL Chicago White Sox. Despite a sore arm, he won thirty-three games in 507 innings during his career with the Cubs. While in Mexico, a police officer killed Bithorn in 1952 over a misunderstanding about selling his car. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, his name appears on Hiram Bithorn Stadium. In September 1943, infielder Al Campanis of Kos, Greece, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played in seven games but hit only .200 with zero home runs and RBIs. During an interview in 1987 on the late-night ABC news program Nightline—that coincided with the fortieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut in MLB on April 15, 1947—Campanis, who formerly was a roommate of Robinson and was known for being close to him, spoke about race relations in baseball. Nightline newscaster Ted Koppel asked him why there were so few black managers and no black general managers in MLB at that time. Campanis’s reply was that blacks “may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager for these positions.” Elsewhere in the interview, Campanis said, “blacks are often poor swimmers because they don’t have the buoyancy.” A protest erupted the next morning about the interview and two days later, Campanis resigned as general manager of the Dodgers.13 After he signed a baseball contract as a free agent, Kurt Krieger of Traisen, Austria, played two years for the St. Louis Cardinals. With that team, his pitching record was 0–0, while batters had six hits and scored seven runs from him in five innings. Then in 1951, Krieger became the Cardinals’ batting practice pitcher. Unfortunately, he died at age fortythree from cancer at St. Mary’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. The next groups highlighted here are the first players from different foreign countries in the NL after 1950. Listed by country according to their rookie year, these athletes included Humberto Robinson

13_256_Jozsa.indb 94

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

95

of Panama in 1955, Ozzie Virgil of the Dominican Republic and Pat Scantlebury of the Canal Zone in 1956, Andre Rogers of the Bahamas in 1957, and Joe Christopher of the Virgin Islands in 1959. Other players following that group were Masanori Murakami of Japan in 1964, Chili Davis of Jamaica in 1981, Gerald Young of Honduras in 1987, Chan Ho Park of South Korea in 1994, Robin Jennings of Singapore in 1996, ChinFeng Chen of Taiwan in 2002, and Craig Stansberry of Saudi Arabia in 2007. In three seasons with the Milwaukee Braves and two with the Philadelphia Phillies, Humberto Robinson played in 204 innings of ninetyseven games and won only seven of them as a middle relief pitcher. Baseball fans and officials were proud of him when he refused to accept a bribe to fix a game in 1959. During that year, the 155-pound stringbean right-hander with a good curveball was on the Phillies staff when Harold “Boomie” Friedman, a former operator of a Philadelphia nightclub, approached him. Friedman reportedly offered Robinson $1,500 to fix a Phillies game in September against the Cincinnati Reds. Robinson, who maintains the “bribe was $300,” would not accept the offer that Friedman made to him at a hotel the day before the game. When police heard about the bribe, they arrested Friedman. Convicted after a oneday trial in June 1960, his sentence was two to five years in prison. As an excuse, the forty-two-year-old defendant said he was not trying to fix the game with the Reds but merely offering to lend Robinson some money. In fact, Friedman’s attorney argued that since Robinson had won only one game, there would be no sense in Friedman trying to fix any of them. Ozzie Virgil played several positions in games during his five seasons on three different NL teams. He had a .239 BA with seven home runs and forty RBIs in 181 games. After ending his career as a player, Virgil coached some seasons for the San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Mariners. During the winter months he played on teams in Puerto Rican and Dominican baseball leagues, which he would later manage. He also was a manager of professional baseball teams in Venezuela and Mexico. After playing a few seasons on teams in the Negro National and Cuban Winter Leagues, Patricio “Pat” Scantlebury of Gatun in the Canal Zone pitched for the Cincinnati Reds in 1956 based on a working agreement that the club had with the Havana Sugar Kings of the International League. For the Reds, his record was 0-1 with a 6.63 ERA in six games. Additionally, he had zero hits with two strikeouts as a batter. Although Scantlebury claimed to be only thirty, he was actually thirty-eight, much older than almost any rookie ever. Later in his life, he became a member of the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 95

8/8/13 2:58 PM

96

Chapter 3

Being the son of a famous cricket player, Andre Rogers was playing the game for the St. John’s College team when a man from Nassau, Bahamas, recommended him to officials of the New York Giants. As an infielder, he played four seasons each for the New York/San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs, and three for the Pittsburgh Pirates. During these eleven years, he had a .249 BA and hit forty-nine home runs with 245 RBIs in 854 games. Then in 1968, Rogers played for the Taiyo Whales in Japan but had a subpar performance in forty-nine games. Subsequently, Rogers retired in his hometown of Nassau, where he died in December 2004. While Pittsburgh Pirates’ superstar Roberto Clemente was recuperating from an injury in 1959, speedy outfielder Joe Christopher of the Virgin Islands replaced him in the lineup. In three seasons with the Pirates and then four with the New York Mets, Christopher had a .262 BA and hit twenty-nine home runs with 173 RBIs in 626 games. Moreover, he had the distinction of appearing in two perfect games. The first was a twelve-inning perfecto heartbreakingly lost in the thirteenth by Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix in 1959, and five years later Christopher played in another perfect game pitched by the Philadelphia Phillies’ Jim Bunning. Although he ended his U.S. professional baseball career in 1968 on teams in the AAA and AA minor leagues, four years later Christopher made a brief but insignificant comeback with a professional team in Mexico. As a relief pitcher born in Otsuki, Japan, Masanori Murakami played two seasons for the San Francisco Giants. In eighty-nine innings of fiftyfour games, he won five of them and had a 3.43 ERA. When Murakami considered returning to the Giants in 1966, some sports reporters in the Japanese media unfairly vilified him for being selfish and unpatriotic. Although the Giants offered to double his salary from $15,000 to $30,000 and bring his parents to the United States for a month, he decided to sign with Japan’s Nankai Hawks for an amount less than $30,000. Murakami seemed interested in playing for the Giants, but critics felt his father applied considerable pressure on him to leave the United States, especially when he found out that his son had a girlfriend there. After his career in baseball, Murakami became an announcer for the NHK public broadcasting organization in Japan. Nicknamed “Chili Bowl” because of his unique haircut, Jamaican Chili Davis performed as an outfielder for seven seasons with the San Francisco Giants and then several other seasons with AL teams. While at bat for the Giants, his BA was .267 and he hit 101 home runs with 418 RBIs in 874 games. He never led the league in any hitting statistics, but was consistently at twenty home runs and typically above the league average while at bat. In 2011, Davis served as the hitting coach of the Triple AInternational League Pawtucket Red Sox and one year later the Oakland Athletics hired him for the same job.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 96

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

97

Outfielder Gerald Young, who was a fast runner and good fielder, played a total of eight years with three different NL teams. In 640 games, he had a .246 BA and hit three home runs with 113 RBIs. Although Young did not hit with much power, he did draw walks and posted a .329 onbase percentage for his career in the majors. In retrospect, Young was born in the wrong era given his skills as a baseball player. It was during the 1901–1910 era of MLB that walks and stolen bases were relatively more valuable to teams than when Young played for the Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, and St. Louis Cardinals. After his MLB career ended in 1994, he remained active in baseball by playing on some independent, semiprofessional teams in the United States. Chan Ho Park, who once was a star on an Asian championship baseball team, pitched a total of fourteen years for four different teams in the NL. He won one hundred games in 1,577 innings and had a 3.88 ERA. After finishing his career in MLB, Park signed to play on Japan’s Orix Buffaloes in 2011. During his debut on April 15 with the Buffaloes, Park allowed three runs in a loss to the Rakuten Golden Eagles and injuries limited him to play in only a few games that season. In 2012, Park returned to South Korea, pitched for the Hanwha Eagles, and won five games. Nevertheless, Park attracted big crowds to his team’s home games because he was popular and one of the biggest names in the history of Korean baseball. On November 29, 2012, he retired at thirty-nine years old. Born in Singapore and selected by the Chicago Cubs in the thirty-third round of the 1991 amateur draft, infielder/outfielder Robin Jennings spent three years with the Cubs and split one more with the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds. While playing with these clubs, he had a .242 BA and hit three home runs and twenty RBIs in seventy-three games. After a few years in the minor leagues during the early 2000s, Jennings left professional baseball and worked for a strength and conditioning company. Then in 2007, he decided to make a comeback in baseball with Double-A minor league teams and later with a Triple-A club. Nevertheless, Jennings never returned to a team in MLB. Taiwan’s Chin-Fein Chen was an outfielder who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1999 free agent draft and made his debut with the team in 2002. He played in parts of four seasons, averaged .091 at bat, and hit two home runs in nineteen games. After his contract with the Dodgers organization expired in 2005, Chen returned to Taiwan and entered the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) draft. Selected first by the La New Bears, he was the MVP in the 2006 Taiwan Series won by the Bears in four games. In the 2007 CPBL season, Chen led the league with a .382 BA and finished second in home runs and fifth in RBIs. After hitting four home runs in the 2007 Taiwan Series, Chen was again the MVP.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 97

8/8/13 2:58 PM

98

Chapter 3

After being born in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where his father had worked for three years, Craig Stansberry’s family moved, taking him to the United States. Because he was a star infielder at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the Pittsburgh Pirates chose him in the fifth round of MLB’s 2003 amateur draft. For a few years, Stansberry spent time playing on minor league teams, but then the San Diego Padres claimed him off waivers. In three seasons with the Padres, he had a .333 BA with eight hits and three RBIs in twenty-four games. In 2009, he appeared in one game for the Padres, and later that year the club granted him free agency. The Toronto Blue Jays signed Stansberry in 2011, but as the Padres did, the Blue Jays allowed him an opportunity to become a free agent again. That ended his career in professional baseball. Based on the performances of these thirty foreign-born players from twenty different countries while on teams in the NL, the most successful of them was pitcher Jim McCormick of Scotland and outfielder/ designated hitter Chili Davis of Jamaica. McCormick appeared in and won more games than the other pitchers, and had a relatively low ERA during his ten years in the NL. Davis played in 2,436 games and had more hits, home runs, and RBIs than any of the other foreign-born infielders or outfielders. Thus, they were most valuable players in the group. Steroid Suspensions From 2005 to 2012, MLB penalized and suspended for a number of days or games thirteen international players on NL teams because they consumed or injected types of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and perhaps steroids during their careers (table A3.1). According to information published in sources of the sports literature, seven of these players were from the Dominican Republic, two from Venezuela, and one each from Cuba, Japan, Panama, and Puerto Rico. Their penalties for violating MLB’s drug policy were suspensions of ten days or twentyfive, fifty, or one hundred games. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s office announced their penalties. Because of this topic’s impact on baseball, next are facts and other information about these players and each of their suspensions.14 During October 2005, New York Mets’ pitcher Félix Heredia of the Dominican Republic became the eleventh player suspended by MLB when he tested positive for steroids. His penalty was ten days without pay. In a statement to a reporter at the New York Times, Heredia’s agent Martin Arburua said, “We’re trying to figure out exactly what it [steroids] is. Whatever it was, though, he [Heredia] did not knowingly take it. He wasn’t playing and had no reason to. He was trying to rehab and get

13_256_Jozsa.indb 98

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

99

back.” After the 2005 MLB season, Heredia signed a contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the team released him during spring training in 2006. Later that year, he made commitments with two other clubs but those failed to extend his career in MLB. After testing positive for PEDs while in spring training with the New York Mets, pitcher Yusaku Iriki of Japan was penalized fifty games by MLB in April 2006. Although Iriki did not respond to his suspension in the media, a spokesperson of the team said, “The Mets are obviously disappointed that a member of our organization has tested positive.” Dropped from the Mets’ roster in late 2006, Iriki spent the 2007 season in the U.S. minor leagues but then returned to Japan and signed a professional contract with the Yokohama Bay Stars. New York Mets and then San Francisco Giants’ pitcher Guillermo Mota of the Dominican Republic violated MLB’s drug policy twice. Given his positive tests, he was suspended fifty games as of November 2006 and another one hundred games in May of 2012. According to investigators and Commissioner Bud Selig’s office, Mota knew and willingly took a PED named Clenbuterol. Regarding his first suspension, Mota said in part, “I used extremely poor judgment and deserve to be held accountable. To my teammates and the entire Mets organization, I am sorry. To baseball fans everywhere, I understand that you are disappointed in me, and I feel terrible and I promise this is the first and last time that this will happen.” After Mota pitched in twenty innings of twenty-six games and won zero of them for the Giants in 2012, the club granted him free agency on October 29.15 After testing positive for PEDs, MLB suspended San Francisco Giants catcher Eliézer Alfonzo of Venezuela for fifty games on May 1, 2008. According to Alfonzo, “I made a mistake, and I want to apologize to my family, my teammates, the fans and Giants organization. I know what I did was wrong, and now I will pay the penalty. As a father, I now have to look my children in the eye and explain to them that I have made a big mistake.” One month after he became a free agent in November 2008, Alfonzo signed a contract with the NL San Diego Padres. During the 2009 season, he hit two home runs with eight RBIs in thirty-seven games. Granted free agency in late 2009 and again in 2010, he played one season as a catcher with the Seattle Mariners and then another with the Colorado Rockies. In August 2008, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher J. C. Romero of Puerto Rico tested positive for androstenedione, a substance banned by MLB, and was then suspended fifty games of the league’s 2009 season without pay. Regarding his suspension, Romero said, “I still cannot see where I did something wrong. There is nothing that should take away from the [World Series] rings of my teammates. I didn’t cheat. I tried to follow the

13_256_Jozsa.indb 99

8/8/13 2:58 PM

100

Chapter 3

[MLB] rules.” Since the suspension had cost him approximately $1.25 million of his contract, Romero sued Ergopharm Inc. for making the supplement and then sued the Vitamin Shoppe and General Nutrition Center for his lost salary and punitive damages. After serving his suspension, he played briefly in the U.S. minor leagues, returned to the Phillies in June 2009, and later pitched a few games for the Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals, and Baltimore Orioles.16 During 2003, Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez was allegedly among a group of 104 MLB players who tested positive for PEDs. Years later, while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he took a woman’s fertility drug named human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). According to a well-known drug dealer, some people use hCG to restart natural testosterone production after a steroid cycle. For violating MLB’s rules, the league suspended Ramirez for fifty games in 2009. According to Ramirez, “[A doctor] gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under this policy, that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now.” After playing several seasons with teams in the NL and AL and then one with a Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliate in Pennsylvania, infielder/outfielder Pablo Ozuna of the Dominican Republic tested positive for using drugs. On June 11, 2009, MLB suspended him for fifty games. Two months later, the Phillies released him, and that decision finished his career as a player in the big leagues. However, Ozuna signed with the Atlantic League’s Newark Bears in June 2010 and hit .294 in twenty-eight games. In April 2010, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez of the Dominican Republic received a fifty-game suspension from MLB for using Clomiphene, a banned PED. About his suspension, Volquez said, “As a follow up to our original consultation [with a doctor for medical advice], my wife and I visited another physician in the Dominican Republic to treat my [health] condition. He gave me a prescribed medication that unknowingly was a banned substance under MLB’s drug policy. This was a mistake and isolated incident. I was not trying to gain an advantage in my baseball career. I am embarrassed by this whole situation and apologize.” During the 2010 MLB season, Volquez won four games for the Reds and then five in 2011. Traded in December 2011 to the San Diego Padres, Volquez finished 11–11 in 2012.17 While catching for the Florida Marlins in August 2010, Ronny Paulino of the Dominican Republic received a fifty-game suspension for violating MLB’s drug policy. Paulino said he took a dietary supplement that, unbeknownst to him, contained a banned substance. After a mediocre

13_256_Jozsa.indb 100

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

101

performance for the Marlins that season, the club granted him free agency in December 2010. As a result, he signed a contact with the New York Mets for the 2011 season. While there, he played in seventy-eight games and hit two home runs with nineteen RBIs. When the Mets granted him free agency after the season, Paulino signed a contract to play with the Baltimore Orioles in 2012. During June 2012, MLB suspended Philadelphia Phillies infielder Freddy Galvis of Venezuela for fifty games because he tested positive for taking a metabolite of Clostebol, a synthetic anabolic androgenic steroid. As a second baseman that season for the Phillies, he had a .226 BA with three home runs, twenty-four RBIs, and a .363 slugging percentage in fifty-eight games. Despite a back injury before his suspension, Galvis’s performances at second base had impressed his coaches, teammates, and fans. After testing positive for high levels of testosterone, which suggested he used PEDs, MLB suspended San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera of the Dominican Republic for fifty games without pay on August 15, 2012. Initially, he seemed to accept and not challenge his punishment. However, information revealed a few days later indicated that after news of his positive test but before the actual results were reported, Cabrera had attempted to concoct an elaborate scheme to prove his innocence. He offered to pay so-called advisers a sum of money to publish a fake website advertising a topical cream containing the banned substance that he could then claim to have taken innocently. The plan was aborted before being fully implemented but not before the scheme had attracted the attention of federal investigators. The length of Cabrera’s suspension meant that he could only return to play that year if the Giants were in the second round of the postseason. Therefore, he was not eligible to win an NL batting title in 2012. After defeating the Detroit Tigers and winning the World Series, the Giants released Cabrera. The Toronto Blue Jays signed him to a two-year, $16 million contract for the 2013–2014 MLB seasons. MLB suspended San Diego Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal of Cuba for fifty games in November 2012 after he tested positive for testosterone, a banned PED. In a statement to the media, Grandal said, “I apologize to the fans, my teammates, and to the San Diego Padres. I was disappointed to learn of my positive test and under the Joint Drug Program, I am responsible for what I put into my body. I must accept responsibility for my actions and serve my suspension.” Because of when the tests occurred, Grandal’s suspension begins on the team’s first game of the 2013 season. During November 2012, Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz of Panama received a twenty-five-game suspension without pay after he

13_256_Jozsa.indb 101

8/8/13 2:58 PM

102

Chapter 3

tested positive for using amphetamines, a banned substance. Ruiz said this about his suspension, “I am sincerely regretful for my mistake in taking a prohibited stimulant. I apologize to my teammates, the Phillies organization and the Phillies fans. I look forward to returning to the field and working toward bringing a championship back to Philadelphia in 2013.” In the 2012 season, Ruiz set career highs in almost every offensive category, including BA, slugging percentage, hits, doubles, homers, RBIs, and total bases. Although he is among the top defensive catchers in the game, Ruiz has never won a GG Award because of competition from the St. Louis Cardinals’ Yadier Molina, who is one of baseball’s greatest alltime catchers. Salaries For cultural, demographic, and economic reasons, there has been a significant increase in demand for MLB players since the 1960s, when the AL and NL began to expand. New teams appeared in U.S. cities and in two provinces of Canada. In addition, national and international television networks decided to broadcast more of the leagues’ regular and postseason games across America and in regions of other countries. In response to the sport’s growing exposure, popularity, and prosperity, MLB franchises allocated more of their resources and financial assets to scouting, recruiting, hiring, and training talented amateur and semiprofessional ballplayers, including those from foreign nations. In different ways, the upward trend in demand for professional baseball in the United States and abroad caused the salaries of players to rise much faster and higher than the average salary in other occupations. That is, players’ minimum and average salaries, which were respectively $6,000 and $19,000 in 1967, increased to exceed $13,000 and $34,000 in 1972; $33,000 and $241,000 in 1982; and $109,000 and $1.03 million in 1992. Ten years later, their minimum and average salaries were approximately $200,000 and $2.34 million, and then in 2012, $414,000 and $3.30 million.18 Here we examine the reported salaries of foreign and Puerto Rican players on teams in the NL. Of the top one hundred players whose salaries exceeded $75 million during their careers as of 2012 and who played the majority of their years or most recent seasons in the NL, fifteen of them were born in foreign countries. Indeed, eleven, or 73 percent, of these foreigners earned more than $100 million during their lifetime in baseball. They include Pedro Martínez, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero, Alfonso Soriano, Albert Pujols, and Aramis Ramirez of the Dominican Republic; Carlos Lee of Panama; Bobby Abreu and Carlos Zambrano of Venezuela; Larry Walker of Canada; and Andruw Jones of Curaçao.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 102

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

103

Before they retire, Soriano, Pujols, Lee, Abreu, and Zambrano will increase their accumulated salaries by millions and perhaps surpass veteran Pedro Martínez’s total of $146.2 million. Meanwhile, former Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw Jones signed a $3.5 million, one-year contract to play in 2013 for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan’s Pacific League. As of 2012, the NL teams’ foreign ballplayers with total salaries between $75 million and $100 million in their careers were Javier Vazquez of Puerto Rico at $99.4 million, Rafael Furcal of the Dominican Republic at $86.6 million, Chan Ho Park of South Korea at $85.4 million, and Edgar Renteria of Colombia at $85.1 million. Except for Furcal, who played six years each for the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers and two for the St. Louis Cardinals, the other three have retired or do not play for a team in the NL. If he continues to excel as a shortstop, Rafael Furcal will earn more than $100 million in his lifetime as of 2013 or 2014. Of these players, four each were pitchers, infielders/outfielders, or outfielders; three performed exclusively as infielders; and none of them were catchers or designated hitters. The infielders/outfielders Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano, and Albert Pujols adapted and switched between positions in the infield and outfield either because they were replaced at their original position or they simply preferred playing one position over another and elected to make the change. In other words, they were competitive, multitalented, and smart athletes with skills to learn and excel at different positions. As of 2012, several immigrants on NL teams ranked among the top one hundred of all-time in single-season salaries. Specifically, those who earned more than $20 million in an MLB season included New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana of Venezuela in 2010–2012 and former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez of the Dominican Republic in 2009. Players with salaries between $19 million and $20 million in multiple single seasons were New York Mets outfielder Carlos Beltrán of Puerto Rico in 2009–2011 and Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano of the Dominican Republic in 2010–2011. Some earned from $18 million to $19 million in salary during one or more seasons. That group included the Mets’ Beltrán in 2008, Santana in 2009, and outfielder Jason Bay of Canada in 2011; the Dodgers’ Ramirez in 2010, the Cubs’ Soriano in 2012, and pitcher Carlos Zambrano of Venezuela in 2009–2011 with the Chicago Cubs and in 2012 with the Miami Marlins. Except for Ramirez, the other foreigners on the list of highest singleseason salaries continue to perform for teams in the NL. After surgery on his arm that caused him to miss the 2011 season, one year later Santana pitched in 117 innings of twenty-one games for the Mets and won six of them with a 4.85 ERA. Being thirty-three years old, Santana is a

13_256_Jozsa.indb 103

8/8/13 2:58 PM

104

Chapter 3

twelve-year veteran near retirement. Zambrano, meanwhile, pitched 132 innings in thirty-five games for the Marlins in 2012 and won seven of them with an ERA of 4.49. Although he was thirty-one years old that year, Zambrano may be productive in future seasons if he throws his fastball low in the strike zone and the Marlins score more runs for him. As discussed in chapter 2 for the AL, it is interesting to evaluate the relative value or worth of professional baseball players, including those born in foreign nations, by comparing their annual salaries with any contribution they made to the performance of their team during a 162game regular season. To make this comparison, one way is to determine a player’s salary as a percentage of his team’s payroll and any contribution, expressed as a percent, to his team’s wins and losses. If these percentages are different, then a player is either valuable and likely underpaid or not very valuable and probably overpaid. If the percentages are equal, a player is worth his salary in contributions. The following is an evaluation of a few foreign-born players on teams in the NL based on their salaries and performances in the 2012 season. Despite each of them earning at least $4 million in salaries, Philadelphia Phillies infielder Placido Polanco of the Dominican Republic, Washington Nationals pitcher Chien-Ming Wang of Taiwan, and Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens of Curaçao underperformed in 2012. Thus, their clubs overpaid them. Polanco played in ninety games but had a .257 BA and hit only two home runs with nineteen RBIs. Meanwhile, Wang and Jurrjens both pitched in fewer than fifty innings of less than twelve games and won only a few of them with their ERAs greater than 6.60. In contrast, there were very valuable players relative to their salaries. In fact, teams underpaid Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero of Venezuela at $5.9 million and Colorado Rockies pitcher Rafael Betancourt of Panama at $4 million. While Montero had a .286 BA and hit fifteen home runs with eighty-eight RBIs in 141 games, Betancourt had thirtyone saves and a 2.81 ERA in sixty games. Some foreign-born players, with salaries at or near the minimum of $480,000, performed above expectations in 2012. Consequently, their teams underpaid them. These include Houston Astros pitcher Wilton Lopez of Nicaragua, New York Mets infielder Ruben Tejada of Panama, and Chicago Cubs infielder Luis Valbuena of Venezuela. Lopez pitched in sixty-six innings of sixty-four games and won six of them with a 2.17 ERA. Although they each earned less than $500,000 in salary, Tejada and Valbuena were valuable players for different reasons. Tejada played in 114 games and averaged .289 with twenty-five RBIs. Although Valbuena had only a .219 BA, he played in ninety games, hit four home runs with twenty-eight RBIs, and made very few errors as a utility infielder.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 104

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

105

Meanwhile, other foreign players had salaries less than $500,000 yet performed below expectations, thus their teams overpaid them. This group included three pitchers. They were the Milwaukee Brewers’ Lendy Castillo and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Rubby De La Rosa of the Dominican Republic and the St. Louis Cardinals’ Fernando Salas of Mexico. Castillo pitched sixteen innings and won no games, with a 7.88 ERA; De La Rosa pitched less than one inning and had an ERA of 27.00; and Salas played in fifty-eight innings of sixty-five games but had a 4.30 ERA. Relative to their salaries, these pitchers underperformed for their teams during the 2012 season. Based on these and many other examples, foreign-born players with high and low salaries may either be worth more or less than their contribution in wins and losses to NL teams. Indeed, this occurred in 2012 for players in all positions. This can occur due to various factors including players getting injured or experiencing personal problems. In other cases, they may simply have had bad luck in their games and failed to be productive. Other Experiences During their years on teams in the NL, a few international players had other interesting and unique cultural, personal, and/or social experiences. Some, after ending their careers as ballplayers, joined NL franchises as employees of teams’ baseball operations during 2012. For example, former infielder Junior Noboa of the Dominican Republic was the Arizona Diamondbacks’ vice president of Latin American operations, veteran pitcher Rigo Beltrán of Mexico became a pitching coach for the Colorado Rockies’ High Class-A California League Bakersfield Blaze, and retired infielder/outfielder Luis Salazar of Venezuela served as a manager of the Atlanta Braves’ Double-A team in Lynchburg, Virginia. Two other former ballplayers from the Dominican Republic were in baseball operations of teams. Mariano Duncan was a hitting coach of the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A Southern League affiliate in Tennessee and Ozzie Virgil Jr. was an international catching instructor of the New York Mets. According to information in the Baseball America 2012 Directory, the majority of retired foreign-born professional baseball players had jobs as international scouts of MLB teams.19 Similarly to other NL franchises during the 2000s, the San Francisco Giants had problems after they signed talented young players from such countries as the Dominican Republic. According to one publication, the Giants paid $1.3 million and $475,000 each for two sixteen-year-old ballplayers but, for some reason, there is no record of their performances on teams in the U.S. minor leagues. Besides them, the Giants signed a Dominican

13_256_Jozsa.indb 105

8/8/13 2:58 PM

106

Chapter 3

player for $2.1 million in 2006 and two years later, another for $2.5 million. After playing four seasons in the minor leagues, the former player was unable to get a visa and return to the U.S. because of a murder charge at home, while the latter player has developed very slowly in the Giants’ farm system. To an extent, these experiences indicate the financial risks and actual results of investing in talented but behaviorally immature foreignborn athletes.20 In the 2012 season, there were small to moderate differences in the number of international players on rosters of teams in each league by nation and position. Across nations, for example, the NL had more of them from Canada, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and Puerto Rico than did the AL. However, unlike the AL, there were no NL teams with foreignborn players from Australia, Brazil, Italy, Jamaica, South Korea, and Taiwan. Regarding positions, AL teams had more foreign-born pitchers and infielders and fewer outfielders than those on NL clubs. The leagues had the same number of catchers. The NL does not use designated hitters and consisted of fifteen teams in 2013 and not sixteen as in 2012, so these differences in distributions of nations and positions between the two leagues were relatively minor. In April of the 2013 season, there were small differences in the number of immigrants on rosters of teams and their positions among the two leagues’ ED, CD, and WD. Across teams in the NL, the Cubs and Brewers in the CD and Giants and Rockies in the WD had the most foreign players, while fewer than eleven each were on rosters of the Marlins and Nationals in the ED, Pirates and Cardinals in the CD, and Diamondbacks and Dodgers in the WD. Similar results occurred in the distribution of players among different teams in divisions of the AL. Across four player positions in the NL, WD teams had the most foreign-born catchers, infielders, and outfielders but the fewest pitchers compared to teams in other divisions. In the AL, the largest numbers of foreign pitchers were in the CD while the WD had the fewest number of catchers but the most outfielders and designated hitters. In both leagues, the largest number of international players on teams were pitchers and then infielders, outfielders, and catchers.

