BASEBALL players, what do you think?

Question

does anyone find ironic that baseball is the all american game, and most of the best players are foreign?

Answer 1

Ironic, yes, but most of us Americans take the game of baseball for granted. In other countries, it's a way to bring your family out of poverty.

Answer 2

Baseball was invented in the US and was indeed the national pastime, at least until maybe the 60s, when football and NBA started attracting many talented American players (what percentages of non-Americans play in the NFL?). Baseball slowly caught on in the Caribbean and in Japan and Korea and in the last couple of decades, good home grown talent from those countries have made it to the Major Leagues. But baseball is still the wholly American sport.

Answer 3

Because we as Americans take advantage of this and play throughout our lives the american pasttime. But foreign people see this as opportunity and a place to make large amounts of money in the American dream. For example: the players from latin america are generally poorer than americans, dont have the type of jobs we do, and are able to play baseball year around due to the weather. With those regards, playing baseball as a child is pushed through their society so that they may come to America and play baseball and make scads of money. We just take it for granted.

Answer 4

No not really. if it is a good game then who should care. But if you think about it the best players in history of baseball are American. Take Babe Ruth , Mickey Mantle Whitey Ford. They are all American and were great players. so its not ironic that some of the best players are foreign. if its a good game it doesn't matter

Answer 5

This is why baseball is the greatest sport ever made. It crosses all oceans and all cities. All ethnic barriers and has even STOPPED A CIVIL WAR. TO have that type of impact, it had to be pretty special. its also cheapter to sign foreign players to a pro contract than it is for home grown talent. Baseball teams have followed the dodgers and have set up pro camps in different countries, such as Dominican Republic so get players and keep them there for a much cheaper price.

Answer 6

Actually not even most. Many of the Hispanic players in the game are American born citizens.

With Baseball you have the highest paid sports salary of any sport in the world. This attracts the best in the world. So the compitition is higher.

Baseball has fallen under the spell of stereotypes. It recruits from the same areas because scouts found a superstar in that area and somehow like a load of ore the next one is supposed to come from the same area. Not real sure how the logic works in thier minds.

Some children of Latin American nations have three ways to get rich. One is to help or be the leader of the next coup. One is to lead a drug smuggling ring. The third is to play Baseball in America. So kids get baseball gloves literally in the cradle in some places. They learn baseball from birth.

Economics is a huge factor. In the 20s most of the top stars were Italian or Irish. This is because the Italians and Irish were generally poor and pro sports was one way they could reach wealth. The majority of pro sports athletes come from poor or lower middle class neighborhoods. Think about it, in any sport you are competing literally with millions to make it to the big money. In Baseball for example. To make the bigs you have to learn how to play, usually in sandlots and in little league. Then you have to be a star on the HS team. A big enough star and go to the right HS which the MLB scouts will see you. There are literally hundreds of parents each year who move just so thier kid will go to a HS that MLB or other college and pro scouts attend games at. Fail to do that then you have to enroll in the right college and make the squad then crack the starting lineup and then be a star. Easy to do? Hell no. Most people who have a choice decide it's better to go with the safe career as an MBA or Engineer or something rather than spend several years of your life for the %1 or lower chance that you make it big in pro sports.

The poor don't have that option. If they go to college it is often on an athletic scholarship. So at various times ethnic groups which are disproportionately poor make up a disproportionate segment of pro sports. Today it's Hispanics who are rising up from the Barrios and into pro sports. 20 years ago it was very rare to see American born Hispanics not from New York in baseball. Today they are very common. Alex Rodriguez born in New York, Tino Martinez is from Flordia, Jorge Posada, Ivan Rodriguez both from Puerto Rico, David DeJesus New York, Shane Costa from Cali, Nomar Garciaparra (I think that's a Hispanic name) born in Cali, Chad Cordero also from Cali, anyway you get the idea.

Puerto Rico which IS part of America produces a huge number of Baseball's top stars.

Answer 7

34 out of the 50 players that played in the All-star game are from the United States (not including the ones from P.R.) that is 68% of the players that participated in the ALL-STAR GAME. They were : Dye, Jeter, Konerko, Rodriguez, Glaus, Young, Mauer, Wells, Matthews, Lorretta, Zito, Kazmir, Thome, Ryan, Lo Duca, Rogers, Halladay, Sizemore, Webb, Sanchez, Howard, Arroyo, Fuentes, Turnbow, Berkman, Wright, Gordon, Hoffman, Utley, McCann, Eckstein, Penny, Oswalt, Holliday

So remind me again about what your point or question is????


The amount "Foreign players" in the game seems huge, when you pool them all together as "Foreign". why not break them down to their contries and then look at your question again.

Answer 8

it's actually due more to the fact of who has access to baseball fields. drive into compton, ca or newark, nj or east st. louis and you won't find too many baseball fields. baseball is mostly a white, middle to upper class suburbanite sport. it requires a lot of equipment and transportation. ball fields require a lot of real estate. most inner city schools do not have room for a ball field.
basketball is much easier to play in inner cities. which is why you see most african american athletes in that sport.
this is the main reason there aren't very many african americans in soccer too.
in the central and carribean nations baseball is pretty much the only sport they play. some of them play soccer but to a much lesser extent.

Answer 9

Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Roy Holladay, Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Curt Schilling, are all Americans...what do you think?

Answer 10

No not really. If you look at the best players ever they are American.