NOTES 1. For the history of professional baseball associations, leagues, and their teams in the nineteenth century, see “National Association of Base Ball Players,” www .baseball-reference.com (18 December 2012), “National Association of Professional Base Ball Players,” www.wikipedia.org (18 December 2012), and the introduction in the history section of the Official Major League Fact Book 2005 Edition (St. Louis, MO: Sporting News, 2005), 170.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 106

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

107

2. Besides William Hulbert, Al Spalding was an organizational genius during baseball’s formative years. After successfully pitching for the Chicago White Stockings in the NA and then a season in the NL, Spalding started a sporting goods business in 1876. He was president of the White Stockings organization when the club won NL pennants in 1882, 1885, and 1886. Two years later, Spalding staged the first baseball world tour, traveling with his team to such exotic places as Australia, Egypt, and Italy. See “Al Spalding,” www.baseballhall.org (20 December 2012). 3. See chapter 20, “Expansion Teams in the Major Leagues,” in Frank P. Jozsa Jr., Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime as Big Business (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), 197–204. The percentage of immigrant players in MLB for various years is available in the book’s chapter 13, titled “America’s Teams Demand Foreign Players,” in “Opening Day Rosters Feature 229 Players Born Outside the U.S.,” www .mlb.com (29 October 2012) and “Percentage of Foreign Players Rises,” www .espn.go.com (29 October 2012), and in a report by Stuart Anderson and L. Brian Andrew, Coming to America: Immigrants, Baseball and the Contributions of ForeignBorn Players to America’s Pastime (Arlington, VA: National Foundation for American Policy, October 2006). 4. The most accessible, accurate, and useful information, including details about such MLB awards as Batting Champion, Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, and Rolaids Relief pitcher is the website www.baseball-reference.com. For biographies of players and others in the Baseball Hall of Fame, see them and their performances in www.baseballhall.org, www.baseball-almanac.com, www.mlb .com, and the sources in table 3.3. 5. The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame gives the Tip O’Neill Award to the Canadian baseball player judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to the highest ideals of the game of baseball. Former MLB player Larry Walker won it in 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994–95, and 1997–98. See “Tip O’Neill Award,” www.baseball-reference.com (1 March 2013). 6. The Silver Slugger Award, formally called the Hillerich & Bradsby Silver Slugger Award, goes to the best hitter at each position in both the National and American Leagues. The manufacturer of the Louisville Slugger bat, Hillerich & Bradsby, started it in 1980. MLB coaches and managers vote for the award but cannot vote for a player on their team. For its history, see “The Silver Slugger Award,” www.baseball-reference.com (1 March 2013). 7. Historical data about MLB’s Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards is in “Rawlings Gold Glove Award,” www.wikipedia.org (23 December 2012), “National League Gold Glove Award Winners,” www.baseball-reference.com (23 December 2012), “Silver Slugger Award,” www.wikipedia.org (23 December 2012), and “Silver Slugger Award Winners―National League,” www.baseballreference.com (23 December 2012). 8. See “2012 Hall of Fame Voting,” www.baseball-reference.com (19 December 2012), “2013 Official Hall of Fame Ballot,” www.baseball-reference.com (19 December 2012), Teddy Mitrosilis, “Foreign-Born Players in Baseball’s Hall of Fame,” www.thepostgame.com (5 November 2012), and each player’s profile at www.baseballhall.org. 9. Pitcher Harry Wright from the United Kingdom entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953 as a pioneer/executive and not as a player. Germany’s Barney

13_256_Jozsa.indb 107

8/8/13 2:58 PM

108

Chapter 3

Dreyfuss became a member of the Hall of Fame in 2008 as a pioneer/executive. Between 1971 and 2001, fifteen players from the Negro Leagues entered the Hall of Fame. Cuban Martin Dihigo is the only one from a foreign country. 10. These players were in “2012 National League All-Star Roster,” www.espn .go.com (27 November 2012). To read about their performances on teams in MLB, recommended websites are www.baseball-almana.com, www.baseball-reference. com, and www.mlb.com. 11. The sources for twenty-game wins by pitchers in the history of the NL are “20 Wins Club: 1890–1900,” www.baseball-almanac.com (7 January 2013); “20 Wins Club: 1976–2012,” www.baseball-almanac.com (7 January 2013); and Sporting News, Official Major League Baseball Fact Book 2005 Edition (St. Louis, MO: Sporting News, 2005), 384–87, 389. 12. Besides information and statistics about their performances at www.baseball-reference.com and www.mlb.com, see “Famous First Foreign-Born Baseball Players,” www.baseball-almanac.com (29 October 2012) and “Player Profiles,” www.baseballlibrary.com (4 December 2012). 13. To read about this incident and its implications and results, see “The Legacy of Al Campanis,” www.espn.go.com (7 January 2013) and Dave Zirin, “25 Years since Al Campanis Shocked Baseball: What’s Changed and What Hasn’t,” www .thenation.com (7 January 2013). 14. Information is available about this topic in “Steroid Suspensions,” www .baseball-almanac.com (26 November 2012) and “List of Major League Baseball Players Suspended for Performance-Enhancing Drugs,” www.wikipedia.org (26 November 2012). Other interesting articles about it are Ronald Blum, “Suspended Players Are Largely Latino,” Charlotte Observer (5 May 2005), 5C, Steve Fainaru, “Baseball Ponders Drug Testing of Foreign Prospects,” Washington Post (2 July 2003), D1, “Miscommunications? Language Problems Complicate Drug Policy for Latins,” www.cnnsi.com (11 May 2005), and “MLB Steroid Rules Trip Up Latin Americans,” www.cnnsi.netscape.com (6 May 2005). 15. Although not a steroid, Clenbuterol helps eliminate adipose tissues or excess fats due to its thermogenic property. It helps to increase the metabolism of the body and process the conversion of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into useful energy. The drug boosts muscle growth, sucks out excess fats caused by some aromatizing steroids, and has minimal side effects. See “Clenbuterol,” www .e-steroid.com (1 March 2013). 16. Androstenedione increases the production of the hormone testosterone to enhance athletic performance, increase energy, keep red blood cells healthy, enhance recovery and growth from exercise, and increase sexual desire and performance. For its effects, see “Androstenedione,” www.webmd.com (1 March 2013). 17. Clomiphene citrate is a drug used to treat infertility. When used by men, it helps to boost libido as well as increase sperm count, thereby increasing the chances for successful fertilization. See “Clomiphene Citrate Clomid,” www.38X30.com (1 March 2013). 18. Some sources for this data are “MLB Average Salary Up to $3.2 Million,” Charlotte Observer (8 December 2012), 3C, “Highest Career and Single-Season Salaries,” www.baseball-reference.com (7 December 2012), and “2012 MLB Salaries by Team,” www.usatoday.com (7 December 2012).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 108

8/8/13 2:58 PM

National League Immigrant Players

109

19. See Josh Leventhal, ed., Baseball America 2012 Directory (Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2012). For each MLB franchise, there is a section on ownership and another on baseball operations. There is also information and data about the minor leagues, independent leagues, and other leagues and organizations. 20. These and similar experiences are reported, for example, in Henry Schulman, “Tapping Foreign Markets,” San Francisco Chronicle (1 October 2007), B5; Tim Wendel, “Manhunt,” Washingtonian magazine (April 2007), 70–73; Buster Olney, “Baseball: Mets Make Investment in International Market,” New York Times (18 December 1997), 5; “Dominican Teenager Signs with New York Mets For $1.4 Million,” www.usatoday.com (15 July 2005).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 109

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 110

8/8/13 2:58 PM

4

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

I

n professional baseball, a number of coaches are members of the supporting staff. For the most part, they assist a field manager (or simply manager) who determines the lineup, decides how and when to substitute players, and makes other specific decisions. In major and minor leagues, only a few coaches may be available to assist the manager in organizing and operating a team during a baseball season. While managing the New York Giants in 1909, John McGraw recruited and hired the first full-time coaches in Major League Baseball. Arlie Latham and Wilbert Robinson, who were former players on National League teams and friends of McGraw, assisted him with managing operations. By the 1920s, most MLB teams had two full-time coaches, although managers usually doubled up and served as the third base coach. Such specialists as bullpen, catching, hitting, and pitching coaches were rarely on rosters of teams during these years.1 By the early 1950s, the majority of big-league clubs had between three and five coaches, while managers increasingly performed their duties from the team’s dugout. Thus, the coaches were usually, but not always, pitching, bullpen, first base, and third base coaches. Then from the 1960s into the 2000s, the staff of MLB teams included batting, bench, and several other types of coaches. Due to the specialization of skills in the modern era, MLB restricts the number of staff in uniform to six coaches and one manager.

111

13_256_Jozsa.indb 111

8/8/13 2:58 PM

112

Chapter 4

COACHING POSITIONS The bench coach is a relatively new but important and necessary staff position in professional baseball. Most likely second in command to the manager, this coach serves as an advisor who makes recommendations and suggestions about strategies, including ideas and tactics to help a manager win games. If a team’s manager is ejected from, suspended, or simply unable to attend a game for some reason, the bench coach replaces and makes decisions for him. Also, if a manager resigns or is fired during a season, the bench coach will likely be promoted to interim manager. In MLB, a bench coach’s specific responsibilities are to help managers schedule daily or weekly practices for players, assist with stretching routines and warm-ups before a game, and coordinate other activities involving games in spring training, the season, and during a postseason. When their team is at bat, two coaches are on the field. Stationed in designated areas adjacent to first and third base, they are known as the first base and third base coach. These men direct runners on first, second, and/or third base, help prevent pickoffs by pitchers, and relay signals from a manager in the dugout to batters and any runners on base. While a first base coach determines whether a batter should or should not stop at first base after a hit, he also signals to a runner already on first to advance or fake it and not advance to second base. Meanwhile, a third base coach has additional responsibilities. These include giving signals for runners to remain at their base or sending them from second to third base and then to home plate. In addition, he makes critical split-second decisions about whether to score a runner on a hit or fly ball into the outfield, and evaluates the arm strength of the opposing team’s fielders with respect to the speed and position of his team’s base runners. A hitting coach, as the name indicates, helps players to improve their form, style, and technique at bat. For example, he monitors their bat swings in games throughout the season and advises them how to change it if necessary. Additionally, this coach oversees players’ performances in batting cages and at pregame batting practices. Hitting coaches are also using computers and video technology to analyze their team’s batters and to evaluate the tactics of opposing pitchers. Coaches are thus able to observe current and potential problems in hitters’ swings and immediately correct them after analysis. An MLB pitching coach mentors and trains a team’s pitchers. He advises the manager about the ability of pitchers and the condition of their throwing arms, and serves as an advisor for pitchers during games. When a manager makes a visit to a team’s pitcher on the ball field, he will make a pitching change and/or review the situation with infielders and the

13_256_Jozsa.indb 112

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

113

catcher. However, to discuss other things like throwing mechanics and/ or how to get a particular batter out, a pitching coach will typically visit the mound. These coaches were likely former major or minor league pitchers. Unlike a pitching coach, the bullpen coach assists and works primarily with relief pitchers and perhaps catchers in a team’s bullpen. Rather than visiting with and advising pitchers in the dugout during innings of games, he is in the team’s bullpen with relief pitchers that may or may not be warming up to prepare and enter the game. However, similarly to a pitching coach, the bullpen coach is either a former major or minor league pitcher or had experience as a catcher. Professional baseball teams also employ individuals to train players in other types of activities and improve their skills. These staff positions usually but not always include the word “coach” in their titles. Generally, those who work with and train players in other activities do not dress in a uniform during games, since MLB restricts the number of these coaches. A typical MLB team employs an athletic trainer and a strength and conditioning coach. Besides them, other types of coaching positions may include a bullpen catcher, batting practice pitcher, assistant hitting coach, minor league instruction coordinator, and a special assistant. The following sections of this chapter reveal, in brief, the names, home countries, and experiences of foreign-born individuals and Puerto Ricans who were coaches and managers on teams in the American League and National League during MLB’s 2012 regular season and perhaps in games of the postseason. This discussion includes these coaches’ and managers’ role and impact, if any, on teams and their players and fans.2

FOREIGN COACHES American League Teams Bench Coach Three years after Puerto Rican Sandy Alomar Jr. retired as a player of the AL Cleveland Indians in 2007, he became a bench coach of the club for Dominican manager Manny Acta. When the Indians fired Acta a week before the end of the 2012 season, Alomar replaced him as interim manager. During his very brief tenure, the team won three of its final six games. In 2013, veteran Terry Francona will manage the Indians. As such, he appointed Alomar to be the team’s bench coach. Sandy Alomar Jr. played with the Indians from 1990 to 2000, was selected to six AL all-star teams, and caught the third most games in the 112-year history of the franchise.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 113

8/8/13 2:58 PM

114

Chapter 4

Cuban Chino Cadahia was the pitching coach of the Triple A-International League (AAA-IL) Salem Redbirds in 1984–1985 and then became a manager of teams in the Texas Rangers’ farm system for several years. In fact, Cadahia was former catcher Ivan Rodriguez’s first manager in the minor leagues and assigned him the nickname “Pudge.” Cadahia was also the Atlanta Braves’ roving minor league catching instructor in 1996–1997 and the club’s minor league field coordinator from 1998 to 2006. He was the bench coach for the Atlanta Braves in 2007 and five years later, was employed in that position with the AL Kansas City Royals. After Dominican Tony Peña’s eighteen-year playing career ended in 1997, he joined the Chicago White Sox and then the Houston Astros organization as a minor league manager of the 1998 Rookie-Arizona League (R-AZL) White Sox and the 1999–2001 AAA-IL New Orleans Zephyrs. He spent more than a month as the Astros’ bench coach and in May 2002 became manager of the Kansas City Royals. Peña was widely praised for leading the Royals to a rare winning season, and in 2003 he won the AL Manager of the Year Award. In the next season, however, the Royals sank into mediocrity within the league’s Central Division (CD). As a result, Peña left the franchise in frustration during early 2005 and the team scrambled to find a replacement for him. In 2006, he joined the New York Yankees to coach its players. Although Peña, along with former players’ Don Mattingly and Joe Girardi, was a candidate on the short list to replace Joe Torre as the Yankees’ manager after the 2007 season, the job became Girardi’s and Peña returned to being the club’s bench coach. First Base Coach During his twenty-year career in MLB with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves, Dominican Rafael Belliard compiled a .977 fielding percentage while playing at second base, third base, and shortstop. He was a member of eight teams that won their division and the Braves’ World Series championship club in 1995. After his playing career ended in 1999 while on a team in the independent Northern League, Belliard became a roving minor league infield coach within the Braves organization from 2000 to 2005. When another opportunity to coach opened, he left the Braves and coached at first base for the AL Detroit Tigers from 2006 to 2012. After signing a contract in August 1973 with the Cleveland Indians as a sixteen-year-old free agent, Dominican Alfredo Griffin played twenty years professionally, including from 1976 to 1993 in MLB. As a member of five different teams, he was in two AL and one NL championship series

13_256_Jozsa.indb 114

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

115

and three World Series, and won an AL Gold Glove (GG) Award at shortstop in 1985. During 1996–1997, Griffin was a coach with the Toronto Blue Jays organization, and since 2000, he has been a first base coach with the Los Angeles Angels. Because of his ability, experience, and knowledge, Griffin contributes in a positive way to the performances of the Angels in the AL West Division (WD).3 Third Base Coach Cuban Eddie Rodriguez was a coach with the Los Angeles Angels organization from 1983 to 1997. During these years, he served in the franchise’s farm system as a player/coach, player/manager, manager, roving defense coordinator, and field coordinator. Nevertheless, after spending several years in different coaching positions with other minor and major league clubs besides the U.S. Olympic baseball team in 2000, Rodriguez began the 2010 MLB season as the Kansas City Royals’ first base coach. Later in the season, he moved across the field to coach at third base. Given his thirty years of experience in professional baseball, Eddie Rodriguez has been an asset to the Royals and especially productive while coaching first and then third base. After playing parts of eleven seasons with five different MLB clubs, Puerto Rican Luis Rivera ended his career as a player in 1998. Then, he spent six years coaching and managing players in the Cleveland Indians’ development system, and led the High Class-A Carolina League (HCA-CARL) Kinston Indians to a winning record in 2005 and into the finals of the league’s championship series. To become a coach of an MLB team, he joined the Toronto Blue Jays organization in late 2005 and made his debut as a coaching assistant in 2011. One year later, he was the Blue Jays’ third base coach and performed well enough to return to that position in the 2013 MLB season. Hitting Coach As a batter on MLB teams, Jamaican Chili Davis did not hit twenty-five home runs in a season until he had been in the league more than a decade. In addition, he was thirty-three years old before getting one hundred RBIs during a season. Nevertheless, he played nineteen years and had more than 400 at bats in sixteen of them. Although Davis never led the AL in any major hitting category, he was consistent year after year with about twenty home runs and a Batting Average (BA) that typically was higher than the league’s average. As of 2007, his career totals for home runs and RBIs had put him in the top eighty of all time. After playing on consecutive World Series championship teams with the New York Yankees, Davis retired after the 1999 season. In 2003, he

13_256_Jozsa.indb 115

8/8/13 2:58 PM

116

Chapter 4

was a hitting coach for the Australian National Team and then the Los Angeles Dodgers hired him as a part-time instructor in its fall instructional league in 2010. One year later, he became the hitting coach of the AAA-IL Pawtucket Red Sox. Because of Davis’s experience as a player and his knowledge of batting, Pawtucket led all IL teams in on-base and slugging percentages, runs scored, and home runs. In 2012, the AL Oakland A’s hired Chili Davis to be the club’s hitting coach. Pitching Coach Juan Nieves of Puerto Rico was an effective pitcher while in the AL Milwaukee Brewers’ rotation during the mid-1980s. In April 1987, he threw a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles and became the secondyoungest player in MLB history to accomplish that feat and thus far, the only Brewers player to do it. However, his promising career ended when he suffered a serious arm injury while pitching in the following season. From 1992 to 1996, Nieves was a pitching coach in the New York Yankees organization and then had the same role in the Chicago White Sox farm system from 1999 to 2007. One year later, he was the White Sox bullpen coach and remained in that position until the end of the 2012 season. In 2013, the Boston Red Sox hired him to be the club’s pitching coach and support its new manager, John Farrell. Bullpen Coach Since his playing career ended with the Kansas City Royals in 1983, Dominican pitcher Bill Castro has held various staff positions in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization. He was a scout from 1985 to 1987 and then two years later, the Brewers’ minor league pitching coordinator. In 1992, Castro became a Brewers coach and his relationship with the team continued for seventeen years. During most MLB seasons, he was the club’s bullpen coach but also spent part of 2002 as its pitching coach. Although Castro began the 2009 season as the Brewers’ pitching coach, the club fired him in August because his staff underperformed. After being pitching coach of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (AAA-PCL) Nashville Sounds for one season, the Baltimore Orioles hired Bill Castro to be their bullpen coach in 2012. After pitching twelve seasons for four different MLB clubs including the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians, Jaime Navarro of Puerto Rico joined the Newark Bears team in the independent Atlantic League and played there in the 2001 and 2003 seasons. During 2003, he also spent time playing in Mexico and briefly pitched for the AAA-IL Louisville Bats, which is in the farm system of the Cincinnati Reds. Then, Navarro

13_256_Jozsa.indb 116

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

117

played baseball three years on teams in Italy but decided to return to the United States and serve as the pitching coach of such minor league teams as the Low Class-A Midwest League (LCA-ML) Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 2008, High Class–A California League (HCA-CAL) Desert Mavericks in 2009, and AAA-IL Tacoma Rainiers in 2010. One year later, the AL Seattle Mariners hired him to be their bullpen coach. Other Coaches After serving as a replacement player for the New York Yankees during the MLB work stoppage in 1994–1995, Cuban Rudy Árias was a bullpen coach for the Yankees and Florida Marlins during the mid-1990s and then for the Baltimore Orioles from 1997 to 2007. For the next three years, he coached the unaffiliated Winnipeg Goldeyes in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. In 2011, Árias left the Goldeyes, returned to the Orioles, and became a bullpen catcher for the club. Venezuelan Armando Camacaro played nine seasons in the minor leagues for teams in the Cleveland Indians organization. In 418 games, he had a .224 BA with twenty-two home runs and 150 RBIs. From 2010 to 2012, Camacaro served as a member of the Indians coaching staff. His duties included catching starting and relief pitchers in the club’s bullpen, throwing batting practice to players, and assisting other Indians coaches with activities relative to their positions with the club. Similar to Armando Camacaro, Dominican Francisco Morales was a bullpen catcher and on the Cleveland Indians coaching staff during 2012. Actually, Morales’s career as a coach began in 2005 with the Arizona Diamondbacks in their Dominican Republic academy. Two years later, he was hitting coach for the Short-Season A Northwest League (SSA-NORWL) Yakima Bears baseball club. After coaching for the Diamondbacks’ LCA-ML South Bend Silver Hawks team from 2008 to 2010, Morales left there to join and coach in the Cleveland Indians organization. Venezuelan Roman Rodriguez signed a contract as a nondrafted free agent in 1988 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and spent seven years playing in the Pirates’ farm system. Following his career in the minor leagues, he served as the Kansas City Royals’ bullpen catcher from 1997 to 2000 and during the 2001 season with the Boston Red Sox. Since 2002, he has been a bullpen catcher in the New York Yankees organization. In addition to his catching responsibilities, Rodriguez assists other Yankees’ coaches by preparing charts of specific types of pitches made during games. After six years pitching for the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (renamed Tampa Bay Rays), Cuban Ariel Prieto played for different teams in the minor leagues until 2005. After being unable to return to MLB, he spent the 2009–2011 baseball seasons as the pitching coach for

13_256_Jozsa.indb 117

8/8/13 2:58 PM

118

Chapter 4

the Rookie-Arizona League (R-AZL) Athletics. Following the 2011 season, Prieto became the pitching coach of the Athletics’ Short-Season A New York-Penn League (SSA-NYPL) Vermont Lake Monsters for one year and then a coach for the AL Oakland Athletics. Dominican Tony Fernandez was a five-time all-star and winner of four consecutive GG Awards during his seventeen-year career with seven different MLB clubs. Primarily a shortstop, his .979 fielding percentage ranks sixth all-time of those players with at least 1,000 games at that position. Honored by the Toronto Blue Jays for his “Level of Excellence” as a ballplayer, Fernandez became a special assistant for the Texas Rangers. Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1995, Canadian Alex Andreopoulos spent eight seasons with minor league teams of the Brewers, Cleveland Indians, Montreal Expos, and St. Louis Cardinals organizations. In 525 games, he had a .288 BA with thirty-seven home runs and 268 RBIs. Since 2003, Andreopoulos has been a bullpen catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays. National League Teams Bench Coach After coaching high school athletes in various sports, Cuban Carlos Tosca joined the New York Yankees organization in 1978. Besides coaching and managing minor league teams of the Yankees, he spent time in similar positions with the Kansas City Royals and Florida Marlins farm systems. In 1998, Tosca was on the Arizona Diamondbacks’ coaching staff, spent three seasons with the club, and then became a coach in the Atlanta Braves’ organization in 2001. One year later, he joined the Toronto Blue Jays and for more than two years, was the club’s manager. In 2005, Tosca returned to the Diamondbacks, became the club’s third base coach, and later was the bench coach of the Marlins. Fired from that position in 2010, he followed Fredi González to the Atlanta Braves. In 2011, González succeeded Braves manager Bobby Cox and chose Tosca as the team’s bench coach. First Base Coach During June 2010, Baltimore Orioles third base coach Juan Samuel of the Dominican Republic replaced Dave Trembley to become interim manager of the team. However, when the Orioles appointed Buck Showalter to be the team’s manager as of early August, Samuel declined to coach anymore at third base. Instead, he accepted another position with the Orioles organization. It was to focus on and complete special assignments. Soon

13_256_Jozsa.indb 118

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

119

thereafter, the Philadelphia Phillies hired him to be their third base coach in 2011. Interestingly, Samuel was the thirty-fourth person in franchise history to play for and coach the Phillies. After spending fourteen years playing with eight different MLB teams, Panama’s Roberto Kelly ended his career in 2000 and became a minor league coach in the San Francisco Giants organization. In addition, he was the original manager of Panama’s team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC). However, before any WBC games actually started, he withdrew as Panama’s manager because amateur and professional clubs were not permitting their top players to join Kelly’s team. Between 2005 and 2007, he was manager of the Low Class-A South Atlantic League (LCA-SAL) Augusta Green Jackets team, won a Manager of the Year Award, and was later promoted to hitting and first base coach of the Giants. During the Giants’ recent season, Kelly coached at first base.4 Third Base Coach After spending the 1996–2005 baseball seasons as a player with various teams in the U.S. minor leagues, Puerto Rican Joey Espada became hitting coach of the LCA-SAL Greensboro Grasshoppers in 2006, and one year later of the High Class-A Florida State League (HCA-FSL) Jupiter Hammerheads. In 2008–2009, he was the Florida Marlins’ minor league infield coordinator before his promotion to Miami to become their third base coach. In 2013, Espada coached the Puerto Rican national baseball team in the WBC. José Oquendo, a native of Puerto Rico, became the first NL player since 1918 to play all nine positions during a season, in 1988. After retiring as an infielder in 1995, two years later he became a field instructor in the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system, managed the minor league affiliate SSA-NYPL New Jersey Cardinals in 1998, and became the third base coach of the Cardinals in 1999. Interestingly, Oquendo was manager of the Puerto Rican national teams in the 2006 and 2009 WBCs and of the winning World Team at the MLB Futures Game during the 2009 all-star week in St. Louis. This is his thirteenth year being a third base coach of a MLB team. Hitting Coach Despite batting only .220 with fifteen home runs and fifty-three RBIs in 182 games while playing seven years in MLB, Hensley Meulens of Curaçao coached the Rookie-Appalachian League (R-APPL) Bluefield Orioles in 2003–2004. During these years, he was also on the Netherlands’ team

13_256_Jozsa.indb 119

8/8/13 2:58 PM

120

Chapter 4

coaching staff in the World Baseball Cup and Olympics. Meulens served as hitting coach of the AAA-IL Indianapolis Indians for four seasons and in 2009 was a member of the Netherlands’ staff at the WBC and hitting coach of the AAA-PCL Fresno Grizzlies. In 2010, Meulens became hitting coach of the San Francisco Giants, was crowned a knight in the Netherlands by the government in 2012, and then was named manager of that country’s baseball team in the 2013 WBC. Bullpen Coach Nicaraguan Dennis Martínez pitched twenty-three years in MLB, won 245 games, and retired as a player in 1998. He was a pitching coach for teams in the minor leagues including the Rookie-Gulf Coast League (R-GCL) Cardinals in 2007, HCA-FSL Palm Beach Cardinals in 2008–2009, DoubleA Texas League (AA-TL) Springfield Cardinals in 2010, and the Palm Beach Cardinals again in 2011–2012. The following year, Martínez became bullpen coach of the Houston Astros and their new manager, Bo Porter. Besides these assignments, he served as a Minister of Sport in Nicaragua and managed Nicaraguan national teams in the 2011 Baseball World Cup and 2013 WBC Qualifiers. Catcher Eddie Pérez of Venezuela spent parts of eleven seasons on teams in MLB, most of them with the Atlanta Braves and primarily as a substitute. When he had an opportunity to play regularly, Pérez showed some power at bat by hitting seven home runs while filling in for injured catcher Javy López in 1999 and then hitting another eleven homers for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003. After his big league career ended in 2005, Pérez coached the Double-A Southern League (AA-SL) Mississippi Braves in 2006 and played in thirteen of the team’s games. Following the 2006 season, Pérez became a bullpen coach for the Atlanta Braves. While in that position, he taught and trained pitchers and catchers how to improve and prepare themselves for games. After signing a contract in 1983 with the Cleveland Indians as a nondrafted free agent, Puerto Rican Juan López played six seasons in the minor leagues for the Indians, Houston Astros, and San Francisco Giants organizations. He coached in the Giants’ farm system in 1990 during the extended spring training period, in 1991–1993 at Scottsdale in the Rookie-Arizona League (R-AZL), in 1994 for the Short-Season A Northwest League (SSANORWL) Everett Giants, and in 1995 for the SSA-NORWL Bellingham Giants and the AAA-PCL Phoenix Firebirds. Previously, López had spent time with manager Dusty Baker in both San Francisco and Chicago. He was on the Giants’ staff as a coaching assistant in 1996, bullpen catcher and coach during 1997–2002 and in 2003–2006, reported to Baker as the Chicago Cubs’ bullpen catcher before joining the Giants’ staff in 2007.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 120

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

121

A right-hander, Cuban Euclides Rojas pitched in the Florida Marlins farm system in 1995 and one year later, decided to retire as a player. Before the Marlins, he played on Cuban national baseball teams from 1982 to 1994 and ranks as the all-time leader in the sport there with 342 career relief appearances and ninety saves. Rojas was a pitcher on Olympic, World, and Pan American championship baseball teams and served as a coach with the Magallanes club during 2011–2012 in the Venezuelan Winter League (VWL). He spent several seasons with the Marlins organization as a minor league pitching coach and with the Boston Red Sox as a bullpen coach in 2003–2004. Although Rojas had been a pitching instructor in the Pirates farm system since 2005, six years later he became the Pirates’ bullpen coach. Strength and Conditioning Coach While a student at the University of Manitoba in Canada, Dong Lien of Indonesia was an athletic therapist with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. Among his positions after graduation from the University, Lien was strength and conditioning coach of the HCA-FSL Clearwater Threshers in 2005, trainer of the SSA-NYPL Batavia Muckdogs in 2006, and the Philadelphia Phillies’ minor league strength and conditioning coordinator in 2007. When the Phillies did not renew Scott Hoffman’s contract following the 2007 season, the club promoted Lien to be its strength and conditioning coach. Trainer Ray Ramirez, from Puerto Rico, began his career with the 1983 R-GCL Mets and then was a trainer in 1984 for the SSA-NYPL Little Falls Mets. Two years later, he was trainer of the AA-SL Orlando Twins and from 1987 to 1991, of the AAA-PCL Oklahoma City 89ers. He was an assistant trainer for the AL Texas Rangers from 1992 to 2004 and spent the winters of 1999–2001 as a trainer in the Puerto Rico Winter Baseball League. In late 2004, the Mets hired Ray Ramirez to be the club’s head trainer and eight years later, he was still in that position. Bullpen Catcher Venezuelan Jesus Tiamo has been the bullpen catcher of the Philadelphia Phillies for several years. Prior to that, he played on Pittsburgh Pirates minor league teams in the R-GCL and LCA-SAL for three seasons, and spent eight years on the Navegantes del Magallanes team of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Tiamo coached in the minor

13_256_Jozsa.indb 121

8/8/13 2:58 PM

122

Chapter 4

leagues for the Chicago White Sox organization from 1995 to 1999 and the New York Mets during 2000–2007. He initially joined the Phillies as a coach of its team in the Venezuelan Summer League (VSL) in 2008. Interestingly, Jesus Tiamo was a batting practice pitcher in the 2010 Home Run Derby at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. From 1987 to 1989, Venezuelan Herberto Andrade was a catcher on teams in the Chicago Cubs farm system and then played professional baseball in Venezuela, Italy, and Colombia before retiring as a player in 1996. Sixteen years later, Andrade began his ninth season as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ bullpen catcher. His daily responsibilities included catching pitchers’ bullpen sessions prior to games and warming up relief pitchers during games. He also had to observe what Pirates pitchers were doing mechanically and establish regular communication with bullpen and pitching coaches. Moreover, Andrade threw to hitters during batting practices on a daily basis. In addition to his duties with the Pirates, Andrade spent the last sixteen years as a coach and catching instructor for teams in the VWL. He was one of two catchers in MLB’s 2006 All-Star-Game Home Run Derby, which took place at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. After he had a .270 BA with five home runs for the London Werewolves of the independent Frontier League in 1999, Canadian catcher Jamie Pogue joined the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He played three seasons in the Cardinals’ farm system and performed temporarily at the AA level. Later, Pogue played several more years of independent baseball in the Atlantic League. For his career in professional baseball, he had a .244 BA with forty home runs and 219 RBIs in 614 games. In 2012, Pogue rejoined the Cardinals and became the club’s bullpen catcher. Other Coaches After a playing career that spanned parts of thirteen MLB seasons, Dominican Manny Mota retired in 1982. An assistant coach, his tenure is the longest in Los Angeles Dodgers history. In fact, Mota spent fourteen years assisting and communicating with the Dodgers’ Latin American players while also coordinating all aspects of opponents’ strategies. He began with the Dodgers as the club’s first base coach and batting instructor in 1980. Sixteen years later, he was the Dodgers’ bench coach for the remainder of the season after manager Tommy Lasorda officially announced his retirement on July 29, 1996. Besides participating in five World Series with the Dodgers as a player or coach, Manny Mota managed teams for nine seasons in the Dominican Winter League (DWL) which won titles in 1971 and 1983–1984. He was the

13_256_Jozsa.indb 122

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

123

Caribbean Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) as a player-manager in 1971, was selected the DWL’s Manager of the Year in 1984, and led Mexicali to the semifinals of the Mexican Pacific League (MXPL) in 1993. In short, Mota is an experienced, knowledgeable, and smart coach who contributes to the success of Dodgers’ minor league teams. Vinny Castilla of Mexico played sixteen years as an infielder on teams in MLB and had a .276 BA with 320 home runs and 1,105 RBIs in 1,854 games. After his retirement as a player in late 2006, he became a special assistant to the Colorado Rockies’ general manager (GM) Dan O’Dowd. Castilla was manager of the Mexican baseball team for the Pan American Games in 2007, player/manager of the Naranjeros de Hermosillo team in the MXPL in 2008, and manager of the Mexican baseball team in the 2009 WBC. As a special assistant for the Colorado Rockies, Vinny Castilla makes suggestions to managers and coaches in order to improve the team’s performances in the NL’s WD.

FOREIGN MANAGERS In baseball, a field manager, or in short, the manager, is responsible for anything to do with a team’s communications, tactics, and strategies on the field. Typically, baseball managers have a few assistant coaches whose responsibilities are specialized and that includes such activities as catching, fielding, hitting, and pitching. In MLB, a manager is essentially equivalent to the head coach of a professional basketball, football, ice hockey, or soccer club. Before each game, the manager chooses the batting order and assigns a position to each player, and then makes substitutions if necessary throughout the game. He makes decisions such as how to score runs, when to substitute a pinch hitter and/or runner, when to bring in and take out a relief pitcher, and where players should be in position for specific hitters. How much input managers have in developing successful plans and strategies for teams varies among individuals and from game-to-game. Some of them may control types of pitches, assign defensive positions, get hitters to bunt while at bat, and give runners opportunities to steal bases in games. In contrast, other managers may designate an assistant coach or even a player such as a catcher to make some or most of these decisions. To communicate effectively with base runners, managers may be a team’s first base or third base coach while his players are at bat. Although most baseball managers delegate this responsibility, they give signals and other instructions to players before, during, and between innings of games.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 123

8/8/13 2:58 PM

124

Chapter 4

For teams in MLB, the greatest managers of all-time were Americans. They include such men as Connie Mack, John McGraw, Joe McCarthy, and Casey Stengel. Mack managed for fifty-three years and his teams won 3,731 games, nine pennants, and five World Series. Regarding the performances of McGraw, McCarthy, and Stengel, each of them managed MLB teams for at least twenty-four years and won a minimum of 1,905 games, nine pennants, and three World Series. Following are facts and other information about former and current foreign-born and Puerto Rican managers of teams in the AL and then NL. American League Teams During October 2009, the Cleveland Indians hired Dominican Manny Acta as their manager and signed him to a three-year contract with an option for an additional year. Although the Houston Astros also offered Acta their managerial position, he preferred to manage the Indians because of the team’s potential to win games in the AL Central Division (CD). In Acta’s first year, the Indians struggled and finished fourth in the division by winning only sixty-nine games. In the 2011 season, however, the Indians won an additional eleven games and placed second in the CD. As a result, Acta finished fourth for the AL Manager of the Year Award. Then on September 29, 2011, the Indians decided to exercise Acta’s option for the 2013 season.5 After the club’s 20-51 record in the second half of the 2012 MLB season, the Indians fired Acta on September 27, 2012, with only six games remaining on its schedule. While Acta was the team’s manager, the Indians won 372 games, or 41 percent. Although bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. replaced Acta and became interim manager for the final few games, the club appointed Terry Francona to be full-time manager for its 2013 season. Meanwhile, the Indians were 3-3 while Alomar Jr. managed them. During his week managing in Cleveland, Puerto Rican Sandy Alomar Jr. and his brother Roberto became teammates, as they were in 1999–2000 with the Indians and while together on teams in the U.S. minor leagues. In July 2006, the Chicago White Sox had acquired Sandy Alomar Jr. for his third stint with the club. However, he decided to retire as a player after the 2007 season and then three years later became a coach for the Indians under Manny Acta. After being eligible for election into the Baseball Hall of Fame (BHOF) in 2012 but receiving less than 3 percent of the vote, Sandy Alomar Jr. will not appear on a future BHOF ballot unless nominated by a Veteran’s Committee. After his sixteen-year playing career with teams in MLB ended in 2000, one year later Venezuelan Ozzie Guillén became third base coach of the

13_256_Jozsa.indb 124

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

125

Montreal Expos. The Expos signed him to a contract when Jeff Torborg, who had managed Guillén while in Chicago, replaced Felipe Alou during midyear. Nevertheless, in 2002, Guillén decided to join Torborg and the rest of the Expos’ coaching staff and follow them to the Florida Marlins organization in Miami. He was there when the Marlins won the World Series in 2003. Ozzie Guillén became manager of the Chicago White Sox for the 2004 season. He remade the club in his image for the 2005 season by deemphasizing offense and benching some of its best hitters. Additionally, Guillén added players to the pitching staff and thus established a team of mediocre hitters but excellent pitchers. Although White Sox hitters were only ninth in the league in runs scored, the club’s pitching staff had an excellent 3.61 ERA. The team’s pitching quality was particularly evident in the postseason, when Guillén used starters José Contreras, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland, and Mark Buehrle to complete games and achieve a string of consecutive wins, and then depended on a rested bullpen led by rookie Bobby Jenks to pitch in the AL divisional and championship series. Indeed, that combination of outstanding pitchers and mediocre hitters was good enough to win the World Series, although critics felt the team had been lucky based on predictions of statistical models. In winning the title in 2005, Guillén became the first Latino baseball manager to guide a MLB club to a world championship. While Guillén managed them, White Sox teams finished third, fourth, first, and third in the CD during MLB’s 2006–2009 seasons. When the club struggled to win games in the 2010 season, there were rumors of disputes and tensions between him and GM Kenny Williams to the extent that one or both of them would likely resign. Nonetheless, relations between them improved after the team began to play better during mid-season and then competed for the CD title but eventually finished in second place with eighty-eight wins. Guillén was in trouble again during early 2011 for violating MLB’s social media policy. Shortly after home plate umpire Todd Tichenor ejected him from a game with the New York Yankees in late April, someone caught Guillén sending public messages to fans on his Twitter account about Tichenor’s decision. This was a violation of MLB policy, which states that no such communication may occur from thirty minutes before the start of a game until its conclusion. Consequently, MLB suspended Guillén for two games. After the appointment of eighty-year-old Jack McKeon as interim manager of the Florida Marlins in June 2011, there was speculation in the media that Guillén would be the Marlin’s full-time manager in 2012, given his history with the team and relationship with owner Jeffrey Loria.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 125

8/8/13 2:58 PM

126

Chapter 4

Thus, in late September 2012, Guillén announced his resignation from the White Sox in order to become manager of the re-named Miami Marlins in 2013. As a manager for eight seasons in Chicago, Ozzie Guillén’s teams won 678, or 52 percent of their games. When his eighteen-year career as a ballplayer ended in 1997, Dominican Tony Peña joined the Chicago White Sox and then Houston Astros organizations to manage their teams in the minor leagues. He was manager of the R-AZL White Sox in 1998 and the AAA-PCL New Orleans Zephyrs in 1999–2001. After spending a few weeks as an Astros’ bench coach, he became manager of the Kansas City Royals during May 2002. For leading the Royals to a rare winning season in 2003, Peña won the AL Manager of the Year Award. Then, his club became mediocre in 2004 and finished 58–104 and fifth in the CD. Frustrated, Peña left the Royals early in 2005 and one year later joined the New York Yankees as a coach. Although he was one of three men on the short list to replace Yankees’ manager Joe Torre after the 2007 season, Joe Girardi got the job and Peña returned to being a coach. While managing the Royals during 2002–2005, Pena’s teams won 198 games, or 41 percent. After playing in 316 games during nine years, Dominican Luis Pujols’ MLB career ended in 1985. Four years later, he played for the West Palm Beach Tropics of the Senior Professional Baseball Association and had a .265 BA in forty-five games. Pujols joined the Montreal Expos organization and served as a coach from 1993 to 2000. One year later, he managed the Double-A Eastern League (AA-EL) Erie Sea Wolves before joining the Detroit Tigers’ coaching staff for the 2002 season. However, just six games into the season Pujols became interim manager after the club fired Phil Garner. To improve the coaching staff, Pujols brought in his former boss with the Expos, Felipe Alou, to be the Tigers’ bench coach. However, while Pujols managed the team, it somehow batted out of order during a game. Because of that incident and the club finishing 55–106 and in fifth place in the CD, the Tigers released Pujols at the end of the 2002 season, after which new San Francisco Giants’ manager Felipe Alou hired him. From 2003 to 2006, Pujols was the Giants’ first base coach and then in 2008, he was manager of the Double-A Texas League (AA-TL) Corpus Christi Hooks and a coach of the Dominican Republic team in the 2009 WBC. In the end, Luis Pujols won fifty-five games, or only 35 percent, while managing the Tigers, which was among the worst records in the franchise’s history. Following his years playing in MLB, Cuban Cookie Rojas was a Chicago Cubs coach from 1978 to 1981. Although briefly reactivated by the Cubs in 1978, he did not play in any of the team’s games. Years later,

13_256_Jozsa.indb 126

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

127

Rojas joined the California Angels organization. In addition to working in the club’s front office and as a scout, he managed the team for 154 games in 1988 following the resignation of Gene Mauch, who had health problems during spring training. After the 1980s, Rojas was a coach of the Florida Marlins in 1993–1996, a member of the New York Mets staff in 1997–2000, and a Toronto Blue Jays coach in 2001–2002. Since 2003, Cookie Rojas has been a Spanish-language broadcaster of Florida (now Miami) Marlins games. Through 1996, Carlos Tosca of Cuba was manager of the AA Portland Sea Dogs of the Eastern League and during 2002–2004, the AL Toronto Blue Jays. As the Blue Jays’ manager, his clubs won 191, or 50 percent, of their games and finished in third, third, and fifth place of the league’s ED. In 2003, he was seventh for the AL Manager of the Year Award but one year later, the Blue Jays fired Tosca and replaced him with John Gibbons. In 2007–2009, Tosca served as bench coach of the Florida Marlins for manager Fredi González. When González replaced Bobby Cox as manager of the Atlanta Braves following the 2010 season, Tosca became the Braves’ new bench coach. Based on the winning percentages and postseason results of his AL teams, the most successful foreign-born manager in the group was the Chicago White Sox’s Ozzie Guillén. While his eight clubs won 52 percent of their regular season games, one of them won a World Series in 2005 and three years later, a division title. The least successful foreign-born manager in the league was Luis Pujols. In 2002, his Detroit Tigers’ team had a .342 winning percentage, finished fifth in the CD, and thirty-nine games behind the Minnesota Twins. National League Teams During late 2006, the Washington Nationals hired Dominican Manny Acta to be the club’s manager for the 2007 season. Interestingly, he returned to the franchise that hired him for his first job in the major leagues (Acta was the Montreal Expos’ third base coach during 2002–2004, which was prior to the franchise’s relocation to Washington, D.C., following the 2004 season). Acta became the Nationals’ manager, in part, because of his youth, enthusiasm, and friendship with a few of the team’s players while coaching for the Expos. In his first year managing the Nationals, whom many projected to be one of the worst teams in MLB, the club finished 73–89, and that earned Acta enough respect for him to finish sixth for the NL Manager of the Year Award. In their fourth year in Washington, the Nationals’ record worsened to 59–102 and the team failed even more during the beginning of

13_256_Jozsa.indb 127

8/8/13 2:58 PM

128

Chapter 4

Acta’s third season. With a win-loss record of 26–61 partway through 2009, and the Nationals losing 102 games in the previous season, Acta’s time as manager was about to end. During July 2009, Acta reported to sportswriters that the Nationals had fired him as manager following the club’s loss to the Houston Astros. One day later, the Nationals announced on their website that a statement concerning Acta’s dismissal was forthcoming. Bench coach Jim Riggleman, who had previously managed teams of the San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, and Seattle Mariners, became the club’s interim manager. From 2007 to 2009, Manny Acta’s Nationals won 158 games, or only 38 percent. Although Dominican Felipe Alou appeared in only nineteen games as a player with the Montreal Expos in 1973, that experience evidently provided enough contact with team officials and Canadian fans for him to get a staff position in that organization shortly after he retired. Eventually, these relationships and other factors led to his appointment as manager of the Expos in 1992, a job he held for a decade. Besides managing the Expos for ten years and the San Francisco Giants from 2003 to 2006, Alou was a successful minor league manager and an Expos coach in 1979, 1980, 1984, and briefly in 1992. He was the Detroit Tigers’ bench coach in 2002 and a special assistant to the GM of the Giants in 2007–2011. Until Bruce Bochy surpassed him in 2008, Alou had the record for most wins by a manager born outside the United States. While managing the Expos, he won 691 games, or 49 percent, and in 1994, his team finished first in the regular season although MLB cancelled the postseason because of a labor dispute. With the Giants, Alou’s teams won 342, or 52 percent of their games. Despite finishing first in the NL’s WD in 2003, the Giants lost to the Florida Marlins in the league’s division series. In 2010, Felipe Alou was a member of the inaugural class of inductees into the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame. After playing in eight games for the 1944 Washington Senators, Preston Gómez of Cuba spent the next two decades on teams in minor league baseball. Then, from the mid-1950s to early 1960s, he managed clubs in the farm systems of the Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Yankees. During 1965–1968, Gómez was a Dodgers coach before becoming manager of the expansion San Diego Padres in 1969. In four seasons managing the Padres, his teams finished last in the NL WD. As a result, the franchise fired him in April 1972. In 1973, Preston Gómez joined the Houston Astros organization and one year later, he became the club’s manager. After his team finished fourth in 1974 and then won only forty-seven games through mid-August of the next season, the Astros replaced him with Bill Virdon. In 1976, Gómez became a coach of the St. Louis Cardinals and then a member of

13_256_Jozsa.indb 128

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

129

the Dodgers coaching staff from 1977 to 1979. One year later, the Chicago Cubs organization hired him to manage its team. When the club won only thirty-eight games as of midseason, the Cubs fired and replaced him with Joe Amalfitano. During his career as a manager, Gómez’s teams won 346, or 39 percent of their games in 1969–1980. From 1981 to 1984, Preston Gómez was a California Angels coach and remained with the franchise for several years. In fact, he ended his career in professional baseball as a special assistant to the Angels’ GM. In addition to clubs in the United States, Gómez managed baseball teams in Mexico and Cuba, including the Havana Sugar Kings when they won the Junior World Series in 1959 by defeating Gene Mauch’s Minneapolis Millers. Following his six-year career as a catcher in the New York Yankees’ farm system, Cuban Fredi González became manager of the unaffiliated Miami Miracle of the Florida State League (FSL) with twenty games remaining in 1990. One year later, he joined the Florida Marlins organization and in 1992 became the first minor league manager of a team in the franchise’s history. That year, González led the LCA-NYPL Erie Sailors to a winning record and into the league’s championship series. During 1992–1998, González managed teams in the Florida Marlins organization. Baseball America named him the California Manager of the Year in 1993, FSL Manager of the Year in 1994 after his AA-FSL Brevard County Manatees finished second to Tampa in the league’s championship series, and EL Manager of the Year in 1997. From 1999 to 2001, he served as third base coach of the Marlins. Fredi González became the Florida Marlins’ manager on October 3, 2006, replacing Joe Girardi. In González’s first season, the Marlins won seventy-one games and finished fifth in the NL’s ED. After guiding the Marlins to an 84–77 record in his second year to become only the third manager to lead the team to a winning record, the Sporting News named him NL Manager of the Year in 2008, although he did not actually win the award from MLB. In 2009, Fredi González led the Marlins to an 87–75 record, which was the sixth time in franchise history that the club finished above .500. Nevertheless, after his team won less than 50 percent of its first seventy games in 2010, the Marlins fired Gonzalez. Even so, he is the all-time winningest manager in the Marlins’ franchise history after surpassing Jack McKeon’s 241 career wins. Consequently, he was third in 2008 and seventh in 2009 for NL Manager of the Year Awards. During October 2010, Fredi González became the Atlanta Braves’ sixteenth manager since the organization moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1966. He replaced legendary manager Bobby Cox, who retired

13_256_Jozsa.indb 129

8/8/13 2:58 PM

130

Chapter 4

at the conclusion of the 2010 season. From 2003 to 2006, González was the Braves’ third base coach under Cox and served as the organization’s Triple-A manager of its team in Richmond, Virginia, in 2002. With González as their manager, the Braves finished second in the ED during the 2011–2012 seasons. Because of his performances, he placed fifth in 2011 and fourth in 2012 for NL Manager of the Year. While managing the Marlins and Braves, Fredi González’s teams had won 459 games, or 52 percent of them. After his playing career ended in 1932 with the St. Louis Cardinals, Cuban Mike Gonzalez spent 1933 as a player and coach of the American Association’s Columbus (Ohio) Red Birds. During later years, he was a longtime coach of the Cardinals and served briefly as the club’s manager in 1938 and 1940. In fact, he became the first Cuban to manage a MLB team. The book Sport in Cuba indicates that Gonzalez purchased the Havana Reds in 1946, a publicly owned team he had previously managed. Although he did not play in any games, Gonzalez was a member of the New York Giants in 1921 and St. Louis Cardinals in 1931 when these teams won a World Series. Supposedly, he was originator of the baseball phrase “good field, no hit.”6 After the appointment of eighty-year-old Jack McKeon as interim manager of the Florida Marlins in June 2011, there was speculation that Ozzie Guillén would be the team’s full-time manager in 2012 because of his history with the team and relationship with owner Jeffrey Loria. Indeed, during September 2011, Guillén announced he was resigning as the Chicago White Sox manager to take over the newly named Miami Marlins. To hire Guillén, the Marlins had to pay compensation to the White Sox that included two minor league players. Interestingly, Chicago’s pitching coach Don Cooper became manager of the White Sox for its last two games instead of bench coach Joey Cora, who was released to join Guillén in Miami. Ozzie Guillén was manager when the Marlins opened their new ballpark in 2012. However, he quickly got himself in trouble when he spoke to the media about a very sensitive subject among Hispanics in the Miami metropolitan area. In an interview, he expressed his admiration for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and that viewpoint appeared in a Time magazine article in early April. Obviously, Guillén’s comment greatly disturbed local sports fans and especially Cuban-Americans, so the team quickly issued a statement to disassociate itself from its manager’s opinions. Meanwhile, Guillén publicly and apparently sincerely apologized to these groups. The controversy refused to go away, however, so that in April 2012, Guillén had to travel from Philadelphia to Miami and hold a press confer-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 130

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

131

ence in which he apologized again for his statements. Ironically, the Marlins’ hiring of Guillén should have been an improvement in the team’s relations with southern Florida’s Hispanic community. Instead, the franchise received petitions from the city’s huge Cuban-American population, who requested that it immediately fire Guillén. Unfortunately, this controversy detracted from publicity caused by the construction and opening of Marlins Park. Anyway, Miami Marlins executives decided to suspend Guillén for five games in order to show baseball fans and other local groups their concern about the incident. Ozzie Guillén was involved in another unfortunate incident in July when he asked home plate umpire Marty Foster in the first inning of a game to look at and scan the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper’s bat for excessive pine tar. When Harper came to home plate with a new bat in the fourth inning, he pointed his bat at Guillén. That gesture caused Guillén to erupt in a tirade of shouts, and after the game, he said that Harper was disrespectful to him and unprofessional. As the Marlins’ 2012 season gradually sank into irrelevancy after fans and sportswriters had been optimistic on opening day, Guillén’s relationship with owner Jeffrey Loria seemed to deteriorate and worsen. In September, Guillén told the media, “If Jeffrey doesn’t think I’m doing the job I should do . . . it’s not the first time he’s fired a manager. Look yourself [Marlins fans] in the mirror and ask why so many (bleeping) managers come through here.” A comment from Marlins relief pitcher Heath Bell indicated that relations between his teammates and Guillén were not ideal. Bell said, “It’s been an interesting year with Ozzie. That’s pretty much all I’ll say about that. It’s just been really interesting to have him as a manager.” In part, this prompted speculation that Guillén’s role with the franchise might indeed be short-lived. Even though he still had three years remaining on his contract, Guillén received his walking papers at the end of the season. With sixty-nine wins, Miami finished fifth in the NL’s ED. Cuban Tony Pérez had a successful career during his twenty-three years in MLB. He had a .279 BA with 379 home runs and 1,652 RBIs in 2,777 games. Pérez was on seven all-star teams and two World Series champions with the Cincinnati Reds, and was inducted into the BHOF in 2000. Seven years after his retirement as a player, he became manager of the Reds. However, Pérez’s team won only twenty games before Davey Johnson replaced him as manager. In 1993, the Reds finished fifth in the NL’s WD. During May 2001, Tony Pérez replaced John Boles to become manager of the Florida Marlins for the remainder of the season. Since the Marlins had inferior hitters and inconsistent pitchers, his team won less than 50

13_256_Jozsa.indb 131

8/8/13 2:58 PM

132

Chapter 4

percent of its games. As a result, the Marlins fired Pérez when the season ended and Jeff Torborg replaced him as manager. Thus despite his strengths as a player, due to the lack of talented players on his teams and leadership problems, Tony Pérez was not effective as a manager. From 1999 to 2008, Edwin Rodriguez of Puerto Rico received valuable experience as a manager in the minor leagues. He led, for example, such clubs as the SSA-NYPL Hudson Valley Renegades in 1999, R-APPL Princeton Devil Rays in 2000–2002, R-GCL Marlins in 2005–2006, and LCASAL Greensboro Grasshoppers in 2007–2008. Additionally, he coached the HCA-CARL Mudcats in 2004 and scouted a few years for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. When the Marlins fired Fredi González during the summer in 2010, Edwin Rodriguez replaced him, the first person from Puerto Rico to manage a team in MLB history. Rodriguez’s Marlins won forty-six games, or 50 percent in the latter part of the 2010 season and finished third in the NL’s ED. In 2011, the Marlins started the season with several wins and stayed within a couple of games of the division leader, the Philadelphia Phillies, through mid- to late May. However, for various reasons, the Marlins went into a terrible tailspin and lost seventeen of their eighteen games during late May and early June. Because of his team’s performance, Edwin Rodriguez resigned as manager before the Marlins’ game on June 19, 2011, against their cross-state rival, the Tampa Bay Rays. Although discouraged and frustrated about his managerial record, Rodriguez believed the team would be competitive soon. But he realized he was not able to continue leading it. He left the Marlins with a 32-39 record and in fifth place of the NL’s ED. While bench coach Brandon Hyde temporarily replaced Rodriguez, the Marlins’ owners were uncertain whom to hire next. In the end, the franchise decided to bring back eighty-year-old Jack McKeon to finish their 2011 season.7 Following his sixteen-year career as a player in MLB, foreign-born Cookie Rojas managed two different teams for parts of seasons. In 1988, he became only the third Cuban-born manager in the league’s history when he guided the California Angels to a fourth-place finish in the AL’s WD. However, with eight games left in the season and despite seventyfive wins, the Angels replaced Rojas with Moose Stubing. Then in 1996, Rojas managed the Florida Marlins for one game after the club had fired manager Rene Lachemann. Although he won that game, the Marlins replaced Rojas with John Boles to finish its season in third place and sixteen games behind the Atlanta Braves. During the league’s playoffs in 1999, while coaching third base for the New York Mets, Cookie Rojas was suspended five games for arguing about a foul ball and getting into a shoving match with umpire Charlie Williams. Then in 2001 to 2002, he was a bench coach of the Toronto Blue

13_256_Jozsa.indb 132

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

133

Jays and the team’s unofficial manager for three games during the 2001 season. Shortly thereafter, Rojas ended his career in baseball. Born in Landes de Boussac, France, Bruce Bochy was a catcher who spent parts of nine seasons playing for such teams as the Houston Astros, New York Mets, and San Diego Padres. He had a lifetime .239 BA with twenty-six home runs and ninety-three RBIs, and as a catcher, guided these teams’ pitchers to a career 3.87 ERA in 1,930 innings of 298 games. A popular player while in San Diego, Bochy finished his career catching for the Padres in 1987. Before becoming a manager of MLB teams, Bruce Bochy was a player/ coach for the AAA-PCL Las Vegas Stars (now Las Vegas 51s) in 1988 and then one year later, he played for the Orlando Juice of the Senior Professional Baseball Association and had a .216 BA in thirty-one games. From 1989 to 1992, Bochy was successful managing teams in the minor leagues, including the champion SSA-NORWL Spokane Indians, HCA-CAL High Desert Mavericks, and AA-TL Wichita Wranglers. In 1993–1994, Bochy was a San Diego Padres coach, and then in 1995 he became the club’s manager. In twelve years, Bochy won more than twice as many games as any other manager in the team’s history. During postseasons, his Padres teams lost NL championship series in 1996, 2005, and 2006, and were defeated by the New York Yankees in four games in the 1998 World Series. In 1998, Bochy was involved in a controversy when he insisted that St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Manny Aybar remove his cap with the numbers “123” inscribed on it. These numbers were in memory of José Oliva, who had died in December 1997 from multiple injuries when his car overturned along the San Cristobal highway in the Dominican Republic. In response to Bochy’s complaint, Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa told umpires about a little-enforced MLB rule when the Padres’ third base coach Tim Flannery temporarily wandered outside of the coach’s box. After the 2006 season, Bruce Bochy replaced Felipe Alou and became manager of the San Francisco Giants. With the Giants, he won his 1,035th game and passed Alou for most victories by a foreign-born manager. In 2010, Bochy led the Giants to their first World Series title while based in San Francisco by defeating the Texas Rangers in five games. Interestingly, the Giants got hot late in the regular season after trailing the San Diego Padres for most of the year in the NL’s WD. After equaling and then overtaking the Padres in September, the Giants defeated the Atlanta Braves in the league’s division series, the Philadelphia Phillies in the championship series, and then the Rangers in the World Series. In 2012, Bochy’s Giants were again a World Series champion when they swept the Detroit Tigers in four games. This was an impressive achievement for Bochy and his coaches and players, as the club had lost

13_256_Jozsa.indb 133

8/8/13 2:58 PM

134

Chapter 4

its first two games at home to the Cincinnati Reds in the NL division series before making a remarkable comeback. Then in the league’s championship series, the Giants trailed three games to one before reviving to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals. Those comebacks, in part, motivated Bochy and his players to conquer the Tigers and win the Giants’ seventh World Series title. Bruce Bochy was the NL Manager of the Year in 1996. In other seasons, he placed second for the award in 1998, third in 2006, 2010, and 2012, fourth in 2009, sixth in 2004 and 2011, and seventh in 2005. For his total performance in eighteen years as manager of the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, he won 1,454 games, or 51 percent of them, and three NL pennants and two World Series. In short, Bruce Bochy is an experienced, knowledgeable leader who motivates his players and coaches. He makes good strategic and tactical decisions in games, especially with regard to getting productivity from his players. Five years after Bochy retires as a manager, he will be eligible for the BHOF, and soon thereafter will be nominated and then inducted into it. Based on their careers as leaders of teams in the NL, the most successful foreign-born manager has been Bruce Bochy, followed by Fredi González, Felipe Alou, and Ozzie Guillén. For those managers with at least one hundred wins as of 2012, the least successful among them were Preston Gómez, Manny Acta, and Tony Peña. To identify and focus on different types of international operations of MLB franchises, the next section highlights the administration and central offices of teams, and how they concern themselves in different ways with foreign-born players, coaches, and managers. With this information about MLB organizations, there is data and facts in the literature regarding foreigners who coach, manage, play on, and operate affiliated teams in the U.S. minor league system for various years and baseball seasons.

TEAM OPERATIONS The Baseball America 2012 Directory, the websites mlb.com, baseball-reference.com, and baseball-almanac.com, and other sources in the literature contain information about the business and baseball operations that occur at MLB’s central office in New York City and about those of the thirty franchises at their home sites. Within baseball operations of the thirty teams, there are specific departments and offices responsible for and engaged in such activities as global operations, player development, and scouting. While a majority of these offices employ primarily American personnel,

13_256_Jozsa.indb 134

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

135

each of them has Asians, Hispanics, and individuals from other ethnic groups on their staffs. For each of the teams in MLB, next is an overview of their operations from an international perspective as of 2012.8

American League Baltimore Orioles With respect to baseball activities of the Orioles organization, player development and international operations were departments in 2012. Besides directors, evaluators, and instructors, player development had a Latin American medical coordinator named Manny Lopez. He was responsible for coordinating all medical activities for Latin American players on the Orioles and their teams in the minor leagues as well as any affiliates located in Central and South America. In the club’s international operations department, there were executive directors of international recruiting and baseball, directors of global operations and the franchise’s Dominican Academy, and full- and part-time scouts. Interestingly, the Academy’s director, Felipe Alou Jr., is the son of former manager Felipe Alou. Selected in the fortieth round of the 1998 amateur draft, Alou Jr. played in the minor leagues for the Kansas City Royals from 1998 to 2001, and then on a team in the short-lived Canadian Baseball League in 2003. After his playing career ended, the Orioles hired him in 2008 as their Dominican Republic coordinator. Later, he became director of the Dominican Academy near Santo Domingo. Boston Red Sox Two Red Sox departments, player development and scouting, each include specific international offices and officials. The Dominican Academy and Latin American field and pitching coordinators had assignments in player development. Within that department, key personnel worked in such positions as director of international scouting, coordinator of Latin American scouting, international cross checker, supervisor of Dominican Republic and Pacific Rim scouting, and as international scouts. These scouts were primarily Americans or foreign-born Latinos.9 In 2013, Dominican José Zapata will return for his seventh season as the Red Sox’s Latin American field coordinator and manager of the club’s Dominican Summer League (DSL) affiliate, which he led to a winning record in each of his six seasons as its manager. Zapata, who played professionally on Montreal Expos’ minor league teams from 1991 to 1993, began his coaching career employed for eight seasons with that organization. In

13_256_Jozsa.indb 135

8/8/13 2:58 PM

136

Chapter 4

addition, Zapata served as a manager, coach, and instructor in the Florida (now Miami) Marlins farm system during 2002–2006. Dominican Pedro Martínez, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight-time all-star pitcher who spent seven seasons with the Red Sox, was hired by the franchise in January 2013 as a special assistant to GM Ben Cherington. Martínez has tasks to complete in several areas including the evaluation, mentorship, and instruction of young players in spring training and throughout the season. While pitching for Red Sox teams, he had a 2.52 ERA, the highest winning percentage in franchise history, and ranked third in strikeouts and sixth in wins. In short, Martínez was a popular player while in Boston and now hopes to extend his expertise and knowledge of pitching to teach those on the Red Sox.10 Chicago White Sox This franchise’s baseball operations in 2012 included a Latin cultural coordinator and a Dominican player development/scouting supervisor and coordinator, while international scouts performed their jobs by evaluating young, talented players in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Player development/scouting supervisor Rafael Santana from the Dominican Republic won a World Series as a player with the New York Mets in 1986. During the 1990s, he coached such minor league teams as the HCA-FSL Baseball City Royals and LCA-ML Springfield Sultans, served as the Chicago White Sox third base coach in 2003–2004, and managed the HCA-CARL Winston-Salem Warthogs in 2006 and AA-SL Birmingham Barons in 2007. Besides Santana, Amador Arias of Venezuela worked as a White Sox scout. Arias had played seven seasons in the U.S. minor leagues with the Cincinnati Reds organization. In addition, Ever Magallanes of Mexico was a defensive coordinator. He was previously an all-star minor league player and between 2006 and 2009 managed four different teams in the system. Cleveland Indians In the Indians’ player development department of baseball operations during 2012, foreign-born officials were the director of Latin America operations, advisor of Latin America, and Latin America strength/conditioning coordinator. Interestingly, the words “international” and “global” did not appear in the titles of any office or staff within the Indians’ scouting department. Veteran scout Ramón Peña was the director of Latin America operations for the Indians. He was a scout for twenty-eight years and was

13_256_Jozsa.indb 136

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

137

employed by the New York Mets for the last three seasons as a special assistant to GM Omar Minaya. Meanwhile, Cleveland’s Latin America advisor, Minnie Mendoza, managed the 1974–1975 Indios de Ciudad Juarez clubs in Mexico, 1981 HCA-FSL Miami Orioles in Florida, 1991 RAPPL Burlington Indians in North Carolina, and also served as the Indians’ Latin America field coordinator in 2007–2008. Strength/conditioning coordinator Nelson Perez began his career in the Indians organization as the strength and conditioning coach for the LCA-ML Lake County Captains and worked four years for a minor league baseball team in Puerto Rico. He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a degree in Athletic Training and earned a certificate as a specialist in strength and conditioning. Detroit Tigers For international operations of this organization in 2012, the Latin American player development director was Cuban Manny Crespo. Primarily a utility infielder as a player, he has been a baseball coach, scout, instructor, and manager of professional teams for years. During 2003–2005, Crespo was Latin American coordinator of instruction for the San Diego Padres and since 2005, Latin American player development director for the Detroit Tigers. The club’s scouting department included directors of international and Dominican operations and Latin American development and scouting, coordinators of the Pacific Rim and Dominican and Venezuelan academies, and a supervisor of Venezuelan scouting. Puerto Rican Giovanni Hernandez was the scouting assistant of international operations. He assisted the director in all phases of international operations including academy operations in Latin America, video scouting in Asia, and oversight of the franchise’s international budget. Before being employed in his current position, Hernandez had served as an international scouting intern with the Detroit Tigers since 2009. Kansas City Royals Besides foreign-born scouts in Canada and Puerto Rico, this franchise’s baseball operations include a Latin America supervisor of scouts and at least one international scout in such countries as Aruba, Colombia, Curaçao, Japan, Korea, Nicaragua, and Taiwan. Scouting supervisor Orlando Estevez was an assistant coach at Miami Dade College in Florida and then a scout for the California Angels during 1987–1990. For the next seven years, he was a Houston Astros scout before becoming a coordinator and supervisor in the Royals organization.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 137

8/8/13 2:58 PM

.

138

Chapter 4

There are managers and hitting and pitching coaches from nations in Latin America who work in the Royals’ farm system. Their teams are in the Rookie leagues but not in AAA, AA, High and Low Class-A, or ShortSeason A. Since baseball players born in Latin America often need further training and development to improve their skills after signing a minor league contract, Royals’ coaches, coordinators, directors, managers, and special assistants are employed in the Rookie leagues to communicate with these players in Spanish. Los Angeles Angels Within this team’s organization during 2012, baseball operations included player development and scouting departments. In player development, there was Puerto Rican catching instructor Orlando Mercado. Since his playing career ended in 1990, he has been a coach in the Angels organization. To 2000, he coached such minor league teams as the SSA-NORWL Vancouver Canadians, R-AZL Angels, AATL Midland Angels, and R-PL Butte Copper Kings. During 2000–2002, he was a bullpen catcher for the Angels and then bullpen coach during 2003–2010. He became the Angels’ minor league catching coordinator in 2011 and then its instructor. In scouting, the Angels have an international director and scouts assigned to Asia, Australia, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. The new international director, Carlos Gomez, spent his last two seasons as the director of international scouting for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He worked with Jerry Dipoto when the Angels’ GM was the vice president of scouting and player development in Arizona. Gomez is the first major hire on the international side of operations since Dipoto joined the franchise to be its GM in 2011. The Angels plan to upgrade the performances of their pitching staff after a disappointing 2012 season. Minnesota Twins Within the Twins’ business operations in 2012, Puerto Rican Miguel Ramos was the director of emerging markets. Hired in 2008, Ramos served as a consultant to the Twins for months before becoming a full-time member of the organization. He has a wealth of multicultural marketing experiences that include jobs at Nestle Company and La Mera Buena Radio, and as a consultant for the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild. “I’m excited to help the Twins diversify our front office and fan base,” said Ramos. “I look forward to expanding our presence in emerging markets throughout Twins Territory.”

13_256_Jozsa.indb 138

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

139

The Twins’ baseball operations include a department with a number of international and Latin American scouting coordinators and different groups of full- and part-time international scouts. Puerto Rican Jose Marzan returns for his ninth season as the Twins Latin American coordinator. He oversees the club’s field staff and academy personnel in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and monitors its cultural assimilation program. Besides Latin America, Twins’ scouts evaluate and recruit ballplayers in such foreign countries as Germany, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan. New York Yankees In 2012, foreigners performed various jobs in this franchise’s scouting department. These included tasks as coordinators, coaches, and international scouts. The club’s two Latin American cross-checkers were Victor Mata and Ricardo Final. A former Yankees’ outfielder in 1984–1985, Mata managed the DSL Yankees/Padres in 1992–1993, scouted for the team and then became its Latin American field coordinator and later a scouting cross-checker. Meanwhile, Final scouts baseball prospects in Venezuela. Besides scouting development coaches Jonathan Saturria of Venezuela and Argenis Paulino of the Dominican Republic, who pitched in the minor leagues for the Boston Red Sox organization in 2006–2007, the Yankees have specific scouts assigned to sites in Australia, Europe, and Taiwan, and in various countries of Latin America. In the player development department, Julio Mosquera was a minor league coordinator. A former catcher, he played for Panama in the 1999 Pan American Games and the 2001 and 2003 Baseball World Cups, and hit home runs for his teams at these events. Oakland Athletics In addition to scouts assigned to Colombia, South Korea, and several other nations during 2012, the Oakland Athletics had a director of Latin American operations and coordinators of international and Latin American scouting. The Athletics’ coordinator of Venezuela, Dominican Julio Franco, played twenty-three years in 2,527 MLB games and became a three-time all-star for the Texas Rangers. After the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves released him in 2007, he returned to Mexico and briefly played there for the Tigres de Quintana Roo team. When forty-nine years old, Franco announced his retirement in April 2008. One year later, he managed the R-GCL Mets. With the Athletics organization, Franco coordinates all activities that involve scouting ballplayers in countries of Latin America including the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 139

8/8/13 2:58 PM

140

Chapter 4

Seattle Mariners This team’s player development and scouting staff contained several foreign-born officials in 2012. In player development, there was hitting instructor José Castro of Cuba and also Latin America field coordinator Jesus Azuaje and pitching coordinator Nasusel Cabrera, each of Venezuela. Castro was formerly the hitting coach with minor league teams of the San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos. He became the roving minor league hitting instructor for the Mariners organization in December 2007 and then two years later was appointed the club’s minor league hitting coordinator. While Jesus Azuaje managed the R-AZL Mariners during 2010–2011, Nasusel Cabrera pitched in the Oakland Athletics chain from 1986 to 1988 and coached in the Dominican Republic for eighteen years and in the Mariners’ farm system since 2007. Regarding the Mariners’ scouting department, there is a vice president, a few coordinators, and an administrative director. Except for those in the Pacific Rim and Canada/Europe regions, the other scouting coordinators are mostly Latinos. Tampa Bay Rays In this organization, some minor league managers and coaches were born in Latin American countries. As of 2012, the Rays’ scouting department included directors of international, Dominican Republic, and Venezuelan operations; coordinators in Brazil, Colombia, and the Pacific Rim; an assistant of international/minor league operations; and a consultant of international operations. The team’s professional/international scout was Carlos Rodriguez. Born in Mexico and employed by the Rays in Florida, he played one year as a utility infielder with the New York Yankees and three with the Boston Red Sox. Carlos Alfonso has been director of international operations since 2006. He joined the Rays after spending nineteen seasons with the San Francisco Giants organization, where he served on the major league staff including six seasons as the club’s administrative coach. In addition, he was the organization’s coordinator of Latin America operations in 1995. For the Rays, Alfonso oversees the team’s international scouting and baseball operations efforts with a focus on Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Texas Rangers The Rangers’ player development department includes such coordinators as Puerto Rican Hector Ortiz and Dominican Luis Ortiz. Hector coached

13_256_Jozsa.indb 140

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

141

professional minor league teams in 2007–2008 and 2010, and while in the Rangers organization, he managed the LCA-SAL Hickory Crawdads in 2009 and R-AZL Rangers in 2010. Then, he became a hitting coordinator for the franchise. Before retiring as a player in 2004, Luis Ortiz returned to school and graduated with a degree from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. As such, he became the first professional ballplayer from the Dominican Republic to play in MLB and graduate from college. After getting his degree, Luis opened a baseball school, published four books about being a hitter, and created batting and throwing videos. He was a hitting coordinator with the Rangers organization during 2009–2012. The Rangers’ scouting department has officials with international titles and responsibilities. Among the staff are a senior advisor and coordinator of Pacific Rim operations, a Dominican Program coordinator, and a Korean operations manager. In addition, international scouts have assignments to recruit and sign players from such countries as Australia, Japan, and nations of Latin America. Toronto Blue Jays In this team’s business operations during 2012, Puerto Rican Roberto Alomar was a special assistant to the organization. Hired by the Blue Jays organization in March 2011, he had responsibility for community relations projects in the Toronto area. Other foreigners on the staff included managers and coaches of clubs in the Blue Jays’ farm system that play in Rookie leagues. Besides several foreign-born scouts, the Blue Jays’ scouting department also included a special assistant of Latin American operations and directors of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Ismael Cruz had been with the New York Mets as supervisor of Latin American operations and then worked as a special assistant for the Blue Jays’ GM. While the Dominican Republic’s scouting director José Rosario is from New York, Venezuelan Luis Marquez was a New York Mets scout from 2008 to 2011 and one year later became the Blue Jays’ Venezuelan scouting director. National League Arizona Diamondbacks Within baseball operations of this professional organization, among the highest-ranked officials during 2012 was Junior Noboa, a vice president of Latin American operations. From 2008 to 2009, Dominican Noboa was a scout and in 2010, he became a special assistant to the Diamondbacks’ GM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 141

8/8/13 2:58 PM

142

Chapter 4

and later received a promotion to vice president. Interestingly, Noboa had coached the Dominican Republic team in the 2009 WBC. Other organization officials were directors of international scouting and Pacific Rim operations, and a supervisor of international scouts in Europe and Latin America. In 2012 they were, respectively, directors Carlos Gomez and Mack Hayashi, and supervisor Luis Baez. Two years after joining the Diamondbacks organization as a pro scout, Carlos Gomez became an international scouting director. Then in late 2012, the Los Angeles Angels’ GM Jerry Dipoto hired him to operate the club’s international scouting program. In his second year with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Mack Hayashi scouted players in Australia, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and established relationships with officials in professional baseball leagues of these countries. Meanwhile, Luis Baez supervised the activities of Diamondbacks’ scouts in Europe and in several countries of Latin America. Atlanta Braves During 2012, this franchise had Latinos and members of other ethnic groups in various positions of baseball operations. For example, José Martínez was a special assistant to GM Frank Wren. In the scouting department, Johnny Almaraz served as an international director, and Luis Ortiz was the supervisor of scouts in Central America. Area supervisors included Matias Laureano in the Dominican Republic, Hiroyuki Oya in Japan, and Manuel Samaniego in Mexico. In addition, part-time scouts had assignments to evaluate players in such countries as Brazil, Ecuador, and Spain. A native of Panama, Luis Ortiz was manager of the R-GCL Braves from 2005 to 2010 and coached Panama’s national team in the 2009 WBC. In 2010, he became a scout for the Braves and the international area supervisor in Panama. Then, he moved into his current position of supervising scouts in Central American countries. Such scouts as Laureano, Oya, and Samaniego write reports about foreign baseball players within their territories and submit them to GM Wren. These reports analyze the skill and potential of ballplayers while on amateur, high school, and semiprofessional teams. Chicago Cubs In baseball operations during 2012, Louie Eljaua was a special assistant to the Cubs’ GM, and Alex Suarez, a coordinator of player development/international scouting. The club’s farm system included Hispanic managers and coaches of teams in a Rookie league. Regarding other staff positions,

13_256_Jozsa.indb 142

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

143

there was a director of international scouting with a special assistant and senior advisor. This franchise’s scouting department included a Canadian/U.S./ international office and international scouts assigned specifically to the Dominican Republic, Pacific Rim, and Venezuela. Venezuelan Hector Ortega played seven MLB seasons as an infielder and outfielder for the Montreal Expos and Milwaukee Brewers before retiring in 2007. He scouts players in Venezuela. José Serra scouted for the Cubs in the Dominican Republic before becoming the club’s Latin American operations manager in 2011. Cincinnati Reds Within baseball operations of this organization during 2012, Dominican Mario Soto was a special assistant in the front office. After being inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum in 2001, he worked for the team as a pitching coach, specifically to teach several Reds’ pitchers how to grip, develop, and accurately throw a changeup. Another former athlete from the Dominican Republic, Joel Noboa, played six seasons in the minor leagues and then managed Reds’ teams in the DSL. In 2012, he was an assistant field coordinator who focused on evaluating foreignborn players in Latin America. The Reds had a director and assistant director of Latin America scouting, a director of global scouting, and a scouting coordinator in the Dominican Republic. In addition, there were scouting administrators in such countries as Australia, Italy, and South Africa. Except in the former three nations, most of these officials were Hispanics with experience as former players, coaches, or managers. Colorado Rockies The president of construction and restaurant companies in the United States, Linda Alvarado is also co-owner of the Rockies franchise. During the early 1990s, she joined a consortium of local business leaders to bring major league baseball to Denver. The group made a bid for an NL expansion team, and each investor had to commit his or her own money as a deposit when the proposal went to MLB. If they lost the bid, their money was lost as well. However, Alvarado’s bid won and she became a part owner of the team, which played its first season in 1993. Not only did Alvarado become the first Hispanic woman among MLB’s franchise owners, she was also the first female to become co-owner of a team on her own. In other words, she did not inherit an ownership share from a husband, family, or syndicate.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 143

8/8/13 2:58 PM

144

Chapter 4

The Rockies’ scouting department had several positions with foreign officials in them during 2012. There was a senior director of international operations, managers of Dominican and Pacific Rim operations, and a supervisor of Venezuelan scouting. International scouts’ responsibilities included evaluating players in the Dominican Republic, Taiwan, and Venezuela. However, most area and part-time Rockies scouts cover territories in the United States. Houston Astros During 2012, the Astros’ baseball operations staff included special assistants to GM Jeff Luhnow. These men were Felix Francisco and Julio Linares. Francisco became a special assistant in November 2009 after spending the previous two seasons as the club’s director of Latin American scouting. His job was to oversee Latin American scouting activities, with particular emphasis in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico. A member of the Astros organization since 1973, Julio Linares has been a special assistant for Dominican scouting and development since 2005. He previously spent six seasons as director of Dominican Republic operations for the Astros. While some international scouts recruit baseball players from Australia, Colombia, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Panama, the Astros had several foreign-born managers and coaches in their farm system during the 2012 season. They worked in professional High and Low Class-A, and Rookie leagues. After playing thirteen years in MLB, Mexican Alex Trevino became an analyst for the Astros on their Spanish radio broadcasts. Los Angeles Dodgers In the Dodgers’ baseball operations, Latinos and other foreigners had staff positions. Besides special assistants to GM Ned Colletti and an assistant manager in the clubhouse, there was a Latin America special advisor, and a Campo Las Palmas coordinator and field coordinator.11 Regarding these positions, Dominican Ramon Martínez was a roving guest instructor for the DSL Dodgers in 2010–2011 and then a senior advisor for Latin American player development. A native of the Virgin Islands, Henry Cruz was the Campo Las Palmas director in the Dominican Republic during 2010–2012. Dominican Antonio Bautista was a bench coach and manager of the DSL Dodgers during the 1990s and in 2006, and then the field coordinator for the Dominican Academy at Campo Las Palmas in 2008–2012.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 144

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

145

From an international perspective, the Dodgers’ scouting department included an executive director and senior manager of Asian operations, a director of minor league relations, and a group of scouts. They recruited young and talented baseball players from Central and South America, and from amateur and semiprofessional leagues in Japan and Korea. In addition, a few foreigners served as managers and coaches in the Dodgers’ farm system. Miami Marlins Within the Marlins’ media relations/communications department during 2012, Hispanics had staff positions as directors of business communications and broadcasting. In baseball operations, the pregame instructor and bench, hitting, and third bases coaches, and some managers and coaches in the farm system, were foreigners. Scouting included a director of international operations plus international supervisors for the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and several scouts. In 2007, a Marlins’ scout recruited and then signed sixteen-year-old José Torres from Venezuela to a minor league contract for $250,000. While at the club’s Dominican training facility, Torres was a disappointment in hitting during 2008–2010. Before the 2012 season, his career came to a sad and unfortunate end after being suspended fifty games for testing positive for dehydroepiandrosterone, a banned performance-enhancing substance. Consequently, the Marlins released Torres, which probably terminated his career in professional baseball. Recently, the club’s front office has avoided scouting players in Latin America. Indeed, this is why the organization has few foreign-born teenage prospects in its farm system.12 Milwaukee Brewers Besides foreign-born managers and coaches in the Brewers’ farm system, the scouting department had international offices during 2012. Area scouts were responsible for players in Puerto Rico and British Columbia, Canada. There was a supervisor for Ontario, Canada, directors of scouting for the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and several Latin America scouts. For years, Marty Lehn has been a scout for the Brewers in Canada. In addition, he helped train Team Canada. That is, he coached it in the 1994 Baseball World Cup and 2004 Olympics and was manager of the team in the 2001 Baseball World Cup. Meanwhile, Canadian Jay Lapp was the franchise’s scouting supervisor. The list of players Lapp has

13_256_Jozsa.indb 145

8/8/13 2:58 PM

146

Chapter 4

drafted for the Brewers organization over the years outnumbers those of other scouts in the organization. Some players had signed with Milwaukee, while a few returned to school only to resurface but then be released from their contracts. Thanks to Lapp, the Brewers have been active when it involves drafting Canadians and assigning them to the minor leagues in order to get experience and potentially become future major leaguers. New York Mets During 2012, this large-market franchise had international offices and foreign officials in baseball operations, including the player development and scouting departments. More specifically, there was an international field coordinator and catching instructor, and professional scouting assistants, a director of international operations, area supervisors assigned to the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and international scouts. Regarding three Mets’ officials, Dominican Rafael Landestoy was manager of a team in the R-PL, a minor league infield instructor for the San Francisco Giants in 1988, and first base coach of the Montreal Expos from 1989 to 1991. He managed two years in the Mets organization during the mid-1990s, and in 2012, Landestoy was the Mets’ international field coordinator. Being former professional players in the minor leagues, two area supervisors were Latinos Gerardo Cabrera and Hector Rincones. These men had scouting responsibilities to discover, recruit, evaluate, and sign talented ballplayers from Latin America. Philadelphia Phillies Some Latinos were officials in the baseball operations of this organization during 2012. Rubén Amaro Jr. joined the Phillies’ front office immediately after his playing career ended in 1998. He served as an assistant GM for ten seasons before being named GM and senior vice president in 2008. In the player development department, Venezuelan Jorge Velandia was an assistant field coordinator. Before that job, he played eight years in MLB and coached the SSA-NYPL Williamsport Crosscutters in 2010–2011. While Phillies teams in the farm system employed some Hispanic managers and coaches, the club’s scouting department included an international supervisor; a director of major league scouting; and major league, professional, and special assignment scouts. The latter group recruits baseball players from the United States and Australia, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, and Venezuela.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 146

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

147

Pittsburgh Pirates In the Pirates organization of 2012, there was a Latin American coach and strength/conditioning coordinators, and in the minor leagues, Dominican Miguel Bonilla served as the rehabilitation/DSL pitching coach for Pirates teams. In another department, a director of Latin American scouting supervised full- and part-time scouts having assignments in foreign countries. The son of Cuban immigrants, Rene Gayo became a scout in 1989. After scouting for the Texas Rangers, he became a scouting director for the Cleveland Indians in Latin America in 1999. Gayo has been successful in signing several foreign ballplayers to contracts. In 2004, the Pirates hired him to lead their Latin American scouting system. His position was director of Latin American scouting in 2012. St. Louis Cardinals In this organization during 2012, Moises Rodriguez was director of international operations. As such, he supervised the team’s activities in Latin America from his office in the Dominican Republic. Rodriguez was responsible for managing the Cardinals’ training academy, which develops baseball prospects but also teaches them how to live in the United States and speak the language. He designed and implemented a language and cultural curriculum at the academy. There are instructions in English, teaching plans that continue beyond spring training, and for the first time, lessons that include players assigned to Cardinals’ teams in the U.S. minor leagues. The Cardinals’ scouting department included such staff as an administrator of Dominican Republic operations and several international and part-time scouts. The scouts had to evaluate potential professional players from areas in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. For Cardinals’ affiliates in the farm system, there were foreign-born managers and coaches, especially from Latin America. Some of them had been former players including minor league pitchers, catchers, infielders, and outfielders. San Diego Padres For this franchise in 2012, Dominican Omar Minaya was senior vice president of baseball operations. An assistant GM of the New York Mets from 1998 to 2001, Minaya became the first Hispanic GM in MLB history when he assumed that role with the Montreal Expos during 2002–2004 before returning to the Mets as GM in September 2004. After he worked for a

13_256_Jozsa.indb 147

8/8/13 2:58 PM

148

Chapter 4

year as an analyst for the league’s website mlb.com, the Padres hired him for his current position with the club. In the organization’s player development department, Dominican Juan Lara was manager of international operations, and Cesar Rizik the administrator of Dominican Republic operations. For officials in the scouting department, there was a coordinator of Latin American scouting and the Pacific Rim, supervisors of Venezuela and Central America/Mexico, and international scouts assigned to several countries in Latin America. San Francisco Giants Throughout 2012, the Giants had foreign-born officials in their business and baseball operations. Puerto Rican Orlando Cepeda spent time working in urban and rural areas of the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and other Latin American countries during his first year as a scout for the organization. Later, he became a goodwill ambassador while organizing and attending activities in U.S. and international schools, hospitals, and community centers, and representing the Giants in programs intended to improve Latin American communities. In addition to Cepeda, Dominican Felipe Alou has been a special assistant to the franchise’s GM since 2007. Regarding international positions, the Giants’ scouting department includes a director and assistant director of Dominican operations, a Venezuela supervisor and Latin America cross-checker, a coordinator of Pacific Rim scouting, and international scouts. Their job is to evaluate and sign to contracts talented athletes from Australia and several Central and Latin American countries. Washington Nationals For the Nationals organization in 2012, there was a Dominican Republic Academy administrator in the player development department. He managed and controlled the academy’s operations including its communications, facilities, players, and staff. The scouting department had a director of Latin American operations, scouting supervisors of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and international and part-time scouts. In the Nationals’ farm system, a few Hispanics were coaches of teams in the Short-Season and Rookie leagues. Some of them had played on clubs in MLB and/or the U.S. minor leagues. The group of coaches included Venezuelan Luis Ordaz and Dominican Amaury Garcia. In addition, Dominican Franklin Bravo and Cuban Michael Tejera were coaches who taught minor league pitchers. During 2012, NL franchises participated in different international baseball leagues, and had U.S. and foreign-born players in various positions

13_256_Jozsa.indb 148

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

149

on their teams abroad. Of course, player eligibility rules were important there because they partly determined the structure of teams’ rosters. For example, in the Dominican and Venezuelan Summer Leagues, there were no age limits for players but they may not have four or more years of experience in the minor leagues. In Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, each major team could import four players but there were no limits on clubs in the minor league system. In the Chinese Professional Baseball League, only three imported players could be active and only two of them may be on the field at the same time. Besides these restrictions, other international leagues established roster limits for player eligibility in 2012. Regarding the specific number of imports, each team had no more than six in the MXL and two in the Korea Baseball Organization League. Among members of the Caribbean Baseball Confederation, roster limits of teams in the winter included seven imports each in the Dominican and Venezuelan Leagues, five each in the MXPL and Puerto Rican League, and zero in the Columbian and Nicaraguan Leagues. Interestingly, there were no restrictions on imports in the China Baseball League, Dutch Major League, Italy’s Series A, and the Australian Baseball League. In short, these rules govern how many immigrants teams in international leagues may list on their rosters.

NOTES 1. See Don Jensen, “John McGraw,” www.sabr.org (26 January 2013), “John McGraw,” www.baseball-reference.com (26 January 2013), and “Coach (Baseball),” www.wikipedia.org (8 January 2013). 2. See, for example, “List of Current Major League Baseball Coaching Staffs,” www.baseball-reference.com (26 January 2013) for information about foreign-born coaches of teams in the AL and NL as of 2012, and “List of Major League Baseball Managers,” www.wikipedia.org (8 January 2013) as a source for the performances and profiles of teams’ managers. Other readings about specific international MLB coaches and managers in the literature are available on www.baseball-almanac .com, www.mlb.com, and www.baseballlibrary.com; from articles published in various journals, magazines, and newspapers; and from reports in press releases of teams. See Baseball America 2012 Directory (Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2012), 16–75 for baseball operations of AL and NL franchises including personnel and their staff positions. 3. The Rawlings Gold Glove Award is given annually to the MLB players who exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position as voted by managers and coaches. Managers may not vote for their own players. Eighteen Gold Gloves are awarded each year (with the exception of 1957, 1985, and 2007), one for each of nine positions. For players’ performances, see

13_256_Jozsa.indb 149

8/8/13 2:58 PM

150

Chapter 4

“American League Gold Glove Award Winners,” www.baseball-reference.com (17 December 2012), and “National League Gold Glove Award Winners,” www .baseball-reference.com (23 December 2012). 4. The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and created by MLB, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world. The tournament is the first of its kind to have national baseball teams feature professional players from major leagues around the world. In addition to providing a format for the world’s best baseball players to compete against one another while representing their home countries, the WBC promotes the game internationally. After a three-year gap between the first two installments of the tournament, plans call for a WBC every four years following the 2009 event, with the third installment in 2013. For details of the event, see “First World Baseball Classic Set for March,” www.mlb.com (15 July 2005), “WBC Groups Revisited,” www.cnnsi. com (15 July 2005), “World Baseball Classic,” www.worldbaseballclassic.com (5 March 2013). 5. Because of his team’s performance in 2011, the Indians rewarded manager Manny Acta by exercising his option for 2013. The Indians won eleven more games in 2011 than 2010, had thirty-six come-from-behind victories, and finished seventh in walk-off home runs among fourteen AL teams. If the team improved by winning additional games in 2012, the Indians had the right but not obligation to renew his contract in 2013. Rather than resign Acta, the Indians signed former Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona to a four-year contract in October 2012. 6. See Paula Pettavino and Geralyn Pye, Sport in Cuba: The Diamond in the Rough (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994); and “Mike Gonzalez,” www.baseball-reference.com (5 March 2013). 7. It was a difficult decision for Edwin Rodriguez to leave the Marlins. He was gracious and said, “I can’t say enough about the effort that this staff and these players have put into this season. I wish this organization and players nothing but success in their futures.” According to Marlins’ president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest, “It’s been extremely frustrating for everyone.” See “Marlins’ Rodriguez Resigns,” Charlotte Observer (20 June 2011), 4C. 8. In the appendix tables A4.1 to A4.4 denote the distribution of MLB’s central office staff and franchises’ managers, coaches, and officials by race for various years. Published by the College of Business at the University of Central Florida, “The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball” includes Americans and foreign-born Asians, Latinos, and individuals from other ethnic groups. Generally, the number and percentage of Latinos has increased among staff and teams’ managers and coaches. For team officials, the largest percentages of Latinos were head trainers and senior administrators while the fewest number had jobs as general managers/directors of player personnel. For Asians in 2011, the percentages of total team officials ranged from zero to 5 percent, and the number from zero to ten employees. In sum, there were more whites in positions within MLB and the franchises than African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and individuals from other races. Differences in the distribution of races among staffs occurred because of such things as variation in these employees’ education,

13_256_Jozsa.indb 150

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Team Coaches, Managers, Operations

151

employment experience, ability to speak the English language, knowledge of baseball, and perhaps discrimination. See Richard Lapchick, The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball, (Orlando: University of Central Florida, College of Business Administration, 2012). 9. If a scouting supervisor determines that a U.S. or foreign baseball player is good enough at his position on the field and/or as a hitter, the supervisor may recommend that a cross-checker evaluate the player. Most likely, the crosschecker will observe the player in a game situation, compare his ability to others he has seen from across the nation and abroad, and then report his findings to the supervisor. If a cross-checker thinks a player will be a very early draft round selection, the director of scouting may see him play to determine his potential as a future major leaguer. 10. About being hired as a special assistant to Boston Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, Pedro Martínez said, “I am thrilled to be returning to this organization and to the city I love. My heart will always be in Boston.” See “Martínez Returns to Red Sox as Assistant to GM,” www.sports.yahoo.com (24 January 2013). 11. Opened in March of 1987, Campo Las Palmas is located on seventy-five acres of land in Guerra, a town east of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. This first-of-its-kind academy has two each full and one-half baseball fields, dining and recreation rooms, a kitchen, and two dormitories that accommodate up to one hundred players. In addition to baseball instruction, Los Angeles Dodgers’ prospects receive academic instruction including lessons in English, American culture, and dealing with situations that confront players when they arrive in the United States. Its notable alumni include Adrián Beltré, Raúl Mondesí, and Pedro Astacio. For more information about this facility, see “Campo Las Palmas Celebrates 20th Season,” www.losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com (26 January 2013). 12. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is an endogenous steroid hormone, and the most abundant circulating steroid in humans. The adrenal glands, gonads, and brain produce it. There is sufficient evidence supporting use of DHEA in the treatment of adrenal insufficiency and depression. See “Dehydroepiandrosterone,” www.umm. edu (5 March 2013), and “DHEA,” www.mayoclinic.com (5 March 2013).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 151

8/8/13 2:58 PM

13_256_Jozsa.indb 152

8/8/13 2:58 PM

5

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

A

fter the National Association (NA) failed to achieve competitive balance because, in part, its members had financial problems during 1871–1875, the National League (NL) formed in 1876 and consisted of eight professional baseball teams. As the NL began to operate and become popular, other baseball teams in America organized into regional associations such as the International Association in 1877 and Eastern Championship Association in 1881. To attract sports fans, these groups of local but struggling clubs occasionally played a series of games to determine a champion.1 The Northwestern League (NWL), for example, was one of the first minor baseball leagues in the United States. Established as a permanent and not temporary organization in 1883, supposedly it, some other groups, and the NL and American Association agreed to accept, in part, the conditions of a National Agreement and thus respect each other’s reserve lists. Because NWL teams could reserve players whose salaries were only $750 and not $1,000 as NL and American Association clubs were, this difference in amounts caused sports officials to consider the NWL and others to be minor and not major baseball organizations. While the NL and former Western League (WL), which became baseball’s American League (AL) in 1900, had serious problems and were hostile toward each other about their reputations, rules, and markets, representatives of seven U.S. minor leagues met in September 1901 at the Leland Hotel in Chicago and decided to form the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL). Although the group’s purpose was to maintain its identity and independence from the AL and NL, 153

13_256_Jozsa.indb 153

8/8/13 2:58 PM

154

Chapter 5

some baseball clubs decided not to join it and remain unaffiliated. In the NAPBL’s 1902 season, it included fourteen leagues and ninety-six clubs. When the AL and NL discussed their mutual problems in 1903 and agreed to honor the reserve clause in player contracts, the NAPBL joined the negotiations in order to influence and establish guidelines to follow regarding the acquisition of players from teams in their leagues by franchises in the AL and NL. In fact, the agreement ensured teams in these leagues would receive payment for the players they had scouted, trained, and developed and that no NAPBL team had to sell its players, although most did because cash was an important source of revenue for them. The NAPBL was not completely a minor baseball league until the 1920s when the NL St. Louis Cardinals’ general manager (GM) Branch Rickey organized the first type of farm system. Although Major League Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis fought Rickey’s plan and organization, it was the Great Depression that forced the AL and other NL teams to establish a system like Rickey’s to ensure a steady supply of players. Interestingly, many NAPBL and some independent teams could not afford to operate without the patronage of MLB clubs. Consequently, the NAPBL and its teams became subordinate to those in MLB, and this situation helped to create the first official minor league system in America. Besides the Pacific Coast League (PCL), which tried to become a third major league in various areas of the West, the other minor leagues in the U.S. maintained their autonomy but in name only. Indeed, some of them were economically dependent on teams in the AL and NL. In 1999, the NAPBL changed its name and officially became Minor League Baseball (MiLB). The current MiLB classification system divides leagues and their respective teams into groups. These include Triple-A (AAA), Double-A (AA), High Class-A (HCA), Low Class-A (LCA), Short-Season A (SSA), and Rookie (R). Under rules governing the affiliated minor leagues, Short Season is a distinct and separate classification from others in MiLB because of its status and the number and schedule of games in the baseball season. To focus on immigrants, this chapter identifies a number of foreign and Puerto Rican baseball coaches, managers, and players, and then briefly discusses their careers on teams in MiLB during one or more years. Players immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, and other countries to improve athletically, earn a salary, and eventually join a team in the AL and/ or NL. The majority of them, however, competed for a few seasons in MiLB and simply retired from the sport, while others became amateur and professional baseball coaches, managers, and/or officials. The next section discusses recent foreign-born managers of baseball teams in various minor leagues.2

13_256_Jozsa.indb 154

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

155

INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS International League Since 1997, Puerto Rican Charles Montoyo has been a coach and manager in the Tampa Bay Rays (former Tampa Bay Devil Rays) organization. In MiLB, he was successful while coaching the Rookie-Appalachian League (R-APPL) Princeton Devil Rays (now Princeton Rays) and Short-Season A New York-Penn League (SSA-NYPL) Hudson Valley Renegades, who led the league with fifty wins in 1998. Then Montoyo was manager when the Low Class-A South Atlantic League (LCA-SAL) Charleston River Dogs had a winning season, as did the High Class-A California League (HCACAL) Bakersfield Blaze. As manager of the Double-A Southern League (AA-SL) Montgomery Biscuits in 2006, his team won the championship. During 2009–2012, Montoyo managed the Triple-A International League (AAA-IL) Durham Bulls. The club set a league record by winning ninetytwo of its regular plus postseason games in 2010. In sixteen years managing in MiLB, Charlie Montoyo’s teams have won 1,104 of their games, or 52 percent. Within five years, he will coach or manage a club in MLB. Besides his years in MiLB, Montoyo coached Puerto Rico’s national teams in the 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) and during 2010–2011, he managed the World Team at the All-Star Futures Game. In 2009, Montoyo won the Mike Coolbaugh Award and two years later, he was the IL’s Manager of the Year. Presented during MiLB’s winter meetings, the Mike Coolbaugh Award went to Montoyo because of his outstanding work ethic, knowledge of the game, and skill in mentoring young baseball players. The award honors Mike Coolbaugh, who died in 2007 during an MiLB game while coaching first base after he was struck by a line drive.3

Southern League For several years, Venezuelan Carlos Subero worked for minor league teams in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system. He managed the HCACAL Inland Empire 66ers in 2009 and from 2010 to 2012, the AA-SL Chattanooga Lookouts. His Lookouts’ teams clinched the second-half title of the league during two seasons because of a pitching staff that had the lowest earned run average (ERA) in 2011 and one year later, finished second in ERA. In 2013, Subero was manager of the HCA-CAL Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, which is the Dodgers’ Single-A affiliate in southern California. While managing for twelve years in MiLB, Subero’s teams won 729, or 48 percent of their games. Before his years in MiLB, Carlos Subero had international coaching and managing experiences. When thirty-three years old, he was the youngest

13_256_Jozsa.indb 155

8/8/13 2:58 PM

156

Chapter 5

manager to win a Caribbean Series (CS) after leading the top team in the Venezuelan League to a championship. In fact, Subero is only one of two Venezuelans to manage a CS champion. From 2005 to 2010, his teams in the Venezuelan Winter League (VWL) appeared in the playoffs, including Tiburones de La Guaira during the 2007–2009 seasons. In addition, Subero managed the Venados de Mazatlan club in the 2012 Mexican Winter League (MXWL).4 In 1995, Dominican Mike Guerrero began his baseball career managing the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate in the Dominican Summer League (DSL). Then he joined the Milwaukee Brewers organization and managed its DSL team from 1996 to 2002. After his Brewers club won the league title in 2001, Guerrero became Manager of the Year. In 2004, he led the RookieArizona League (R-AZL) Brewers, and two years later, Guerrero moved up to their LCA-SAL affiliate, the West Virginia Power. In his second year with the Power, his team finished third in the regular season, qualified for the playoffs, but lost in the league’s final series. After a promotion to the High Class-A Florida State League (HCA-FSL) Brevard County Manatees and managing them in 2008–2009, Guerrero led the AA-SL Huntsville Stars. Two years later, he managed the Brewers’ top farm club, the Triple-A Pacific Coast League (AAA-PCL) Nashville Sounds. During his eleven-year career in MiLB, Guerrero’s teams won 545 games, or 51 percent. California League In 1990, Cuban Juan Bustabad started his coaching career in the RookieGulf Coast League (R-GCL) with the Yakima Bears of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. During 1991–1993, he managed Dodgers teams in the Venezuelan Summer League (VSL), served as a roving infield coach, and then coached the Rookie-Pioneer League (R-PL) Lethbridge Mounties in southern Alberta, Canada. From 1994 to 1998, Bustabad managed different teams in the Florida Marlins farm system and in 1999, he was hitting coach of the HCA-FSL Brevard County Manatees. During the early 2000s, Bustabad returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, managed their minor league teams, and served as a hitting coach for the R-PL Ogden Raptors and HCA-FSL Vero Beach Dodgers. From 2005 to 2010, he managed the Raptors, R-GCL Dodgers, and the Low Class-A Midwest League (LCA-ML) Great Lake Loons. In 2011, Bustabad’s HCA-CAL team, the Dodgers’ Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, finished second in the league and lost in the second round of the playoffs, but fell to seventh in 2012. In sixteen years while participating in MiLB, his teams won 856, or 55 percent, of their games. Thus, Juan Bustabad has been an outstanding

13_256_Jozsa.indb 156

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

157

coach and manager of teams during his career with the Dodgers. Within five years, he might join the Los Angeles Dodgers and serve as their hitting, first base, or third base coach, or simply become an instructor or special assistant. Puerto Rican Carlos Lezcano has managed minor league teams in six different leagues for twenty years. More specifically, he managed them in the Rookie Arizona League (R-AZL) during 1991, 2001–2002, and 2004–2006, and in the Midwest League (ML) during 1993–1994, California League (CAL) during 1995–1996 and 2007–2012, Texas League (TL) during 1997, Pioneer League (PL) during 1999 and 2003, and Southern League (SL) during 2000. While several of his teams lost games in their league’s finals and in the first and second rounds of playoffs, Lezcano’s R-AZL Padres were league champions in 2006. Four years later, Lezcano became the CAL Manager of the Year after guiding the Padres’ HCA-CAL Lake Eisinore Storm to the league’s best record. In nineteen years as an MiLB manager, Lezcano’s teams won 1,012 games, or 52 percent. Similar to Charlie Montoyo and Juan Bustabad, Carolos Lezcano will coach and/or manage a club in MLB before he retires. After his playing career ended in 1982, Dominican Jose Moreno continued to work for organizations in professional baseball. He managed such championship teams as the Seattle Mariners’ VSL Aguirre in 2002, R-AZL Mariners in 2007, and Short Season A-Northwest League (SSANORWL) Everett AquaSox in 2010. In addition, Moreno was manager of the VSL Aguirre in 2001 and 2003–2004, VSL Mariners in 2005–2006, SSA-NORWL Everett AquaSox in 2008, R-APPL Pulaski Mariners in 2009 and 2012, and the HCA-CAL High Desert Mavericks in 2011. That season, the Mavericks finished in ninth place and thirty-one games behind the champion San Jose Giants. During Moreno’s twelve-year career in MiLB, his teams won 449, or 53 percent of their games. In short, Jose Moreno has been an excellent manager with the Seattle Mariners organization. Carolina League Several years before and after serving as a scout for the Texas Rangers in 1981–1982 and 1985, and the Cleveland Indians in 1986–1987, Puerto Rican Orlando Gomez became a coach of various MLB teams and manager of others in MiLB. He was on the coaching staff of the Rangers in 1991–1992, Tampa Bay Devil Rays (renamed Tampa Bay Rays) in 1998– 2000, and the Seattle Mariners in 2003–2004. In addition, Gomez coached such minor league teams as the SSA-NORWL Bellingham Mariners in 1993–1994, AA-TL San Antonio Missions in 2000–2001, and AAA-PCL

13_256_Jozsa.indb 157

8/8/13 2:58 PM

158

Chapter 5

Tacoma Rainiers in 2002. He spent 2005–2006 as a bullpen catcher and batting practice pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, and became manager of the R-GCL Orioles in 2007. After one season each as manager of the R-APPL Bluefield Orioles 2008 and AA-SL Delmarva Shorebirds in 2009, Orlando Gomez joined the High Class-A Carolina League (HCA-CARL) Frederick Keys Orioles in 2010. One year later, his Keys team won eighty games and the league championship. During Gomez’s eighteen years as a manager in MiLB, his teams won more than 1,000 games, but less than 50 percent of their total. Consequently, Orlando Gomez will likely continue his career as a coach or manager with the Baltimore Orioles organization. From 1996 to 2010, Venezuelan Luis Salazar either coached or managed teams in MiLB and for one year, was a coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. Then in 2011, Salazar joined the Atlanta Braves organization to become manager of their HCA-CARL affiliate, the Lynchburg Hillcats. However, in March of that year, a foul ball from the bat of Braves catcher Brian McCann struck Salazar in the face during a spring training game between the Braves and St. Louis Cardinals. After being airlifted to a local hospital to undergo treatment, Salazar had his left eye removed due to the injuries he sustained from the incident. While recovering from surgery, Salazar decided to continue working for teams in the Braves organization. Indeed, he returned to manage the Hillcats once medically cleared by his physician. Thus, he joined the Hillcats in their dugout during April 2011. Unfortunately, Salazar’s team finished 60–78 and more than nineteen games behind the champion Frederick Keys Orioles. However, the Hillcats recovered and were the league champions in 2012. Florida State League During 2003–2004, Venezuelan Carlos Garcia was a hitting and infield coach for the AAA-IL Buffalo Bisons. Then, in different baseball seasons from 2005 to 2010, he was the Seattle Mariners first base and infield coach, and a Pittsburgh Pirates minor league first base coach, infield coordinator, and instructor. In 2011–2012, he managed the Pirates’ HCA-FSL affiliate, the Bradenton Marauders. His Marauders club finished fourth in the league and three games behind the Dunedin Blue Jays in their 2011 season and then in eleventh place in 2012. Due to a promotion, Carlos Garcia will manage the Pirates’ Double-A Eastern League (AA-EL) affiliate, the Altoona Curve, in 2013. During his two years as a manager in MiLB, Garcia’s teams won 124, or 48 percent, of their games. Despite his mediocre career thus far, he will get experience, improve, and become a more successful manager of minor league teams, whether with the Pirates or another MLB organization.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 158

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

159

After winning five batting titles with teams in the VWL, playing on five World Series champions, and retiring as a professional player, Venezuelan Luis Sojo has been a coach and manager within the New York Yankees organization for a decade. While managing the AA-EL Norwich Navigators, his club won the league title in 2002, and seven years later, so did the HCA-FSL Tampa Yankees. During 2011–2012, the Tampa Yankees finished fifth and then sixth in the FSL. During his seven-year career as a manager, Sojo’s MiLB teams won 381 games, or 55 percent. In addition, he managed the Venezuelan national team in the 2006 WBC and others in the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games. In short, Luis Sojo has been a productive member of the New York Yankees organization since the early 2000s. After managing teams for six seasons in various U.S. minor leagues for the Texas Rangers, Puerto Rican Pedro Lopez joined the New York Mets organization in 2008. Through 2011, he had compiled a winning record at each stop with his teams in MiLB. Lopez’s journey began with the RAPPL Kingsport Mets in 2008 when he guided the club to a 34–32 record. Under his leadership in 2009, the SSA-NYPL Brooklyn Cyclones finished tied for third in the McNamara Division, but in the postseason, the team lost in the first round of the playoffs. Pedro Lopez continued to succeed at his next managerial job with the Low Class-A South Atlantic League (LCA-SAL) Savannah Sand Gnats in 2010. In fact, the team made the playoffs but lost in the first round. In 2011, his HCA-FSL St. Lucie Mets finished sixth and lost in the league’s final series. Then, while managing the AA-EL Binghamton Mets in 2012, the club finished ninth in the overall standings. In a managing career of eleven years, his MiLB teams won 410, or 52 percent of their games. Thus, Pedro Lopez has been an above-average manager of minor league teams including the Cyclones, Gnats, and Mets. After retiring as a player in 1991, one year later Puerto Rican Luis Aguayo began to coach and then manage Boston Red Sox affiliates in the U.S. minor leagues. From 1993 to 1995, he coached the AAA-IL Pawtucket Sox, and during 1997–1999, Aguayo managed the R-GCL Red Sox and SSA-NYPL Lowell Spinners. Subsequently, he joined the Cincinnati Reds organization, and from 2004 to 2006, he managed the R-PL Billings Mustangs and then the R-GCL Reds for two seasons. During June 2008, Aguayo was the first base coach of the New York Mets. From 2010 to 2012, Luis Aguayo managed MiLB teams in the St. Louis Cardinals system. His HCA-FSL Palm Beach Cardinals finished fifth and then seventh in the league, and in 2012, the LCA-ML Quad Cities River Bandits ended in ninth place. During his nine-year career as a manager, Aguayo’s teams won 380, or 47 percent of their games. Consequently, he has been a below-average to average manager in MiLB.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 159

8/8/13 2:58 PM

160

Chapter 5

Midwest League The father of Tampa Bay Rays infielder Sean Rodriguez, Cuban Johnny Rodriguez became a coach during the 1990s–2000s in the New York Yankees farm system and also in amateur baseball programs at the University of Miami, Miami Dade College, and Westminster Christian High School. After scouting for the Houston Astros, Anaheim Angels, New York Mets, and Milwaukee Brewers organizations, Johnny Rodriguez was a hitting coach of teams in the Montreal Expos farm system in 2000–2001. Later, he managed the SSA-NYPL Jamestown Jammers to a tenth place finish in 2002 and then became a coach of teams in MiLB for the Florida (now Miami) Marlins. During 2009, Johnny Rodriguez joined the St. Louis Cardinals organization and was a hitting coach of the R-APPL Johnson City Cardinals before being named to manage the LCA-ML Quad Cities River Bandits in 2010. One year later his Bandits team finished second in the regular season to the Dayton Dragon Reds, won the playoffs, and became the league champion. In 2012, Rodriguez managed the Palm Beach Cardinals to seventh place in the HCA-FSL. After four years as a manager, his teams had won 259 games, or 53 percent. Thus, Johnny Rodriguez has been an excellent manager in the Cardinals farm system. From 2005 to 2012, Venezuelan Nelson Prada managed MiLB teams in the Minnesota Twins organization. His two best clubs, the 2007 R-GCL Twins and 2012 LCA-ML Beloit Snappers each qualified for the playoffs but lost in the first round. During his eight years as a manager in the minor leagues, Prada’s teams won 436, or 51 percent, of their games. Although his Twins teams did not win a championship, they ranked from third to thirteenth in the final standings of their league during the 2005–2012 seasons. While being a busy baseball player in summer months, Venezuelan Jesus Azuaje began his coaching career in the VWL with the Cardenales de Lara team. He coached the VSL Mariners in 2007 and one year later, received a promotion to coach the R-APPL Pulaski Mariners. After becoming hitting coach of the LCA-ML Clinton Lumberjacks in 2009, Azuaje managed the R-AZL Mariners during 2010 and the Lumberjacks and then the Mariners again in 2011. During 2012, he was the Seattle Mariners’ Latin America Field Coordinator. While managing two years in MiLB, Jesus Azuaje’s teams won forty-nine games, or 40 percent.

South Atlantic League Venezuelan Lipso Nava retired as an MiLB player after the 2006 season. In 2007, he served as a hitting coach for the Atlantic League’s Newark

13_256_Jozsa.indb 160

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

161

Bears and during 2008–2010, Nava was a hitting coach in the San Francisco Giants organization for the LCA-SAL Augusta Greenjackets. Then he became the Greenjackets’ manager in 2011. That season, Nava’s team finished seventh in the regular season but lost in the first round of the playoffs. In 2012, the Greenjackets placed eighth in the league’s regular season. While managing in MiLB, Lipso Nava’s teams won 139, or 50 percent, of their games. Thus, he has been an average baseball manager. New York-Penn League Dominican Carlos Febles spent 2009–2010 as batting coach of the HCACARL Salem Red Sox, an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Then during December 2010, he became manager of the SSA-NYPL Lowell Spinners, which is also a Red Sox farm club. In 2011, the Spinners finished thirteenth in the league and more than sixteen games behind the Staten Island Yankees. In January 2012, the Red Sox transferred Febles from Lowell to manage the LCA-SAL Greenville Drive, another Red Sox affiliate. That season, the Drive was 66-73 and ended ninth in the league. Even so, the Red Sox rehired Febles to manage the Drive in 2013. Through 2012, his won-lost performance as a manager was 95-118, which is a dismal .446 winning percentage. A native of Puerto Rico, former Baltimore Orioles’ infielder Leo Gomez became the field coach of the franchise’s R-GCL Orioles in 2009. One year later, he was in that position for the SSA-NYPL Aberdeen IronBirds. In 2011, the Orioles announced the promotion of Gomez to become manager of the IronBirds. As a result, his club finished fourteenth and twenty-two games behind the Staten Island Yankees. Thus, Gomez’s team won only 32 percent of its games in 2011. One year later Gary Allenson replaced him as manager of the IronBirds. Consequently, Leo Gomez needs more experience as a coach before managing Orioles MiLB teams. Northwest League From 1996 to 1998, Dominican Audo Vicente was an infielder on various teams in MiLB. After retiring as a ballplayer, he became the infield coach of the DSL Diamondbacks in 2005 and managed the team during 2006–2007. For these two seasons, they won fifty-four games, or 38 percent. Continuing his career in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, Vicente managed the R-PL Missoula Osprey during 2008–2009, HCACAL Visalia Rawhide in 2010, and the SSA-NORWL Yakima Bears during 2011–2012. As a group, these teams finished between fifth and eighth in their league and won 53 percent of all regular season games. Based on his performances through 2012, Audo Vicente will have an opportunity to coach and manage Diamondbacks’ teams for several years.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 161

8/8/13 2:58 PM

162

Chapter 5

Appalachian League After signing a minor league contract as a free agent in 1982 with the Toronto Blue Jays, Dominican Nelson Liriano played from 1987 to 1998 for six different teams in MLB. Two years after his retirement, he managed the DSL Rockies in 2000–2001, and then during 2002 to 2008, Liriano coached such MiLB teams as the AA-TL Wichita Wranglers, R-AZL Royals, and HCA-CARL Wilmington Blue Rocks. While Liriano managed the R-APPL Burlington Royals from 2009 to 2011, they won 40 percent of their games and finished between fourth and tenth in the league. In 2012, he returned to coach the R-AZL Royals. Given his performances, Nelson Liriano needs more experience managing teams in MiLB before he coaches for a MLB franchise. Venezuelan Omar Lopez played on various MiLB teams during the 1990s and then spent years scouting for the Houston Astros. From 2008 to 2012, he managed the franchise’s clubs in the minor leagues. These included the VSL Astros in 2008, R-GCL Astros from 2009 to 2010, and the R-APPL Greeneville Astros during 2011–2012. In total, these teams won 43 percent of regular season games and finished between third and sixteenth in their league. If he learns how to motivate his players and convinces them to compete and think at their positions and as hitters, Omar Lopez has the potential to improve as a manager of MiLB teams. Pioneer League After playing from 1984 to 1990 in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, Dominican Héctor de la Cruz coached in the Arizona Diamondbacks farm system during 2001–2004. For the next eight years, he managed Diamondbacks’ teams in MiLB. These included the R-PL Missoula Osprey in 2005–2006 and 2010–2011, HCA-CAL Visalia Oaks in 2007, and AA-SL Mobile Bay Bears in 2008–2009. Cruz’s 2006 Osprey team was the league’s champion and from 2005 to 2011, his seven clubs won 346, or 48 percent of their games. For some reason, the Diamondbacks organization replaced Cruz as the Osprey’s manager in 2012. Besides experiences in MiLB, his Tigres del Licey team in the Dominican League won the 2008 CS title. In 2000, Dominican Tony Diaz began his coaching career with the RAZL Rockies and from 2001 to 2006, he was a hitting coach for the R-PL Casper Rockies. During 2007–2012, Diaz managed the Casper Rockies for one season, R-PL Casper Ghosts for four, and R-PL Grand Junction Rockies for one. His six teams, as a group, won 193, or 42 percent, of their games. Given his performance as a manager through 2012, Tony Diaz has a future in baseball operations of the Colorado Rockies organization.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 162

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

163

Arizona League During parts of the 1998–2002 MLB seasons, Venezuelan José Nieves was an infielder for the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels. Then he managed MiLB teams in the Cincinnati Reds organization. In 2010, it was the VSL Reds, who finished 35-33, and in 2011–2012, Nieves’ R-AZL Reds won forty-nine, or 43 percent, of their games. According to Jeff Graupe, the Cincinnati Reds’ assistant director of player development, “José Nieves is a tremendous worker who is devoted to developing our young players. José’s experiences in the game allow him to relate to players of all ages and his high baseball IQ is shown through the quality of his ingame managing.” In 2013, the thirty-eight-year-old Nieves managed the LCA-ML Dayton Dragons. Dominican Juan Cabreja began his baseball career as a coach of the DSL Cubs during 2004–2006 and then, as a manager, led them to an 86-55 record in 2007–2008. For the next three MiLB seasons, Cabreja was manager of the R-AZL Cubs, who won 50 percent of their games. In 2012, his DSL Cubs 1 team was 33-37. Since the Cubs have only one Dominican team in 2013, Juan Cabreja will serve as the franchise’s Latin America assistant field coordinator. As such, he has been an asset to the development and success of the Chicago Cubs organization. The Baseball America 2012 Almanac lists Venezuelan Jesus Azuaje and then American Eddie Menchaca as managers of the LCA-ML Clinton Lumber Kings in 2011, but Azuaje for the R-AZL Mariners in 2010 and part of 2011. Regarding Azuaje’s teams in the AZL, they won forty-five games, or 40 percent, and finished fourth and ninth, respectively, in the league. Because of his substandard record as a manager of teams in MiLB, Jesus Azuaje became the Seattle Mariners’ Latin America Field Coordinator in 2012. Gulf Coast League During 1982–1991, Dominican Ramon Sambo spent ten seasons in MiLB playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox, and California Angels organizations. After retiring as a player in 1993, he was a batting practice pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and then in the mid-1990s, began his career as a minor league baseball manager. These experiences included 1995–1996 with the DSL Pirates, 2008 with the LCA-SAL Delmarva Shorebirds, and 2009–2012 with the R-GCL Orioles. During his seven seasons as a manager, Sambo’s teams won 251, or 49 percent of their games. His 2011 GCL Orioles finished second in the league with a winning percentage of .633, but lost in the first round of the playoffs. Given these

13_256_Jozsa.indb 163

8/8/13 2:58 PM

164

Chapter 5

results, Ramon Sambo has been an average manager of Pirates and Orioles teams in MiLB. After spending twelve seasons as a player in MiLB, Venezuelan Carlos Mendoza began a new career as a coach and manager of teams in the New York Yankees organization. During 2009–2010, he coached the LCA-SAL Charleston RiverDogs. Then in 2011, Mendoza led the R-GCL Yankees to win thirty-seven games, finish in third place during the regular season, and become the league champion. One year later, Mendoza’s RiverDogs team placed fourth but won 53 percent of its games. Thus far, Carlos Mendoza’s performance has been outstanding as a coach and manager in the New York Yankees farm system. From 1996 to 2002, Venezuelan Ramon Borrego played on MiLB teams in the Minnesota Twins organization. During his seven-year career, he had a .244 BA with ten home runs. Then in 2005–2008, he coached Twins teams in the VSL. After Borrego became manager of the DSL Twins in 2009, his team won forty-six games and lost in the league’s final series. In 2010–2012, Borrego managed the R-GCL Twins. As a group, these clubs won ninety-one, or 52 percent of their games. In fact, his 2012 R-GCL Twins finished second in the league’s South Division. Ramon Borrego has been winning games as a manager of Twins teams since 2009. This trend should continue in future MiLB seasons because of his experiences and ability to manage. During 1986–1992, Dominican Basilio Cabrera was a minor league outfielder in the Detroit Tigers farm system after which he coached MiLB teams of the organization from 1993 to 2007. These clubs included the LCA-SAL Fayetteville Generals, R-APPL Bristol and R-GCL Tigers, HCA-FSL Lakeland Tigers, and SSA-NYPL Oneonta Tigers. In 2008–2012, Cabrera managed the GCL Tigers. His five clubs, in total, won 150, or 51 percent of their games and finished between second and twelfth in a division of the league. Based on his performance thus far, the Detroit Tigers organization will likely assign and encourage Basilio Cabrera to coach or manage MiLB teams for several years. Dominican Luis Rojas is entering his eighth year as an employee of the New York Mets organization. Rojas played in the minor league for four years with the Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, Montreal Expos, and Washington Nationals before becoming an MiLB coach and manager. He will continue his baseball career as a third-year manager in 2013 with the LCA-SAL Savannah Sand Gnats, which means potentially good results for the franchise. Rojas’s father, Felipe Alou, played seventeen years in MLB and currently is a special assistant to the GM of the San Francisco Giants. Luis Rojas’s brother, Moises Alou, also played professional baseball for seventeen years. His uncles, Jesus Alou and the late Matty Alou, both played for fifteen years in MLB. “It is a blessing, and I’m very excited

13_256_Jozsa.indb 164

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

165

to be coming back to Savannah,” said Luis Rojas. “We’ll put together a strong Sand Gnats team as usual to compete all the way through the postseason.”5 After spending nine seasons on MiLB teams in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, Venezuelan Omar Malave retired as a player in 1989 and then became coach of the R-PL Medicine Hat Blue Jays. One year later, he began his career managing minor league teams in various leagues. During the 1990s, these included the R-GCL Blue Jays, Medicine Hat Blue Jays, LCA-SAL Hagerstown Suns, and the AA-SL Knoxville Smokies. From 2001 to 2012, his teams were the AAA-IL Syracuse SkyChiefs, HCA-FSL Dunedin Blue Jays, and R-GCL Blue Jays. Seven of Malave’s teams lost games in the first round of playoffs while the 1994 Hagerstown Suns and 2006 Dunedin Blue Jays each failed to win games in the league’s final series. In twenty-one seasons, his teams won 1,320 games, or 52 percent. Besides these performances in MiLB, Omar Malave’s Cardenales de Lara team won titles in the VSL during 1997–1998 and 1998–1999. In addition, he was an assistant coach of Venezuela’s club in the 2006 and 2009 WBCs. Based on his experiences in professional baseball during the 1990s and 2000s, Omar Malave has been an outstanding manager of teams in the Blue Jays’ farm system and will continue in that position during future seasons. After he finished playing as an infielder on MiLB teams in 1977, Cuban José Alvarez coached in the Baltimore Orioles farm system for a few years. During the early 1980s, he switched from the Orioles to begin a career as a manager in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and then from 2008 to 2011, of minor league teams of the Tampa Bay Rays. Besides his R-GCL Dodgers, who were league champions in 1986–1987, Alvarez’s HCA-FSL Vero Beach Dodgers won a league championship in 1990. As a group, Alvarez’s seven minor league Dodgers teams had a winning percentage of .560. During the 2000s, José Alvarez managed the SSA-NYPL Hudson Valley Renegades for one season and then the R-GCL Rays during 2009–2011. His three clubs finished between third and fifteenth in the GCL and won 46 percent of their regular season games. The 2010 Rays lost in the league finals after achieving a 34–26 record. As a manager for eleven seasons in MiLB, Alvarez’s teams won 446 games, or 53 percent. In 2012, the Rays organization replaced him as a manager in the R-GCL. However, within two years, Joe Alvarez will coach or manage a minor league team for a MLB organization. During his career in professional baseball, Puerto Rican Ed Romero was a minor league infield coordinator for the San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, and Florida Marlins organizations, and in 2008–2009

13_256_Jozsa.indb 165

8/8/13 2:58 PM

166

Chapter 5

he was a coach for the Houston Astros. In other years of the 1990s and 2000s, Romero managed different MiLB teams. These included the SSANORWL Spokane Indians; LCA-ML Waterloo Diamonds, Springfield Sultans, and Clinton Lumber Kings; AA-SL Memphis Chicks and Huntsville Stars; AA-TL El Paso Diablos; AAA-IL Indianapolis Indians; R-APPL Greeneville Astros; and R-GCL Astros. The 1996 Memphis Chicks were first in the league’s WD but lost in the playoffs, while the 2001 Huntsville Stars won the SL championship. As of 2012, Romero’s teams had 577 victories, 47 percent of their games. Based on his performances during eleven years in MiLB, Ed Romero has been an average manager for the Padres, Brewers, and Astros organizations.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS The Baseball America 2012 Almanac lists the final standings of teams in their leagues, statistics of players who led their league in batting and fielding, and except for the Arizona Fall League (AFL), ML, FSL, NYPL, DSL, and VSL, it contained the all-star team of each MiLB league for 2011. Using data from that book and such websites as baseball-almanac.com, baseball-reference.com, and milb.com, this section reveals historical facts and other specific information about foreign-born players on these minor leagues’ postseason all-star teams by position in a recent year. Among all MiLB players, these professional athletes from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and elsewhere had very good to outstanding performances for their teams. In fact, a few of them recently joined a club in MLB while others have the potential to be major leaguers within one to three years.6 Postseason All-Stars Catchers A native of Puerto Rico, the catcher Kevin Torres went to the Texas Rangers in the forty-fifth round of MLB’s amateur draft and signed a minor league contract in 2008. Through 2012, he played on teams in various leagues of MiLB. After mediocre seasons catching for the R-AZL Rangers in 2008–2009 and SSA-NORWL Spokane Indians in 2010, he played for the R-AZL Rangers again and the LCA-SAL Hickory Crawdads in 2011 and successfully made the postseason all-star team for the Rangers. In Torres’s all-star season, his slugging percentage was .505 and he had a .351 BA with 105 total bases in fifty-three games. He also played for the Crawdads in 2012 but batted only .236 with twenty-four RBIs in sixtyfour games. To be on the roster of Rangers’ affiliates at the AA or AAA

13_256_Jozsa.indb 166

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

167

level and play competitively, Kevin Torres needs additional experience in catching and the ability to hit more home runs and RBIs. In 2009, the New York Yankees signed Dominican Isaias Tajeda to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent. He was a catcher for the DSL Yankees in 2010 and one year later, played for the R-GCL Yankees but also participated in one game for Staten Island in the SSA-NYPL. As a postseason all-star in the R-GCL, Tajeda led the league in putouts and errors but in addition, had a .331 BA with eleven doubles, six home runs, and twenty-seven RBIs in thirty-nine games. In 2012, he underperformed as a hitter in thirty games playing for Staten Island. These performances suggest that Isaias Tajeda needs more practice and training before catching for Yankees’ HCA, AA, and AAA teams in MiLB. Venezuelan Salvador Perez signed a minor league contract in 2006 to be a catcher in the Kansas City Royals organization. During 2007–2010, he played on teams in Rookie, LCA, and HCA leagues and in 2010, became a midseason all-star for the Wilmington Royals in the HCA-CARL. One year later Perez played catcher in the AA-TL for the Royals’ Northwest Arkansas Naturals and made the midseason and postseason all-star teams. Because of his .283 BA, nine home runs, and forty-three RBIs in seventy-nine games, Perez received a promotion in 2011 to the Kansas City Royals, where he hit .331 with forty-nine hits in thirty-nine games. After returning from the disabled list in June 2012, Perez had a .301 BA, eleven home runs, and thirty-nine RBIs in seventy-six games for the Royals. Thus, Salvador Perez is a good hitter and excellent catcher with enough defensive skills to play for the Royals. A Washington Nationals’ scout signed Venezuelan catcher Sandy Leon to a minor league contract in January 2007. While playing for teams in MiLB during 2007–2010 seasons, he had a relatively low BA with only four home runs and eighty-two RBIs in 228 games. Then in 2011, while catching for the HCA-CARL Potomac Nationals, Leon had ninety-three hits, twenty-one doubles, six home runs, and forty-three RBIs in 109 games. For that performance, he became a member of the league’s postseason all-star team. In 2012, Leon hit above .300 while catching for the SSA-NYPL Auburn Doubledays, AA-EL Harrisburg Senators, and AAAIL Syracuse Chiefs. After joining the Washington Nationals, he played in twelve games and had eight hits, two RBIs, and a .267 BA. Consequently, Sandy Leon needs more experience catching for teams in MiLB before establishing a career with the Nationals. Before the age of seventeen, Dominican Wilin Rosario signed a minor league contract to be a catcher in the Colorado Rockies organization. After subpar seasons in 2006–2007, he improved and became a better hitter and defensive catcher. During 2008–2010, Rosario was a player of the week in the R-PL and a player-of-the-month in the AA-TL. His

13_256_Jozsa.indb 167

8/8/13 2:58 PM

168

Chapter 5

other honors were being a Topps, midseason, postseason, and Baseball America all-star, and a player in the 2010 Futures Game. As an all-star catcher for the AA-TL Tulsa Drillers in 2011, Rosario led the league with eighty-two assists but also thirteen passed balls. However, he had 101 hits, twenty-one home runs, and forty-eight RBIs for the Drillers. While playing in 117 games for the Colorado Rockies during 2012, he hit .270 with twenty-eight home runs and seventy-one RBIs. Thus, Wilin Rosario has enough power while at bat and ability as a catcher to succeed in MLB.7

Designated Hitters Signed to a minor league contract by the Atlanta Braves in 2002 from being a nondrafted free agent, Venezuelan Ernesto Mejia spent eight years with different teams in the minor leagues. During 2008 and 2011–2012, he was a postseason all-star and three-time player of the week, and while playing in the VWL, became a two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the league’s Braves team. In his last two seasons with the AA-SL Mississippi Braves and the AAA-IL Gwinnett Braves, Mejia hit .296 with fifty home runs and 191 RBIs. While playing in winter-league games in Venezuela, he hit above .300 and had a high enough slugging percentage to earn a position in the VWL all-star game. In 2013, the Atlanta Braves added Mejia to the team’s forty-man roster, which was an opportunity for him to be a backup first baseman for the club. In short, Ernesto Mejia has been a consistent batter in MiLB since 2006. Thus, his ability to hit will help the Braves during the 2013 season. During 2005–2008, Mexico’s Jorge Vazquez played infield on teams in the AAA-MXL and excelled as a hitter. On different clubs, he was a postseason all-star in 2005 and then during 2006–2007, a midseason all-star. After signing a professional contract with the New York Yankees organization, Vazquez spent 2008–2012 playing in MiLB. He was a midseason all-star for the AA-EL Trenton Thunder in 2009. Two years later, he was an outstanding designated hitter (DH) and became a midseason, postseason, and milb.com all-star, and twice player of the week for the AAAIL Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. In addition, he was an all-star for Mexico’s baseball team and an MVP in the 2011 Caribbean Series. Despite his subpar BA, number of home runs, and RBIs in 2012, Jorge Vazquez is a very good ballplayer. In fact, he has the potential to be an effective DH for the New York Yankees or another team in MLB. Infielders One year after Cuban infielder Adeiny Hechavarria defected to Mexico, the Toronto Blue Jays signed him to a four-year, $10 million contract.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 168

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

169

During 2010–2012, he played on teams in the HCA-FSL, AA-EL, and AAA-PCL. After a mediocre season with the FSL’s Dunedin Blue Jays, his performance improved with the EL’s New Hampshire Fisher Cats and PCL’s Las Vegas 51s. As a shortstop for the Fisher Cats in 2011, Hechavarria was a midseason and postseason all-star primarily because of his skills as a fast, rangy, and smooth infielder. Then in 2012, he was a midseason and postseason all-star for the Las Vegas 51s. In fact, Hechavarria had a .312 BA with 138 hits and sixty-three RBIs in 102 games with the 51s and then played in forty-one games for the AL Toronto Blue Jays. Two months after the Blue Jays traded him to the Miami Marlins in late 2012, Adeiny Hechavarria ranked number eighty-two on MLB’s Top Prospects list of players. To excel as an infielder with a Marlins team in MiLB during the 2013 season and thereafter, he must hit at least .300 and make few errors.8 The Atlanta Braves selected Curaçao’s Andrelton Simmons in the second round of the 2010 amateur draft and signed him to a minor league contract. During 2008–2010, he played as an infielder in the Curaçao League, Americas Baseball Cup, and Baseball World Cup. Simmons was a postseason all-star for the R-APPL Danville Braves in 2010, and one year later had a great season at shortstop with the HCA-CARL Lynchburg Braves. Besides a .311 BA and thirty-five doubles in 131 games, Simmons led the league in hitting sacrifice fly balls and making putouts, assists, and double plays. For that performance, he was a midseason, postseason, and Topps all-star. In 2012, the Braves organization promoted him to the AA-SL Mississippi Braves where he was a rookie of the month, player of the week, and midseason all-star. Based on his career in MiLB, Andrelton Simmons will be a regular infielder for the Atlanta Braves before 2015 unless the franchise trades him to another club or he injures himself.9 Signed to a minor league contract by the Chicago Cubs, Venezuelan Gioskar Amaya played infield in MiLB during 2010–2012. After being a midseason all-star with the DSL Cubs, he spent 2011 as a shortstop for the R-AZL Cubs. While there, he led the league with seventy-seven hits in fifty-two games and was third among players with a .377 BA. For that performance, he became a postseason and MiLB.com all-star. In 2012, Amaya had another outstanding year with the Boise Hawks in the SSANORWL. Because of his .298 BA, eighty-one hits, and 135 total bases, Amaya was a postseason and Topps all-star. Based on his minor league seasons through 2012, Gioskar Amaya has been a very good hitter and capable of playing competitively in the AA-SL for the Tennessee Smokies or in the AAA-PCL for the Iowa Cubs. Venezuelan Hernan Perez signed a minor league contract and joined the Detroit Tigers organization as a nondrafted free agent in 2007. After spending a year in the VSL, he played on teams in various leagues

13_256_Jozsa.indb 169

8/8/13 2:58 PM

170

Chapter 5

during 2009–2012. Perez had mediocre performances as a player until 2011 when he hit .258 with 130 hits, twenty-three doubles, and eight home runs for the LCA-ML West Michigan Whitecaps. Consequently, he became a midseason and postseason all-star. Because of his productive season with the HCA-FSL Lakeland Flying Tigers, Perez made his MLB debut in June 2012. Following appearances in two Detroit Tigers games, he returned to the Flying Tigers and was a MiLB.com all-star. To play second base and compete for MLB’s Detroit Tigers, Hernan Perez must improve as a power hitter, increase his BA to at least .275, and commit few errors. In 2007, the Cleveland Indians signed Venezuelan Jesus Aguilar to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent. From 2008 to 2012, he played on Indians’ teams in several leagues. During these five seasons, his BA ranged between .209 and .305 with three to nineteen home runs, seventeen to sixty-nine RBIs, and 29–102 hits. Aguilar’s awards were his selection as a midseason all-star in 2008, a player of the week in 2010, postseason and MiLB.com all-star in 2011, and a player of the week and member of the Futures Game in 2012. Among all players in the Cleveland Indians system, he ranked twenty-fifth as a prospect and the best power hitter in 2011, and then one year later, ranked ninth as a prospect and again the best power hitter. With additional instruction, practice, and training on how to hit, and more experience, Jesus Aguilar will be on the roster of MLB’s Indians in a few years. Signed to a minor league contract by the Toronto Blue Jays, Puerto Rican Jorge Vega-Rosado became a postseason and MiLB.com all-star who played second base for the R-GCL Blue Jays in 2011. While there, he had a .317 BA and hit twelve doubles, four home runs, with thirty RBIs in fifty-one games. During 2012, Rosado played parts of the season with Blue Jays’ teams in the R-GCL, R-APPL, and LCA-ML. For the season, he hit .240 with sixty-two total bases and fifty-five strikeouts in fifty-six games. According to an analysis of his abilities as reported on a baseball website, Rosado is a patient batter who hits with some power and runs with speed and alertness on the base paths. However, as an infielder, he makes too many errors and struggles in other ways while on defense. The New York Yankees signed Dominican infielder Jose Rosario to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent in 2009. After playing with the DSL and R-GCL Yankees in 2009–2010, he was a GCL postseason all-star at shortstop in 2011. Rosario finished fourth in batting with fiftyseven hits and twenty-eight RBIs in forty games. At the end of the 2011 season, he played a few games for the LCA-SAL Charleston RiverDogs

13_256_Jozsa.indb 170

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

171

and in 2012, Rosario hit .217 in sixty games for the Staten Island Yankees in the SSA-NYPL. A newspaper sportswriter said that Rosario must focus on controlling his aggressiveness on defense and become a more disciplined and patient hitter. Certainly, he needs to adjust and make steady improvement. In 2007, the Detroit Tigers signed Dominican Juaner Aguasvivas to a MiLB contract as a nondrafted free agent. From 2007 to 2010, he played infield for Tigers’ teams in the DSL, R-GCL, and HCA-FSL. In 2011, Aguasvivas was a postseason all-star for the R-GCL Tigers because he hit .315 with nine doubles, ten home runs, and thirty-seven RBIs in fortyeight games. In addition, he led the league in total bases and putouts but struck out forty-seven times in 178 appearances at bat. Promoted to the SSA-NYPL in 2012, his BA and number of hits, home runs, and RBIs declined while playing for the Connecticut Tigers. Recently, a baseball reporter suggested that Juaner Aguasvivas should be very attractive trade bait since there are several MLB teams who need a young, talented, and hard-hitting first baseman. Curaçao’s Jurickson Profar led his team to the Little League World Series in 2004–2005 and won a championship there in 2004. Five years later, the Texas Rangers signed Profar to a minor league contract and assigned him to the SSA-NORWL Spokane Indians. After a season with the Indians, he played in the LCA-SAL for the Hickory Crawdads during 2011 and one year later, for the AA-TL Frisco Roughriders. Because Profar was an outstanding player for both of these teams, he won awards. In 2011, these included the league’s MVP, best hitter of the year, Futures Game selection, and a Baseball America, MiLB.com, and postseason all-star. Then for his performance with the Roughriders in 2012, Profar was a Futures Game selection and a Baseball America, Topps, MiLB.com, midseason, and postseason all-star. In 2013, MLB. com ranked him as the top minor league prospect in professional baseball. Within three years, Jurickson Profar will play infield for the Texas Rangers or another MLB team. The Texas Rangers signed Venezuelan Odubel Herrera to a MiLB contract for approximately $160,000 in 2008. During 2009–2012, he played infield for affiliates of the Rangers in the R-AZL, SSA-NORWL, LCA-SAL, and HCA-CARL. He was a postseason all-star for the R-AZL Rangers in 2010 and LCA-SAL Hickory Crawdads in 2011. For the Rangers, Herrera had a .337 BA, sixty hits, and seven doubles in forty-six games. However, with the Crawdads, his productivity improved to 142 hits, twenty-six doubles, and fifty-six RBIs in 119 games. In 2012, Herrera played in the HCA-CARL for the Myrtle Beach Rangers and batted .284 in 126 games.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 171

8/8/13 2:58 PM

172

Chapter 5

Based on his performances thus far, Odubel Herrera’s next promotion will be playing for the Texas Rangers’ AA-TL Frisco Roughriders or the AAA-PCL Round Rock Express. Born in Valencia, Venezuela, Yangervis Solarte played on Minnesota Twins teams in MiLB from 2006 to 2012. These teams were in leagues between the AAA and Rookie levels. In 2011, Solarte had a productive season in the AA-EL. He was a MiLB.com, midseason, and postseason all-star, and a player of the week for the New Britain Rock Cats. While playing for that club, Solarte had a .329 BA, 151 hits, and forty-nine RBIs in 121 games. Because of his impressive performance in 2012, MLB.com selected him as an all-star. These results, in part, were reasons for the Texas Rangers to sign Solarte in 2013 to a one-year, $414,000 minor league contract. Besides playing in minor leagues of America, he was an infielder for a team in the DSL in 2006 and VWL in 2012. Based on his recent performances, Yangervis Solarte will continue to play professional baseball for several years. In 2010, the Milwaukee Brewers selected Puerto Rican Yadiel Rivera in the ninth round of MLB’s amateur draft and signed him to a MiLB contract. After playing for the R- AZL Brewers and hitting just .209 in forty-nine games during 2010, one year later he joined the R-PL Helena Brewers and then the LCA-ML Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He was an all-star while at Helena because of his ability to turn double plays at shortstop and get eighty-two hits, fourteen doubles, and eight home runs in seventy-four games. With the Timber Rattlers, Rivera had a subpar .194 BA and only one home run in the 2011 season. However, in 2012, he batted .247 with twenty-six doubles, twelve home runs, and forty-nine RBIs. Yadiel Rivera probably has the ability to compete and play shortstop someday in MLB. Although very fluid with natural talent and graceful in the infield, he needs to improve and be consistent as a hitter. In short, that makes him a potentially valuable player, especially during years when the Milwaukee Brewers have a small payroll. Outfielders The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Dominican free agent Alfredo Silverio to a MiLB contract in 2003. He played one year for the DSL Dodgers and then seasons for other minor league teams during 2007–2010. As an outfielder in the AA-SL with the Chattanooga Lookouts, Silverio hit .306 in 2011 with forty-two doubles, eighteen triples, and eighty-five RBIs in 132 games. In fact, he led the league in total bases, extra base hits, and triples. Because of that performance, he was a player of the

13_256_Jozsa.indb 172

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

173

week, selected for the Futures Game, and a MiLB.org and postseason all-star. For the 2012 season, MLB.com ranked Silverio fifteenth as a prospect in the Dodgers farm system. Based on his progress and ability thus far as a batter and outfielder, Alfredo Silverio will play soon in the AAA-PCL for the Albuquerque Isotopes and eventually for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two years after leading Chinese Taipei to a silver medal in the 2003 International Baseball Athletic Federation (IBAF) Sixteen and Under World Cup Championship, Taiwanese Chih-Hsien Chiang signed a MiLB contract with the Boston Red Sox. From 2006 to 2012, he played outfield for teams in several different minor leagues. With the Portland Sea Dogs in the AA-EL during 2011, Chiang was a Topps player of the month and a midseason and postseason all-star. While playing for the Sea Dogs, he had a .340 BA with 109 hits, thirty-seven doubles, eighteen home runs, and seventy-six RBIs in only eighty-eight games, and led the league with a .648 slugging percentage. After the Red Sox franchise traded him to the Seattle Mariners in July 2011, Chiang joined the AA-SL Jackson Generals and then the AAA-PCL Tacoma Rainiers, where his productivity declined during the 2012 baseball season. Consequently, Chih-Hsien Chiang will spend more years on teams in MiLB before getting a promotion to the Seattle Mariners.10 During December 2008, the Chicago White Sox signed Cuban Dayan Viciedo to a four-year, $10 million contract that included a $4 million bonus. In 2009 and parts of the 2010–2011 seasons, he played on the AA-SL Birmingham Barons and AAA-IL Charlotte Knights. Viciedo was a midseason all-star and Futures Game selection in 2009 and two years later, an international player of the month and MiLB.com, midseason, and postseason all-star, and again a Futures Game selection. His three-year BA/home runs/RBIs while on MiLB teams were respectively .280/12/78, .274/20/47, and .296/20/76. Because of his power, size, and strength as a hitter, White Sox broadcaster Ken Harrelson once referred to Viciedo as “The Tank.” Promoted to the Chicago White Sox in 2012, his performance was .255/25/78. Although an outstanding player in MiLB, Dayan Viciedo needs more experience and training to be a star on the Chicago White Sox or any other team in MLB. After selecting him in the fourth round of the 2010 amateur draft, the Minnesota Twins signed Puerto Rican Eddie Rosario to a MiLB contract. He played one season for the R-GCL Twins and in 2011, joined the Elizabethton Twins in the R-APPL. While there, Rosario led the league in slugging percentage, runs, extra base hits, triples, and home runs. For that spectacular performance, he received several awards. These were co-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 173

8/8/13 2:58 PM

174

Chapter 5

MVP of the league, four-time player of the week, MiLB round tripper and best hitter-of-the-year honors, and a MiLB.com, Topps, and postseason all-star. In 2012, Eddie Rosario had another sensational season with the R-GCL Twins and the LCA-ML Beloit Snappers. Indeed, he had 123 hits, thirteen home runs, and seventy-four RBIs in one hundred games. For that performance, he was a midseason and MiLB.com all-star. If he improves as an outfielder, Eddie Rosario will join Twins teams in the AA and AAA leagues before 2015. Venezuelan Jesus Galindo signed a minor league contract and joined the San Francisco Giants organization as a non-drafted free agent in 2009. That year and in 2010, he played outfield for teams in the DSL. Each season, he batted in the .240s and had about the same number of at-bats, hits, runs, doubles, and RBIs. Then in 2011, Galindo played in the SSA-NORWL for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. While there, he led the league in runs and stolen bases, improved his BA to .276, and compared to 2010, increased his hits, runs, doubles, triples, and total bases. As an outfielder, he was on the postseason all-star team. In 2012, Galindo played in the LCA-SAL for the Augusta Greenjackets. Although his BA declined to .252, his other statistics as a hitter were similar to 2010. Consequently, Jesus Galindo needs more experience and improvements as a hitter and outfielder before becoming a player on a MLB team. In 2006, the Oakland Athletics signed Dominican Kelvin Rojas to a MiLB contract as a nondrafted free agent. While playing in the outfield for the DSL Athletics in 2007–2010, his BA improved from .201 to .273. Consequently, Rojas spent part of the 2010 minor league season and all of 2011 with the R-AZL Athletics. He finished second among players with a .377 BA and had sixty-four hits, eleven doubles, and thirty-five RBIs in fortyeight games. His award was selection to the league’s postseason all-star team. Although Rojas’s performance in the SSA-NYPL with the Vermont Lake Monsters was unimpressive in 2012, he has the potential to develop and play at a higher level. After signing a minor league contract with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins, Venezuelan Jesus Solorzano played outfield for a DSL team in 2009–2010. Solorzano was a postseason all-star with the R-GCL Marlins in 2011 when he hit .299 with thirty-one RBIs and eighty-eight total bases in fifty-one games. Promoted in 2012 to the SSA-NYPL Jamestown Jammers, his .314 BA, sixty-six hits, and 109 total bases were impressive. In a report about his progress as a player, a baseball analyst said that Jesus Solorzano drives the ball more consistently with an increase in power. In addition, he has good speed and besides stealing eighteen bases in 2011, possesses the skills necessary to become an above-average defensive center fielder.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 174

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

175

The San Diego Padres signed Dominican Rymer Liriano to a contract in 2007 as a nondrafted free agent. During 2008–2012, he was an outfielder on eight different Padres’ teams in MiLB. While playing for the LCA-ML Fort Wayne Tincaps in 2011, Liriano was outstanding and won several awards including player of the week, the league’s prospect of the year and MVP, and recognition as a midseason, postseason, Baseball America, Topps, and MiLB.com all-star. That year in the minors, he batted .298 with 152 hits, thirty-one doubles, and sixty-eight RBIs in 131 games. Because he was a productive hitter for the HCACAL Lake Elsinore Storm and AA-TL San Antonio Missions in 2012, Liriano made the midseason and MiLB.com all-star teams and selected for the Futures Game. If Rymer Liriano has another excellent year for a team in AA and then for San Diego’s AAA-PCL affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, the Padres organization will likely promote him from MiLB to MLB. Signed to a minor league contract for $85,000 in 2006 by the Latin American scouting director of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Dominican Starling Marte played outfield in MiLB from 2007 to 2012. A good hitter during the 2008–2011 seasons for the R-GCL Pirates, LCA-SAL West Virginia Power, and HCA-CARL Lynchburg Hillcats, he was an outstanding player for the AA-EL Altoona Curve in 2011. His awards that season included being a Topps, Baseball America, midseason, and postseason all-star, player of the week, and Rookie of the Year (ROY). Besides establishing a singleseason record for the Curve with 178 hits, Marte led the league with a .332 BA, thirty-eight doubles, and eighteen assists as an outfielder in 2011. One year later, he played for the AAA-IL Indianapolis Indians, became a midseason and postseason all-star, and won a player of the week award. Additionally, while playing in the DWL during the offseason, Marte was MVP because his team won the Caribbean Series. Based on his performances through 2012, Starling Marte will be on the Pittsburgh Pirates roster before 2015. Signed to a professional contract by the Washington Nationals, Dominican Wander Ramos played in the outfield for Nationals’ minor league teams during 2009–2010 in the DSL and R-GCL. Then in 2011, he was a postseason all-star for the R-GCL Nationals. Besides his .313 BA, twelve home runs, and thirty-seven RBIs in forty-three games, Ramos led the league in slugging percentage and extra base hits. In 2012, the Nationals promoted him to the SSA-NYPL Auburn Doubledays. While there, he had sixty-five hits including sixteen doubles, two triples, and seven home runs in sixty-seven games. Wander Ramos is a dangerous, powerful, and smart hitter who needs more experience before playing for the Washington Nationals or another MLB team.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 175

8/8/13 2:58 PM

176

Chapter 5

In 2009, the San Diego Padres signed Dominican Yoan Alcantara― whose real name is Yeison Asencio―to a MiLB contact as a nondrafted free agent. After a mediocre season with the DSL Padres in 2010, one year later Asencio had an all-star season playing for the R-AZL Padres. In fact, he led the league in runs scored, total bases, and RBIs, and ranked second in hits, third in triples and home runs, sixth in slugging percentage, and ninth with a .348 BA. However, he made nine errors in fifty games as an outfielder. Promoted to the LCA-ML Fort Wayne Tincaps in 2012, Asencio was outstanding again because he had 113 hits, twenty-one doubles, sixty-one RBIs, and a .323 BA in ninety-two games. According to MiLB .com, he was on its all-star team. If Yeison Asencio continues to perform as in 2011–12, he will be on the roster of the San Diego Padres in three to five years.11 Pitchers A nondrafted free agent in 2008, Venezuelan pitcher Elvis Araujo joined the Cleveland Indians after signing a minor league contract with the organization. That year, he pitched for the DSL Indians and won four games with a sensational 1.89 ERA. After spraining his left elbow and having surgery, and then missing the 2009–2010 seasons, Araujo became a postseason and Topps all-star for the R-AZL Indians in 2011. He ranked first in wins and opponents’ low BAs against him, third in ERA and strikeouts, and fourth in innings pitched. Promoted to the LCA-ML Lake County Captains in 2012, his ERA increased to 5.00 yet he won seven games in 135 innings. With a fastball in the low nineties and now fully recovered from Tommy John surgery on his elbow, Elvis Araujo needs to develop his secondary pitches before the Indians assign him to a minor league club at the AA or AAA level.12 The San Francisco Giants signed Dominican pitcher Joan (Yohan) Gregorio, a nondrafted free agent, to a minor league contract in 2010. That season, he had a 2.80 ERA and won six games in seventy-four innings for the DSL Giants. Promoted to the R-AZL Giants in 2011, Gregorio was a postseason all-star because his 2.32 ERA led the league. In addition, he struck out forty-three batters in fifty innings. However, while pitching in 2012 for the SSA-NORWL Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Gregorio’s ERA increased to 5.54 in seventy-six innings, although he won seven games. If he increases the velocity of his fastball and develops an effective changeup, Joan Gregorio has the talent to pitch for a team at a higher level in the U.S. minor leagues. In 2007, Colombia’s Julio Teheran signed an $850,000 contract with the Atlanta Braves. He spent 2008–2010 pitching for Braves’ affiliates in the

13_256_Jozsa.indb 176

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

177

R-APPL, LCA-SAL, HCA-CARL, and AA-SL. Because he had a 2.59 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 142 innings during 2010, Teheran was a HCA-CARL midseason and Baseball America all-star, CARL and SL pitcher-of-theweek, and a selection to play in the Futures Game. Even so, his performance improved more in 2011 while pitching for the AAA-IL Gwinnett Braves. Among his honors that baseball season, he was ROY, twice pitcher of the week, a milb.com, Baseball America, Topps, midseason, and postseason all-star, the league’s most valuable pitcher, and MLB.com Triple-A Starting Pitcher of the Year. In 2012, Teheran won seven games for the Gwinnett Braves but had a relatively high 5.08 ERA and only ninety-seven strikeouts in 131 innings. If he avoids injuring his right arm and continues to improve, Julio Teheran has the ability to pitch in MLB and potentially win twenty or more games in a season. Signed to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent in 2000 by the Boston Red Sox, Mexico’s Luis Mendoza is a right-handed pitcher who played seasons or parts of them in MiLB from 2005 to 2011. Among his awards and honors, he was a midseason and postseason all-star with the AA-TL Frisco Roughriders in 2007 and two years later, twice the AAA-PCL pitcher of the week. In fact, he pitched a no-hitter for the PCL’s Oklahoma City Redhawks in 2009. After a mediocre year in 2010, Mendoza was a Triple-A PCL midseason and postseason all-star and twice pitcher of the week in 2011 besides throwing a no-hitter for the AAA-PCL Omaha Storm Chasers, an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Unfortunately, the league overturned a scoring decision of the game and ruled his no-hitter to be a one-hitter. Then in 2012, Mendoza played for the Royals and won eight games with a 4.23 ERA and 104 strikeouts in 166 innings. Although he had an above-average performances as a minor league pitcher, especially in 2011, Luis Mendoza will need to improve to consistently win games in MLB. In 2009, the Milwaukee Brewers signed Dominican pitcher Manuel Ruiz to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent. After winning two games for the DSL Brewers in 2010, one year later he was a postseason all-star in the R-AZL. While there, Ruiz won four games and had a 3.56 ERA in forty-three innings. In 2012, he pitched sixteen innings for the Helena Brewers in the R-PL and allowed fifteen earned runs. Because of that performance and other factors, the Brewers organization released him. As a free agent in early 2013, no other club had signed him. When sixteen years old in 2004, Dominican Rafael Dolis signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs as an infielder but then

13_256_Jozsa.indb 177

8/8/13 2:58 PM

178

Chapter 5

converted to pitching. From 2006 to 2012, he played on teams in several minor leagues and briefly with the Cubs in 2011–2012. Dolis was a midseason all-star pitcher in 2010 while in the HCA-FSL with the Daytona Cubs, and one year later, a midseason and postseason all-star with the AA-SL Tennessee Smokies. As an all-star pitcher in 2011, he won eight and saved seventeen games with a 3.22 ERA in seventy-two innings. For the Chicago Cubs in 2012, Dolis won two and saved four games but his ERA soared to 6.39 in thirty-eight innings. Interestingly, he missed the 2008 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair his pitching arm. Based on results with teams in 2010–2011, Dolis recovered from that injury and fortunately, pitched better than before the surgery. In short, Rafael Dolis has the potential to be an effective relief pitcher. One year after he signed a minor league contract as an international free agent, the Boston Red Sox traded Dominican Raul Alcantara to the Oakland Athletics in December 2011. As a pitcher in the R-GCL with the Red Sox, his ERA was lowest in the league. Because of that performance, he became a postseason all-star. In fact, Alcantara struck out thirty-six batters in forty-eight innings and remarkably, other teams’ hitters had only a .147 BA against him. In 2012, he played in the LCA-ML for the Athletics’ Burlington Bess team and won six games with a 5.08 ERA in 102 innings. A baseball reporter said that when Alcantara left the Red Sox, there was some serious excitement about his potential. Although it was easy to criticize him during the 2012 season, he still showed a quality fastball that flashed in the ninety-plus range. In short, Raul Alcantara needs a lot of work to be an effective pitcher in MiLB. Athletics fans should be patient. Signed to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent by the Kansas City Royals in 2000, Dominican Victor Marte was a relief pitcher for teams in MiLB and MLB during 2009–2012. In addition, he pitched during parts of three seasons in Japan with the professional Hiroshima Toyo Carp team. Because Marte effectively mixed his pitches throwing a four-seam fastball, curveball, and changeup, he was a postseason allstar for the AAA-PCL Memphis Redbirds in 2011. Marte won only two games but saved thirty-one and had a 1.44 ERA in sixty-two innings. In 2012, he pitched forty innings for the St. Louis Cardinals and won three games. Besides these performances, Marte briefly pitched in the DWL during 2012. Truly, Victor Marte was an outstanding MiLB player in 2011. Signed to a contract as a nondrafted free agent by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009, Dominican Willy Paulino pitched in the DSL that year and won three games with a 3.80 ERA in forty-five innings. In 2010, he

13_256_Jozsa.indb 178

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

179

ranked in the top ten among Cardinals’ minor leaguers in ERA, lowest opponents’ BAs, and strikeouts. Then in 2011, Paulino was a postseason all-star of the Cardinals in the R-GCL for leading the league in saves with a relatively low 2.30 ERA. Promoted in 2012 to the R-APPL Johnson City Cardinals and later to the LCA-ML Quad Cities River Bandits, he won three games in eighty-three innings but posted a 5.70 ERA. Willy Paulino is an impressive player with the potential to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals before 2015. Utility Infielders The Texas Rangers signed Mexico’s Christian Villanueva to a minor league contract in 2008. As a third baseman, he played in the DSL in 2009 and then during 2010–2012 with Rangers’ affiliates in the R-AZL, LCA-SAL, HCA-CARL, and HCA-FSL. With the R-AZL Rangers, he hit .314 while playing quality defense as an infielder. His performance that season put him fifteenth on Baseball America’s AZL prospect list. Promoted in 2011 to the LCA-SAL Hickory Crawdads, he had 130 hits and eighty-four RBIs in 126 games, which made him an all-star as a utility infielder. However, his partner on the left side of the Crawdads infield, shortstop Jurickson Profar, won the league’s MVP Award and thus overshadowed Villanueva. In total for the HCA-CARL Myrtle Beach Rangers and HCA-FSL Daytona Cubs in 2012, Villanueva hit .279 and scored fifty-nine runs in 125 games. If he becomes a more productive hitter, Christian Villanueva will be a utility infielder in MLB before 2015. The Seattle Mariners signed Venezuelan Luis Valbuena to a contract in 2002. From 2005 to 2007, he played on several teams and became an all-star in 2005 for the Mariners’ Everett Aquasox in the SSA-NORWL. Although he was traded to the Cleveland Indians and later by the Indians to the Toronto Blue Jays, and then claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs, his BA increased above .300 during the 2008–2011 seasons in the AAAPCL and AAA-IL. After the Indians reassigned Valbuena, he performed for the AAA-IL Columbus Clippers in 2011 and was a postseason and MiLB.com all-star because of his .302 BA, 127 hits, seventeen home runs, and seventy-five RBIs. Although he has been an excellent minor league player, Luis Valbuena must hit for a higher average with more power to succeed with a MLB team. In 2009, the Minnesota Twins signed Dominican Miguel Sano to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent. During 2010, he played for Twins’ teams in the DSL and R-GCL, and in sixty-one games, hit .307 with seven home runs and twenty-nine RBIs. Then in 2011, while

13_256_Jozsa.indb 179

8/8/13 2:58 PM

180

Chapter 5

playing in the R-APPL for the Elizabethton Twins, Sano hit .292 with twenty home runs and fifty-nine RBIs in sixty-six games. For that performance, Sano was player of the week and a midseason, postseason, MiLB.com, and Baseball America all-star. Although only eighteen years old in 2012, Sano played in the LCA-ML for the Beloit Snappers. He led the league in walks and strikeouts but also in home runs. In 129 games, he hit .258 with twenty-eight home runs and one hundred RBIs. He made the transition from shortstop to third base but committed forty-two errors and had a fielding percentage of only .884. Again, he was player of the week, prospect of the year, and a midseason, postseason, and MiLB.com all-star. Because of his potential, the Twins promoted Miguel Sano for the 2013 season to the HCA-FSL Ft. Myers Miracle. Champion Teammates As with the major leagues, at the end of the MiLB season, the championship of each league is won after the playoffs in a series of games. The foreign and Puerto Rican players on the championship teams sometimes contributed very little to their team’s wins and losses while others made a great difference in some way on defense and/or offense. The following section highlights the performances of a few international players on championship teams of different MiLB leagues. To some extent, it shows that professional baseball has become an international sport, partly because minor league teams increasingly depend on athletes from other countries for their success and because fans enjoy the games in those players’ communities outside the United States. Pawtucket Red Sox During 2012, this AAA-IL championship club had thirteen immigrant players on its roster. Dominican Mauro Gomez played in one hundred games and hit .310 with thirty-four doubles and seventy-four RBIs. Taiwanese Che-Hsuan Lin and Cuban José Iglesias each had more than 350 at bats and at least ninety-seven hits and forty-one runs scored. In addition, they were excellent on defense with fielding percentages that exceeded .965 with more than 115 putouts and few errors. Beside them, Dominican Pedro Ciriaco and Cuban J. C. Linares played well. Two productive Red Sox pitchers were Dominican Pedro Beato and Alex Wilson, a native of Saudi Arabia. Each of them won at least four games with ERAs below 4.00. Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka of Japan won only one game while at Pawtucket and had a 3.18 ERA in fifty-one in-

13_256_Jozsa.indb 180

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

181

nings. Nevertheless, because of his potential, Matsuzaka will pitch again for the franchise in Boston during 2013 and/or in the 2014 MLB season.13 Reno Aces This Arizona Diamondbacks’ affiliate, which won the AAA-PCL championship in 2012, had six immigrant players on its roster. Four of them were pitchers, including Puerto Rican Jonathan Albaladejo. During the 2012 season, he won five games for the Aces with a 3.65 ERA in fifty-six innings and made the league’s postseason all-star team. Interestingly, Albaladejo has played on MiLB teams since 2001 when the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him in the nineteenth round of the amateur draft. While pitching in the AAA-IL for the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees in 2010, he was pitcher of the week twice and a midseason, postseason, and MiLB .com all-star. Dominican pitchers Daniel Cabrera and Victor Capellan together had three victories in twenty-six innings for the Aces while Japan’s Takashi Saito pitched but lost one game in two-plus innings. Venezuelan shortstop Wiadimir Sutil and Canadian outfielder Ryan LaPensee each played in less than ten games. Respectively, their BAs/ home runs/RBIs were .211/0/4 and .296/0/2. Thus, the Reno Aces team did not depend much on the talents of foreign-born players to win eighty-one games and a AAA-PCL championship in 2012. Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz Although this AAA club is independent and therefore not affiliated with a MLB franchise, it won sixty-seven games and the MXL championship in 2012. Its roster included players formerly on teams in MiLB within U.S. leagues. A five-time all-star, Puerto Rican Carlos Rivera batted .340 with seventeen home runs and seventy-six RBIs in 108 games. Venezuelan José Castillo, who played in MLB during 2005–2008, had a .314 BA with fifteen home runs and fifty-five RBIs in 109 games. Among the pitchers, two Mexicans were dominant. Tomas Solis, the league’s pitcher-of-the-year, won fourteen games with a 3.08 ERA in 130 innings. Following him with eleven wins was Manuel Flores. During their careers, Solis played only in the MXL while Flores had experience on teams in the R-AZL, HCA-CAL, LCA-ML, AAA-PCL, and AA-TL. Besides Rivera at first base and Castillo at second base, other infielders with the most putouts were from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The team’s manager, Puerto Rican Orlando Merced, played eight seasons in MiLB and had no prior experience before managing the Veracruz team in 2012.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 181

8/8/13 2:58 PM

182

Chapter 5

Akron Aeros The Aeros, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, won eighty-two games and the AA-EL championship in 2012. During that season, the club had seventeen international players on its roster. In approximately 108 games, the BA/hits/RBIs of Taiwanese Chun-Hsiu Chen and Canadian Nick Weglarz were respectively .308/123/43 and .239/88/58. However, both struck out more than one hundred times. Each with seven wins and ERAs less than 3.00, two prominent Aeros’ pitchers were Puerto Ricans José de la Torre and Paolo Espino. Others with at least three victories included Japan’s Toru Murata, the Dominican Republic’s Danny Salazar, and Puerto Rico’s Giovanni Soto. As a relief pitcher, the Netherlands’ Loek Van Mil appeared in twentyseven games and established a 1.94 ERA. The Aeros had three international catchers. Among them, Puerto Rico’s Roberto Perez ranked first with 699 putouts, ninety-two assists, and only eight errors. His substitutes were Cuba’s Michael Hernandez and Taiwan’s Chen. At other positions, Chen played sixty-two games at first base, Dominican Juan Diaz ninety-six at second base, and Weglarz seventy-three in left field. Based on their performances, the Akron Aeros were successful partly because of these players. Mobile Bay Bears An affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Bears won the AA-SL championship in 2012 despite a 69–71 regular season record and only six foreign-born players on their roster. Dominican Alfredo Marte led the team with 117 hits, twenty-five doubles, twenty home runs, and seventyfive RBIs in 113 games. Signed as a nondrafted free agent in 2005, Marte played seven seasons for several different teams in the Diamondbacks organization. An outstanding outfielder for the Bears in 2012, he had an opportunity to participate in the Futures Game. Alfredo Marte was a twotime player of the week and a midseason, postseason, Topps, and MiLB. com all-star. Besides Marte, Venezuelan Rossmel Perez was also a productive batter for the Bears because of his .270 BA with seventy-one hits, ten doubles, and twenty RBIs in eighty-eight games. While Dominican pitcher Eury de la Rosa won four games with a 2.84 ERA in sixty-three innings, his compatriot and teammate Frank Santana appeared in only one game. Venezuelan Wiadimir Sutil played in six games at second base, fifty-eight at shortstop, and two in right field. Eury de la Rosa was in fifty-three games and Dominican Yonata Ortega in forty-two. Other than Alfredo Marte and Rossmel Perez, foreign players did not contribute much to help the Bears win a league championship in 2012.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 182

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

183

Springfield Cardinals In 2012, the Cardinals had ten foreigners on their roster, finished 77–61 during the regular season of the AA-TL, and won the league championship. Dominican outfielder Oscar Taveras had a .321 BA and thirty-seven doubles, twenty-three home runs, and ninety-four RBIs in 124 games. As a result, he was the league’s player-of-the-year and a midseason, postseason, Topps, and MiLB.org all-star. Taveras aside, Dominican Audry Perez and Canadian Jamie Romak were also effective batters for the Cardinals. Among the pitchers, Venezuelan Richard Castillo won seven games in 110 innings and Dominican Carlos Martínez had a 2.90 ERA in seventy-one innings. Venezuelan Jose Garcia played every position in the infield and outfield, and batted .261. Another key player, Dominican Audry Perez, made 555 putouts at catcher. In short, these foreigners were important to the successful season of the Springfield Cardinals in 2012. Lancaster Jethawks This minor league affiliate of the NL (now AL) Houston Astros had thirteen international players on their roster in 2012 and won the HCA-CAL championship after finishing tenth in 2011. Dominican Domingo Santana was a very productive batter with 138 hits, twenty-three home runs, and ninety-seven RBIs in 119 games. Being a slugger, he was a player of the week and MiLB.org all-star. Another Jethawks batter, Puerto Rican Enrique Hernandez, had 104 hits and forty-nine RBIs in one hundred games. The team’s top pitcher was Venezuela’s David Martínez, a pitcher of the week who won nine games with a 4.38 ERA in 160 innings. In addition, Dominican pitcher José Trinidad had eight wins and struck out forty-three batters in forty-one games. The players with the most putouts included Puerto Rican catcher Rene Garcia and second baseman Enrique Hernandez, and Dominican outfielder Domingo Santana. Thus, these athletes contributed their talents to the Jethawks championship team during the 2012 season. Lynchburg Hillcats After seventy-two victories in the 2012 regular season, the Hillcats had six foreign-born players and were the HCA-CARL champions in the postseason. One of the team’s leading batters and a MiLB.com all-star, Dominican Edward Salcedo, had 113 hits, seventeen home runs, and sixty-one RBIs in 130 games. In addition, Panama’s Dimasther Delgado won seven games with a 3.92 ERA in 128 innings. Venezuelan Emerson Landoni

13_256_Jozsa.indb 183

8/8/13 2:58 PM

184

Chapter 5

played three infield positions for the Hillcats while Dominican pitcher Juan Jaime appeared in forty-two games and Ronan Pacheco in twelve. Other than Salcedo and Landoni, four of the club’s foreign players were not prominent contributors to the Hillcats’ championship team in 2012. One year later, some of these players will be on the roster of an Atlanta Braves’ team in the LCA and/or Rookie league to get more experience and improve as fielders, hitters, and pitchers. Lakeland Flying Tigers The HCA-FSL Tigers had seventy-three victories during 2012 and in the postseason series, won the league championship. Among its fifteen international players, the most productive batter was Venezuelan Hernan Perez. Selected a MiLB.com all-star, he had a .298 BA with 115 hits and forty-four RBIs in 124 games. Panama’s Adolfo Reina hit .323 but played in only thirty-nine games. Two important pitchers were Germany’s Alex Burgos and Venezuela’s Luis Sanz. Together, they won nineteen games in 235 innings. In 2010, Alex Burgos finished 13-1 with a 1.42 ERA and 109 strikeouts as a freshman at the State College of Florida. Selected by the Detroit Tigers in the fifth round of the first-year player draft, he ranked twelfth as a prospect in the organization. After winning six games in the LCA-ML for the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2011, the Tigers promoted him. In contrast to Burgos, Luis Sanz was the team’s top pitcher because of his ninety-five strikeouts and 3.46 ERA in 119 innings. They and Venezuelan outfielder Avisail Garcia were each significant players in the Flying Tigers’ success. Wisconsin Timber Rattlers With six immigrant players on its roster, the Rattlers won the LCA-ML championship in 2012. Puerto Rican Yadiel Rivera and Canadian Chadwin Stang were in 127 games and each of them had at least 115 hits, ten home runs, and forty-seven RBIs. Dominican pitcher Santo Manzanillo won two games and Canadian Stosh Wawrzasek none. In putouts/errors/games, Mexican catcher Rafael Neda had 476/6/74, shortstop Rivera 216/22/126, and centerfielder Stang 222/2/127. A MiLB.com all-star in 2012, Stang signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers organization in the eighth round of the 2009 amateur draft and initially played in the R-PL with the Helena Brewers and then with the Rattlers in 2011–12. After two mediocre seasons, he became a more effective batter with 130 hits, twenty-four doubles, fortyseven RBIs, and 202 total bases. If he continues to show power while at

13_256_Jozsa.indb 184

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

185

bat and commits few errors, Chadwin Stang will play at the AAA level before 2015. Asheville Tourists After 140 regular season games in 2012, this Colorado Rockies’ affiliate won the LCA-SAL championship. Its roster included seven international players, including four pitchers whose number of victories ranged from two to eight, ERAs from 4.12 to 5.40, and innings from forty-six to ninetysix. Dominican Nelson Gonzalez had the most wins and lowest ERA while Jefri Hernandez saved twenty-one games as the teams’ top relief pitcher. In batting, three foreign players had between forty-three and seventy-four hits in sixty-three to eighty-three games. One of these was outfielder David Kandilas of Australia. Signed by the Rockies organization in 2008, he played in the R-PL for the Casper Ghosts during 2009–2011. His most productive season with the Ghosts was 2011, when he had a .327 BA with eighty-one hits, seventeen doubles, six home runs, and thirty-five RBIs. Interestingly, Kandilas hit for the cycle in 2011 while playing in the Australian Baseball League and again against the Ogden Raptors in a R-PL game. These results indicate, in part, his potential as a Rockies player of the future. Hudson Valley Renegades The Renegades, an affiliate of the AL Tampa Bay Rays, won fifty-two games and the SSA-NYPL championship in 2012. Three foreign-born players on the team had BAs/hits/home runs/RBIs as follows: .226/49/2/21 for Dominican Joel Caminero, .150/12/0/0 for Venezuelan Felix Gonzalez, and .276/64/1/29 for Brazilian Leonardo Reginatto. An infielder signed to a contract by the Rays organization in 2009 as a nondrafted free agent, Reginatto played for teams in MiLB during 2009–2012. His best performance was in 2009 with the VSL Rays. That season, he had a .328 BA with sixty-one hits, seven doubles, and twenty-nine RBIs in fifty-four games. Renegades pitcher Eduar Quinonez of Venezuela won seven games in sixty-two innings while Dominican Jose Molina and Venezuelan Reinaldo Lopez had a total of five wins and two losses. Except for Quinonez, the other five foreigners played a small role in the team’s 2012 championship season. Vancouver Canadians In 2012, this Toronto Blue Jays affiliate was 46-30 in the regular season and won the SSA-NORWL championship. Of the ten foreign-born players, including four Canadians, on the club’s roster, Venezuelan Balbino

13_256_Jozsa.indb 185

8/8/13 2:58 PM

186

Chapter 5

Fuenmayor batted .282 with seventy-three hits and fifty-two RBIs in sixty-seven games and was a two-time player of the week. Besides him, Canadian Dalton Pompey had a .294 BA with ten hits in eleven games. In pitching, Venezuelan Javier Avendano won eight games with a 1.27 ERA in seventy-eight innings while Canadians Zack Breault, Eric Brown, and Nicholas Purdy, and Venezuelan Roberto Osuna each had fewer wins but higher ERAs than Avendano. In putouts, first baseman Fuenmayor had 417 and Dominican right fielder Carlos Ramirez eighty-one. Thus, these players and Venezuelans Leo Hernandez and Santiago Nessy contributed to the team’s championship season. Elizabethton Twins After posting a 43-22 record in the regular season, the Elizabethton Twins won the R-APPL championship in 2012. Five foreign teammates batted higher than .300. In this group were three Dominicans, including Candido Pimentel, who was player of the year and a postseason all-star, and players of the week Romy Jiminez and Jorge Polanco. Among the six international pitchers, Venezuelan Angel Mata won three games while the other five each had between zero and two victories. In addition, catcher Jhonatan Arias of Venezuela and first baseman Rory Rhodes of Australia led the team in putouts at their respective positions. Based on their performances in 2012, batters Pimentel, Jiminez, and Polanco will play on Twins teams at the AA and AAA levels within three years and if successful there, on MLB’s Minnesota Twins. Missoula Osprey This Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate won forty-one games in the 2012 regular season and the R-PL championship. Four Osprey players, as natives of foreign countries or Puerto Rico, were outstanding batters. Their BAs/hits/home runs/RBIs were respectively .312/87/4/39 for Dominican Socrates Brito, .322/37/2/15 for Venezuelan Yosbel Gutierrez, .293/66/10/60 for Puerto Rican Michael Perez, and .313/78/2/19 for Dominican Pedro Ruiz. In fact, Perez was a MiLB.com and postseason all-star. In pitching, Colombia’s Karl Triana won five games, Venezuela’s Yoimer Camacho three, and Puerto Rico’s Andrew Barbosa one. At their positions on the team, the leaders in putouts included catcher Perez, shortstop Ruiz, and right fielder Brito. Thus, these foreigners made a positive difference in the Osprey’s championship performance in 2012. AZL Rangers After finishing 34-22 in the regular season, the Rangers won the R-AZL championship in 2012. Of the eight international players who were

13_256_Jozsa.indb 186

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

187

batters, three of them hit higher than .320 including Venezuelan Elio Sarmiento, Dominican Ronald Guzman, and Puerto Rican Janiuis Castro. Although they had few home runs, their number of hits ranged from fourteen to sixty-eight and RBIs from nine to thirty-three. In contrast, Dominican Nomar Mazara had six home runs but batted only .264. Dominican Luis Parra, who won five games, led the eight foreign-born pitchers on the team, and with four victories each were Puerto Rican Alexander Claudio and Venezuelan Frank Lopez. Because of his 1.79 ERA in fortyfive innings, Claudio was a postseason all-star. For the most putouts at their positions, Guzman had 443 at first base, Dominican Alberto Trunfel forty-four at second base, Luis Marte sixty-two at shortstop, and Mazara seventy-seven in right field. Obviously, these foreign-born players contributed to the Rangers championship season. GCL Pirates An affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, this team won thirty-six games in 2012 and then the R-GCL championship. More than 50 percent of its players were born in foreign countries. Seven of them had BAs above .250 and among that group, Dominican Dilson Herrera had the most hits, doubles, home runs, and RBIs. For his performance, he was the league’s player of the year. In pitching, Mexican Roberto Espinosa won five games, Australian Wilson Lee four, and Dominican Martires Cadet and Cuban Cesar Lopez each three. The leading fielders at their positions in putouts included Taiwanese Jin-De-Jhang at catcher, Dominican Edwin Espinal at first base, Dilson Herrera at second base, Canadian Eric Wood at third base, Venezuelan Elvis Escobar in center field, and Dominican Luis Urena in right field. Because of these players, the GCL Pirates were very competitive and champions in 2012. DSL Pirates 1 With 95 percent of its players from foreign nations, this Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate won forty-four games in 2012 and the DSL championship. The four highest BAs on the teams belonged to Dominican Maximo Rivera at .367, Colombian Gustavo Barrios at .327, Panamanian Ulises Montilla at .320, and American Daniel Arribas at .308. For the most hits/RBIs/ stolen bases, these players were Arribas/Montilla/Rivera. Six Pirates pitchers won at least five games. From highest to lowest in their winning percentage, they were Colombian Oderman Rocha at .857, Mexican Omar Basulto and Dominican Jose Regalado each at .833, Dominican Mervin Del Rosario and Venezuelan Carlos Ruiz each at .714, and Dominican Luis Santos at .667. Besides Montilla at third base, the other fielders with most putouts included Venezuelan Tomas Morales at catcher, Mexicans Carlos Munoz at

13_256_Jozsa.indb 187

8/8/13 2:58 PM

188

Chapter 5

first base and Carlos Esqueda at second base, Dominicans Carlos Ozuna at shortstop, Henry Rosario in center field, Yunior Aquiles in right field, and Colombian Tito Polo in left field. Truly, this championship team had several outstanding foreign players in the 2012 season. VSL Phillies An affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012, this team won forty-eight games and the VSL’s regular season. Thirty, or 85 percent of its players were Venezuelan. On the roster, six had BAs that exceeded .300 and only one of them, Brazilian Lucas Rojo, was not from Venezuela. With respect to their BA/hits/doubles/RBIs, Wilson Garcia dominated the group with .353/71/18/38. Five pitchers each won at least five games, led by Venezuelan Douglas Parada with eight. Of nineteen pitchers on the staff, Panamanian Severino Gonzalez had one of the lowest ERAs and played the most innings. With respect to number of putouts at their positions, the leaders were Venezuelan except for catcher Jose Mayorga from Panama. While competing against the VSL Mariners, Rays, and Tigers, the Phillies had the most talented players and thus earned the league’s title. Drug Suspensions In response to concerns of steroid use by MiLB players, MLB implemented a program for them in 2001. One year later, drug tests were random and after a positive result, the league directed these players to a doctor and a counselor. There was a fine of approximately $100 and future tests became regular and more frequent. The second and third violations for using banned drugs led to larger fines and longer suspensions, and teams expelled their players for the fourth.14 In 2004, MiLB’s program to test for Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) covered all minor league players including those in the DSL and VSL. Each player was subject to up to four unannounced tests during a year and offseason. A banned PED was steroids. These involved Tetrahydrogestrinone, any over-the-counter supplements containing precursors of testosterone or anabolic steroids, ephedrine and related substances, human growth hormone, and masking agents. The penalties for testing positive for PEDs were a fifteen-game suspension for the first offense, thirty games for the second, sixty games for the third, a one-year suspension for the fourth, and permanent suspension for the fifth. While serving these penalties, players were not paid.15 In 2012, MiLB players were subject to random drug testing throughout the year and during the offseason. For positive tests of PEDs such as

13_256_Jozsa.indb 188

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

189

steroids, players received a fifty-game suspension for their first offense, one hundred for a second, and a permanent ban for the third. First-time offenders who abused such drugs as cocaine and marijuana underwent counseling before they received any penalties for their second, third, and fourth violations. According to data contained in a recent usatoday.com article, drug violations by players in MiLB varied each year from 2005 to 2012. After 106 in 2005, violations were in the 30s during 2006 and 2007, 69 in 2008, in the 80s during 2009 and 2010, 71 in 2011, and 104 in 2012. As to the latter year, international players had almost 50 percent of the violations for consuming and/or injecting PEDs. MiLB.com published specific information about the 104 drug suspensions in the minor leagues from January 5 to November 12, 2012. Interestingly, foreigners and Puerto Ricans committed 47 percent of them. Most violations were by players from the Dominican Republic and then Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Those suspended were primarily pitchers and their types of substances besides amphetamines included Boldnone, Nandrolene, and Stanozolol. Some of these players simply refused to take a drug test while others had undisclosed violations for substance abuse. The following are a few examples of their experiences. Twenty-Five Games In 2012, four MiLB players received suspensions of twenty-five games. During June, MLB suspended Dominican pitcher Francisco Guzman for a nondetailed drug violation. In 2009–2010, he pitched for the DSL Diamondbacks and won only one game in seventy-two innings but had an ERA less than 3.00. After missing the 2011 season for various reasons, Guzman played in the R-AZL for the Diamondbacks in 2012 and won two games before his suspension for violating MLB’s Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Consequently, his future in professional baseball is at risk and in trouble.16 Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies organization to a minor league contract as a nondrafted free agent in 2008, Dominican Carlos Best had played on teams in MiLB from 2009 to 2012. After switching from outfielder to pitcher, he won eight games for the DSL Phillies in 2009–2010 and then one each in the next two seasons with the R-GCL Phillies. On June 5, 2012, MLB suspended him for an unspecified violation. In 2013, Carlos Best may pitch in the DSL but not necessarily for the Phillies. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA) signed Dominican pitcher Ysmael Carmona to a minor league contract in 2003 as a nondrafted free agent. In various MiLB seasons during 2006–2012, he pitched for such

13_256_Jozsa.indb 189

8/8/13 2:58 PM

190

Chapter 5

Angels clubs as the LCA-ML Cedar Rapids Kernels, AA-TL Arkansas Travelers, and AAA-PCL Salt Lake Bees. After Carmona pitched four innings with the Bees in 2012, MLB suspended him in September for an unknown drug violation. His suspension takes effect when he signs a contract with another big-league organization. Three years after signing a minor league contract with the Angels, Dominican Yancarlos Santiago received a suspension for an unknown violation of MLB’s drug policy. During 2009–2011, he pitched for the DSL Angels and won ten games. In 2011, he played in the R-PL for the Orem Owls and had a 1-3 record with a 5.91 ERA in thirty-five innings. Since the Owls did not qualify for the league’s playoffs, Yancarlos Santiago immediately served his penalty of twenty-five games. Fifty Games Cuban outfielder Smaily Borges signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs in 2009. After one season with the DSL Cubs, in which he hit .317 and was a midseason all-star, Borges played a season in the HCA-FSL with the Daytona Cubs and then another in the LCA-ML with the Peoria Chiefs. After refusing to take a drug test, MLB suspended him for fifty games as of January 2012. His suspension was effective when he signed a contract with an MLB organization. Although Borges’ BAs were each less than .235 in 2010–2011, he is a young and talented player with a future in professional baseball. Selected in the twenty-sixth round of the 1997 first-year draft, the Detroit Tigers signed Canadian Max St. Pierre to a minor league contract. Except in 2007, he played for Tigers teams as a catcher and pinch hitter through 2011. Besides his excellent fielding average, he had career highs in BA, home runs, and RBIs with the AA-EL Erie Sea Wolves during 2003–2005. St. Pierre also played competitively in the AA-SL for the Huntsville Stars and in the AAA-IL for the Toledo Mud Hens. In April 2012, MLB suspended him fifty games for using a “drug of abuse.” Since this was his second violation and being a veteran player, the suspension may negatively affect his career. After signing a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox, Brazilian pitcher Andre Rienzo played for various teams in MiLB during 2007–2012. He won at least five games for White Sox affiliates in 2008 and 2010, and was an all-star in 2011–2012. According to scouting reports, Rienzo has a very good fastball but not secondary pitches. Arguably, he is one of the five best pitching prospects in the White Sox farm system, and projects to perform as a relief pitcher in MLB. During April 2012, Rienzo tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol, a powerful synthetic

13_256_Jozsa.indb 190

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

191

steroid banned by MLB. Suspended for fifty games, this will further slow his progress in the big leagues. Other than the suspension of non-prospect Miguel Negron in 2010 for “drug of abuse,” Andre Rienzo was the first White Sox minor leaguer penalized for using a specific PED. The Atlanta Braves signed Nicaraguan Darrel Leiva to a minor league contract for $120,000 in 2011. One year later, he pitched for the DSL Braves and won one game with a 5.63 ERA in ten games. He throws a fastball in the low 90s, and complements it with a sharp curve ball. In August 2012, Leiva tested positive for metabolites of both Stanozolol (commonly sold as Winstrol) and Nandrolone (commonly sold as Deca-Durabolin), both anabolic steroids. Because of his test results, MLB suspended him for fifty games. Already a strong, talented pitcher, the Braves organization will likely assign Leiva to a MiLB club in the system after he completes his penalty and learns about health care problems associated with using PEDs. The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Puerto Rican Jaime Ortiz in the seventh round of the 2006 first-year draft and signed him to a minor league contract. An infielder, he played in MiLB from 2006 to 2012 on teams in the R-GCL, R-PL, LCA-ML, HCA-CAL, HCA-FSL, and AA-SL. During his career, Ortiz had his highest BA with the R-PL Ogden Raptors in 2007, and most home runs and RBIs with the LCA-ML Great Lakes Loons in 2008. While playing for the Miami Marlins’ affiliate AA-SL Jacksonville Suns and hitting .188 with only one home run and four RBIs, MLB suspended him for fifty games. He tested positive for Stanozolol, a banned steroid that professional baseball considers a PED. After assigning Ortiz to the suspended list, the Suns replaced him with Mexican infielder German Duran, a former minor league free agent who played in MLB during 2008. Venezuelan José Torres was a free agent who signed a minor league contract with the Florida (renamed Miami) Marlins in 2007. While playing on Marlins’ MiLB teams from 2008 to 2010, his BA improved and he became a competitive shortstop. However, for the HCA-FSL Jupiter Hammerheads, he batted .221 in 2011 with zero home run and sixteen RBIs in eighty-three games. On March 28, 2012, MLB Commissioner Selig’s office announced that Torres was suspended fifty games after testing positive for Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Considered a PED in the league’s Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, DHEA is a steroid produced naturally in the human body but also sold as a supplement used to aid muscle growth. José Torres’s suspension takes effect when he signs a contract with another MLB organization. Because of his problems with drugs, it will be a challenge for him to succeed in the future. Signed to a contract by the Colorado Rockies as a minor league free agent in 2007, Mexican pitcher Marco Duarte played on different MiLB

13_256_Jozsa.indb 191

8/8/13 2:58 PM

192

Chapter 5

teams during 2007–2012. In 2009–2011, the Rockies loaned him to the AAA-MXL where he won fifteen games in 197 innings. After the Houston Astros selected him in the 2011 Rule V draft, he became a free agent and the Boston Red Sox acquired him in December. During 2011, Duarte won one game for the HCA-CARL Salem Red Sox and another for the AA-EL Portland Sea Dogs. On June 22, 2012, MLB suspended him for fifty games because he used amphetamines, a substance banned by the league. Since he can pitch and win games, Marco Duarte will play more years with teams in MiLB including one or more in the MXL.17

NOTES 1. For the formation, growth, and success of minor league baseball in America, see “The History and Function of Minor League Baseball,” www.milb.com (1 February 2013); “Minor League Baseball History,” www.baseball-almanac.com (1 February 2013); “Minor League Baseball League Encyclopedia,” wwww.baseballreference.com (1 February 2013). In the literature, another source is chapter 5, “The Organization and Business of Minor League Baseball” in Frank P. Jozsa Jr., Baseball, Inc.: The National Pastime as Big Business (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), 46–56. 2. Some popular worldwide websites with data, statistics, and other information about the historical backgrounds and performances of international managers in minor league baseball leagues are baseball-reference.com, baseball.almanac .com, milb.com, and mlb.com. 3. The All-Star Futures Game is an annual exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball. Started in 1999, a team of minor league baseball prospects from the United States and a team of top prospects from other countries compete. Played as part of the festivities of the All-Star Game, MLB and Baseball America work with the thirty clubs to determine the twenty-five-man rosters for the event. Some information about it is in “Futures Game History,” www.mlb.com (2 February 2013) and “Prospects: Futures Game,” www.baseballamerica.com (2 February 2013). Two articles that describe Mike Coolbaugh and his award are “Goyle Named Winner of Mike Coolbaugh Award,” www.mlb.com (3 February 2013) and “Coolbaugh Award Bittersweet for Jirschele,” www.mlb.com (3 February 2013). 4. See “Caribbean Series,” www.baseball-reference.com (4 February 2013) and “Caribbean World Series,” www.latinobaseball.com (4 February 2013). This event and its teams and players are in Peter Bjarkman, Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005). 5. Read about him and his performance as a manager in “Rojas, 2012 Staff Return for Gnats,” www.milb.com (10 February 2013) and “Rojas Returns to Manage Sand Gnats,” www.dining.savannah.com (10 February 2013). 6. Three sources for the history and performances of international players in minor league baseball are Baseball America 2012 Almanac (Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2012), Josh Leventhal, ed., Baseball America 2012 Directory (Durham, NC:

13_256_Jozsa.indb 192

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Minor League Baseball Immigrants

193

Baseball America, 2012), and King Kaufman and Cecilia Tan, eds., Baseball Prospectus 2012 (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012). 7. Founded in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, the Topps Company manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. It is a leading producer of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey cards, and other sports- and nonsports-themed trading cards. Topps selects an all-star team from players on teams in minor league baseball and MLB. See “Official Topps Baseball Cards,” www.topps.com (7 March 2013), and player’s performances at www.baseball-reference.com and www.milb .com. 8. To evaluate ballplayers with the most potential to be stars in a recent season, see “2013 Top 100 Prospects List,” www.baseballamerica.com (7 March 2013) and “Baseball Prospectus Releases Top 101 Prospects List,” www.minorleaguebaseball.com (7 March 2013). 9. The Americas Baseball Cup is a competitive event that consists of teams from countries in Latin America. They play each other in a series of games during late September to early October. A few of them qualify for the Baseball World Cup, which includes teams from Latin America and other regions of the world. Some players on teams in the Americas Baseball Cup have been on rosters of minor league and MLB clubs. References are “2008 Americas Baseball Cup,” www .baseball-reference (18 February 2013) and “Baseball World Cup,” www.ibaf.org (18 February 2013). 10. With headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is the governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee to oversee, decide, and execute the policies of baseball at the international level. One of its principal responsibilities is to organize, standardize, and sanction international competitions among its 118 national member federations through its various tournaments to determine a world champion and calculate world rankings for men’s and women’s baseball. The IBAF is the lone entity that can assign the title of “world champion” to any baseball team delegated to represent a nation. For its mission, see “International Baseball Federation,” www.iaaf .org (7 March 2013). 11. Dominican authorities charged a former contract investigator used by MLB with accepting a $25,000 bribe in exchange for illegally conspiring with a trainer and a scout to pass the player through his background investigation. Though the police did not identify the player, Baseball America learned he is Padres right fielder Yoan Alcantara, who signed a contract for $135,000 on July 2, 2009, and ranked as the number one prospect in the Rookie Arizona League. The investigator was not a full-time MLB staff member but worked on cases for the league as a contractor. Alcantara’s investigation was done prior to when MLB’s department of investigations began background checks for Latin American signings. See “Padres Outfielder Yoan Alcantara Involved in Alleged Fraud,” www.baseballamerica.com (18 February 2013). 12. Tommy John surgery repairs an injured elbow ligament and is common for college and pro athletes, especially baseball pitchers. The surgery, named after former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John, replaces the injured Ulnar Collateral Ligament with a tendon taken from somewhere else in the patient’s

13_256_Jozsa.indb 193

8/8/13 2:58 PM

194

Chapter 5

body. John underwent the first surgery of this type in 1974. An explanation of this procedure is in “Tommy John Surgery,” www.webmd.com (18 February 2013). 13. During February 2013, Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians organization. He pitched for the current Indians manager Terry Francona when Francona managed the Boston Red Sox. This story is in “Indians a Physical Away from Matsuzaka,” Charlotte Observer (11 February 2013), 2C. 14. See “Minor League Suspension in 2012,” www.milb.com (7 February 2013), “38 Suspended for Steroids,” www.baseballamerica.com (27 January 2013), and player’s performances at www.milb.com. 15. Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) is a designer steroid used only by elite athletes. THG is a modification of two other known steroids. These are trenbolone, and gestrinone. Trenbolone has become one of the most popular steroids on the black market. Gestrinone treats endometriosis. The modification has made the drug undetectable in steroid tests. Two readings are “Steroid World,” www.steroidworld.com (7 March 2013) and “Tetrahydrogestrinone,” www.teachpe.com (7 March 2013). 16. For the prohibited substances, types of penalties, and other aspects of MLB’s drug program, see “Major League Baseball Joint Drug and Prevention Program,” www.mlb.com (18 February 2013). 17. The Rule V Draft occurs annually during Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings of teams’ general managers. Teams must file a forty-man roster with the league office by November 30. Any player who fits all of the following criteria is eligible for the Rule V Draft. The player (a) is not on the forty-man roster, (b) has been in the minor leagues for at least four years, (c) signed a contract after age nineteen, and (d) has been in the minor leagues for at least five years if signed before age nineteen. The Rule V Draft prevents MLB franchises from stockpiling too many young players on their minor league affiliates when other teams would be willing to play them in the majors. To read about the league’s policy, see “Rule V Draft,” www.baseball-reference.com (18 February 2013).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 194

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Conclusion

INTERNATIONAL PASTIME In nations across the world, baseball is historically unique in its origin, development, and organization. In some ways, the sport reflects the cultures and traditions of the societies where it has taken root. Ballplayers participate in games at many levels, from local and regional to national and international.1 In some countries, baseball is a popular sport, as in the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Venezuela of Latin America; in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan of Asia; and in areas of Italy and the Netherlands of Europe. In other places, however, it is less successful compared to such team sports as basketball, ice hockey, and soccer, and perhaps to individual sports like golf, swimming, and tennis. Based on historic trends, baseball’s future growth will be in Latin America and then in the metropolitan areas of Asia and some European urban markets. From a worldwide perspective, there are important issues that affect and influence baseball fans, games, and organizations. These include, for example, players’ academies and other training facilities located in Latin America, the creation of an international draft system that includes ballplayers from the United States and abroad, a comprehensive but fair and effective drug prevention and treatment policy, and security and safety programs.2 Because several foreign-born and Puerto Rican players are on the rosters of thirty teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) and their affiliates in the U.S. minor leagues, American and international baseball officials need 195

13_256_Jozsa.indb 195

8/8/13 2:58 PM

196

Conclusion

to jointly and systematically address these issues in order for the game to move forward. Thus far, there has been marginal but steady progress to discuss these matters and get better results. To ensure baseball’s expansion and long-term growth across continents, MLB and its thirty franchises must commit more resources and implement additional activities. The league should increase investments and focus its efforts to host and sponsor tournaments; broadcast more regular season and postseason games on cable, satellite, and television networks; and ultimately, consider putting new or existing teams in large metropolitan areas of foreign countries. If this occurs in the next five to ten years, baseball will extend the sport’s image, reputation, and tradition of being the world’s international pastime.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS Foreign-born and Puerto Rican baseball players will continue to perform well in MLB and the minor leagues. Because of the passion for the sport in their home countries, which fosters their abilities as ballplayers, in addition to their years of professional experience and training, they will undoubtedly become batting champions; Cy Young and Rolaids Relief Award winners for being outstanding pitchers; and most valuable players of a league, in division and championship games, and in the World Series. In addition, some will win Rookie of the Year, a Silver Slugger Award for hitting, or a Gold Glove for fielding.3 The best of these players will receive enough votes for their induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. That honor requires support from fans, the media, and baseball writers, and depends, in part, on the quality of their team and competing teams. Similarly to some American players, a small number of foreign-born players are going to make wrong decisions and risk their careers by using banned, performance-enhancing drugs. If the MLB Players Association agrees to new proposals put forth by baseball’s commissioner, more random and unannounced urine tests of players and larger penalties for violations of MLB’s drug prevention and treatment program will hopefully stem this problem. Foreign-born players also have tremendous opportunities to increase their annual and lifetime salaries, especially those who win awards and become all-stars. Thus, MLB franchises need to invest additional money and resources into financial and social programs to educate their international players about crooked and greedy advisors, sports agents, and professional scouts.

13_256_Jozsa.indb 196

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Conclusion

197

Besides investing $125 million annually in academies within the Dominican Republic and other countries, MLB should also use its wealth to organize, fund, and operate baseball camps in the United States to attract, teach, and train inner-city kids. The league and its franchises could jointly create regional camps, for example, in areas of Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle on the West Coast, in Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh in the Midwest, and in Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia near the East Coast.

TEAM COACHES, MANAGERS, OPERATIONS Executives and other officials of American and National League franchises recruit, hire, and assign minorities, including immigrants, to coach and manage their teams. For the most part, these men were former ballplayers who decided to continue their careers in the operations of baseball organizations. Some became assistant, bench, first base, third base, hitting, pitching, bullpen, and other types of coaches. Each MLB team has several coaches that, in part, include foreigners with prior experience as ballplayers either in the U.S. minor leagues or on clubs in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, and nations in Asia and Europe.4 For various cultural, economic, and social reasons, and perhaps because of ethnic and racial discrimination, there have been very few MLB managers born in foreign countries. Such current managers as the San Diego Padres’ Bruce Bochy from France and the Atlanta Braves’ Fredi González from Cuba have been successful at leading their teams, while previously others like Dominican Manny Acta and Cuban Preston Gómez struggled to win games. Simply put, foreign-born coaches and managers who improve their teams’ performances will continue to work with bigleague clubs. There are foreigners and Puerto Ricans who work in baseball operations of each MLB franchise. Besides those in the farm system, they have positions on the staff in medical/training, player development, and scouting. Some of them are advisors, coordinators, and directors, while others have jobs as area, regional, and international scouts. Because of their knowledge of and interest in professional baseball, these foreign-born individuals are vital to the operations of such organizations as the AL’s Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Angels, and Minnesota Twins, and NL’s Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals.5

13_256_Jozsa.indb 197

8/8/13 2:58 PM

198

Conclusion

MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IMMIGRANTS Each MLB franchise controls, finances, and owns a farm system, with its teams playing in various minor leagues. As affiliates, baseball clubs in these systems have foreign-born coaches and managers who, in part, were former ballplayers or officials with an interest in and/or knowledge of baseball business, operations, and organizations. Among farm systems, more foreigners coach and manage teams at the lowest level in the Rookie Appalachian, Arizona, Pioneer, and Gulf Coast Leagues than at higher levels such as the AAA International and Pacific Coast Leagues or AA Eastern, Southern, and Texas Leagues. Similarly to the structure of teams in the AL and NL, there are more U.S.-born people than immigrants in administrative positions of minor league baseball organizations.6 During the 2012 season, some championship teams in the minor leagues had several foreign players who contributed to their teams’ wins, while other teams had few. Those whose foreigners made significant contributions included the AAA-IL Pawtucket Red Sox (Boston Red Sox), AAEL Akron Aeros (Cleveland Indians), HCA-CARL Lancaster Jethawks (Houston Astros), LCA-ML Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Milwaukee Brewers), SSA-NORWL Vancouver Canadians (Toronto Blue Jays), and championship teams in Rookie Leagues and the Dominican and Venezuelan Summer Leagues. Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz, an independent, unaffiliated team that won the Mexican League, had players primarily from nations in Latin America. In contrast, foreign players were less important to the success of the AAA-PCL Reno Aces (Arizona Diamondbacks), AA-SL Mobile Bay Bears (Arizona Diamondbacks), HCA-CARL Lynchburg Hillcats (Atlanta Braves), and SSA-NYPL Hudson Valley Renegades (Tampa Bay Rays). These minor league teams had only a few foreigners who played in enough innings to make a difference during the season, or the players simply were not as successful. Several foreign players made stupid and unethical decisions when they violated the league’s drug prevention and treatment program during 2005–2012. Accordingly, MLB suspended them. Most of these players were from the Dominican Republic and then Venezuela, and Cuba. They used different types of performance-enhancing drugs and in 2012, received twenty-five- or fifty-game suspensions of the regular season and/ or postseason.7 Because of these and other incidents, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig proposed to increase the sample size of random and unannounced urine tests, and toughen the penalties for drug abuse among MLB and minor

13_256_Jozsa.indb 198

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Conclusion

199

league players as of the 2013 season. The MLB Players Association, meanwhile, will review Selig’s recommendations and offer a few changes before approving his proposals. If applied and strictly enforced, the league’s new policies will improve and reestablish baseball’s integrity, reputation, and tradition among sports fans in America and elsewhere.

NOTES 1. For example’s of baseball’s culture in different countries, see Tim Arango, “The Cuban Game,” Fortune (16 April 2007), 33–36; Jonathan Clark, “Baseball in Caribbean,” San Francisco Chronicle (11 July 2004), 1–2; Justin Martin, “Can Baseball Make It in Mexico?” Fortune (30 September 1996), 32–33; Anthony Witrado, “International Pastime,” Sporting News (9 May 2011), 36–37; “SABR Asian Baseball Committee Japanese Baseball History,” www.robsjapanesecards.com (22 March 2005); “SABR Asian Baseball Committee Korean Baseball History,” www.robsjapanesecards.com (22 March 2005); John Vinocur, “Baseball in Europe,” www .sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003). 2. Regarding players’ academies, see “Dominican Baseball Academy Launches Educational Program,” New York Amsterdam News (18 August 2011), 46; Bob Edwards, “Profile: Baseball Academy Hopes to Rekindle Puerto Rican Baseball Glory,” www.search.epnet.com (3 May 2005); and Gary Marx, “An Expose on Baseball Training Facilities in Latin America,” www.sportsbusinessnews.com (19 August 2003). On progress on the draft, see Wayne Coffey, “Global Warming: Baseball Works to Implement Worldwide Draft,” New York Daily News (30 May 2002), 6–8; Paul Hoynes, “Draft Should Span the Globe,” Cleveland Plain Dealer (8 September 2002), C5; and Gary Klein, “Global Draft,” Los Angeles Times (3 June 2003), 6. 3. For information about different awards to foreign-born players in fielding, hitting, and pitching, see “American League Gold Glove Award Winners,” www.baseball-reference.com (17 December 2012); “Batting Average Year-by-Year Leaders,” www.baseball-almanac.com (24 November 2012); “MLB Most Valuable Player MVP Awards & Cy Young Awards Winners,” www.baseball-reference .com (24 November 2012); “MLB Rookie of the Year Awards,” www.baseballreference.com (24 November 2012). 4. See “List of Current Major League Baseball Coaching Staffs,” www.baseballreference.com (26 January 2013); “Managerial Stats,” www.baseball-reference .com (1 November 2012); “Rojas Returns to Manage Sand Gnats,” www.dining .savannah.com (10 February 2013). 5. Sources for the baseball operations of MLB teams are various editions of The Complete Baseball Record and Fact Book and the Official Major League Baseball Fact Book, each published by the Sporting News, and websites www.mlb.com, www .baseball-almanac.com, and www.baseball-reference.com. 6. See “The History & Function of Minor League Baseball,” www.milb.com (1 February 2013), and Josh Leventhal, ed., Baseball America Directory 2012 (Durham, NC: Baseball America, 2012).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 199

8/8/13 2:58 PM

200

Conclusion

7. See, for example, Ronald Blum, “Suspended Players Are Largely Latino,” Charlotte Observer (5 May 2005), 5C; “Steroid Suspensions,” www.baseball-almanac.com (26 November 2012); “Minor League Suspensions in 2012,” www.milb .com (7 February 2013); and “MLB Steroid Rules Trip Up Latin Americans,” www .cnnsi.netscape.com (6 May 2005).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 200

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Appendix

Table A2.1. 1901–2012

American League International Pitchers, Twenty-Game Winners

Name

Country

Team

Seasons

Bert Blyleven Bartolo Colón Mike Cuellar Ed Figueroa Russ Ford Otto Hess Teddy Higuera Esteban Loaiza Pedro Martinez Camilo Pascual Johan Santana Luis Tiant

Netherlands Dominican Republic Cuba Puerto Rico Canada Switzerland Mexico Mexico Dominican Republic Cuba Venezuela Cuba

Minnesota Twins Los Angeles Angels Baltimore Orioles California Angels New York Yankees Cleveland Indians Milwaukee Brewers Chicago White Sox Boston Red Sox Minnesota Twins Minnesota Twins Boston Red Sox

1973 2005 1969–71, 1974 1978 1910–11 1906 1986 2003 1999, 2002 1962–63 2004 1968, 1973–74, 1976

Note: Bartolo Colón won twenty games for the NL Montreal Expos in 2002. Source: George Vass, “The Wide World of Baseball,” Baseball Digest (February 2003), 11–16, and “American League 20-Game Winners,” www.baseball-almanac.com (3 December 2012).

201

13_256_Jozsa.indb 201

8/8/13 2:58 PM

202 Table A2.2.

Appendix American League Foreign Players, Steroid Suspensions, 2005–12

Name

Country

Team

Year

Penalty

Alex Sanchez Agustín Montero Juan Rincón Rafael Betancourt Rafael Palmeiro Carlos Almanzar Juan Salas Neifi Pérez Neifi Pérez José Guillén Manny Ramirez Bartolo Colón

Cuba Dominican Republic Venezuela Venezuela Venezuela Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Tampa Bay Devil Rays Texas Rangers Minnesota Twins Cleveland Indians Baltimore Orioles Texas Rangers Tampa Bay Devil Rays Detroit Tigers Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Tampa Bay Rays Oakland Athletics

2005 2005 2005 2005 2005 2005 2007 2007 2007 2007 2011 2012

10 days 10 days 10 days 10 days 10 days 10 days 50 games 25 games 80 games 15 games 100 games 50 games

Note: Suspensions include use of any performance enhancing drugs. Tampa Bay changed its nickname from the Devil Rays to Rays in 2008. There were no steroid suspensions of American League foreign players in 2006 and 2008–2010. Source: “Steroid Suspensions,” www.baseball-almanac.com (26 November 2012) and “Major League Players Suspended for Performance-Enhancing Drugs,” www.wikipedia.org (26 November 2012).

Table A3.1.

National League International Players, Steroid Suspensions, 2005–2012

Name

Country

Team

Year

Penalty

Félix Heredia Yusaku Iriki Guillermo Mota Eliézer Alfonzo J. C. Romero Manny Ramirez Pablo Ozuna Edinson Volquez Ronny Paulino Guillermo Mota Freddy Galvis Melky Cabrera Yasmani Grandal

Dominican Republic Japan Dominican Republic Venezuela Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Dominican Republic Venezuela Dominican Republic Cuba

New York Mets New York Mets New York Mets San Francisco Giants Philadelphia Phillies Los Angeles Dodgers Philadelphia Phillies Cincinnati Reds Florida Marlins San Francisco Giants Philadelphia Phillies San Francisco Giants San Diego Padres

2005 2006 2006 2008 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2012 2012 2012 2012

10 days 50 games 50 games 50 games 50 games 50 games 50 games 50 games 50 games 100 games 50 games 50 games 50 games

Note: Suspensions were for use of any performance enhancing drugs. There were no suspensions of National League foreign players in 2007 and 2011. The first name of the Marlins changed from Florida to Miami in 2012. Source: “Steroid Suspensions,” www.baseball-almanac.com (26 November 2012) and “List of Major League Baseball Players Suspended for Performance-Enhancing Drugs,” www.wikipedia.org (26 November 2012).

13_256_Jozsa.indb 202

8/8/13 2:58 PM

Appendix

203

Table A4.1. Major League Baseball Central Office Staff, Percentages by Race, Selected Years Race African American Asian Latino Other White

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

14 0 7 0 79

18 1 9 0 72

13 1 11 1 74

10 3 13 1 73

10 4 17 2 67

Note: Asian and Latino players are from both foreign countries and the United States. Other includes Native American, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Percentages are rounded and not available for 2012. Source: Richard Lapchick, The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: Major League Baseball (Orlando: University of Central Florida, College of Business Administration, 2012), 21.

Table A4.2. Major League Baseball Team Managers and Coaches, Percentages by Race, Selected Years Race

1993

1996

1999

2002

2005

2008

2011

Managers African American Latino White

14 7 79

11 3 86

7 3 90

26 6 68

13 10 77

13 13 74

7 13 80

Coaches African American Asian Latino Other White

13 0 6 1 80

18