$Unique_ID{BAS00042} $Title{Foreign-Born Players} $Author{ Deane, Bill} $Subject{Foreign Foreign-Born Players} $Log{} Total Baseball: The Players Foreign-Born Players Bill Deane In discussing the impact and contributions of foreign-born major leaguers, we must first define "foreign-born." For the purposes of this study, we will consider anyone born outside of what is now the United States, regardless of circumstances, with the exclusion of nineteenth-century players born in England or Ireland and twentieth-century Latin-American-born players. These groups are excluded only because their sizes would lopside the data. Using these guidelines, there have been 313 major leaguers (1876-1993), plus four National Association (1871-1875) players, born on foreign soil. These can be divided into nine distinct regional groups: Canada; the Atlantic and Caribbean; the British Isles; Germany; Southern Europe; Northern Europe; Central Europe; Eastern Europe; and Asia and the Pacific. The following table shows the number of members from each group, broken down by era: Foreign-Born Top-Level Baseball Players by Debut Year REGION [*] 1871-1900 1901-1930 1931-1960 1961-1993 TOTAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canada 44 36 36 47 163 Atlantic/Caribbean 1 1 5 13 20 British Isles 6 22 2 6 36 Germany 11 11 2 10 34 Southern Europe 1 2 7 5 15 Northern Europe 4 7 0 3 14 Central Europe 3 3 1 0 7 Eastern Europe 1 5 5 1 12 Asia/Pacific 1 1 0 10 12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS 72 88 58 95 313 * See explanations in text. Following is a summary of the contributions of each regional group: Canada Canadians represent more than half of the foreign-born players under discussion. Of the 163 Canadian-born big leaguers, 89 were born in Ontario; 19 in Quebec; 12 in New Brunswick; 9 in British Columbia; 8 in Nova Scotia; 7 in and Saskatchewan; 5 in Alberta; 3 in Manitoba; 2 on Prince Edward Island; 1 in Newfoundland; and 8 in undetermined places in Canada. The first Canadian-born major leaguer was Bill Phillips, a first baseman who began his ten-year career in 1879 and batted .266 lifetime. Phillips (and seven others listed as Canadian-born) actually was born in a province which was not yet part of the Canadian Confederation. Among the best of the Canadians are Tip O'Neill, Art Irwin, Russ Ford, George Selkirk, Jeff Heath, Pete Ward, Ferguson Jenkins, John Hiller, Terry Puhl, and recent star Larry Walker. O'Neill, a pitcher-turned-outfielder, had a monster year in 1887, when he batted .435 and led the American Association in practically every offensive category. His career average was .326, including two batting crowns. Heath was often charged with not living up to his "potential." He was hardly a washout, however, twice leading the AL in triples, twice topping .340, and finishing his career with 194 homers, 887 RBI and a .293 average. His .509 lifetime slugging average ranks among the top 40 in baseball history. Jenkins in 1991 became the first Canadian-born Hall of Famer. He posted a 284-226 career pitching record, with seven 20-win seasons, 3,192 strikeouts, and a Cy Young Award. Hiller recovered from a heart attack to become one of the AL's premier relievers in the 1970s. His career mark was 87-76, with 125 saves and a 2.83 ERA. Puhl was an excellent all-around athlete with a 12-year .281 average. Other Canadians active in 1988 included Angels' pitcher Kirk McCaskill, Blue Jays' outfielder Rob Ducey, and Rangers' hurler Stephen Wilson. Some other Canadians made contributions of a trivial nature. Selkirk is the man who replaced Babe Ruth in the Yankees' outfield. Art Irwin, who employed a buckskin contraption to protect a pair of broken fingers in 1883, has been called the trendsetter in the use of fielders' gloves. And Glen Gorbous, who had a short stint as a big league outfielder, is credited with the longest measured baseball throw, one of 445'10" in 1957. Atlantic/Caribbean In 1871, the initial season of the National Association (NA), the Troy Haymakers employed a third baseman by the name of Esteban (Steve) Bellan, a native of Havana, Cuba. Bellan played in three NA seasons and was the only Latin-American to play at the top level of pro baseball in the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1911, Latins (mostly Cubans) began trickling into the majors at the rate of one or two per year. After the major league color line was broken in 1947, the Latin population mushroomed. There have now been more than 600 Latin-born major leaguers from Cuba (26 percent), Puerto Rico (25 percent), the Dominican Republic (28 percent), Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Honduras. Although twentieth-century Latins are excluded from the tables in this chapter, they cannot be totally ignored in a discussion of foreign-born stars. The best include Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Rod Carew (Canal Zone), Luis Aparicio (Venezuela), and Juan Marichal (Dominican Republic), along with Puerto Rican Orlando Cepeda and Cubans Dolf Luque, Minnie Minoso, Luis Tiant, Tony Oliva, and Tony Perez. More recent Latin standouts include Puerto Ricans Roberto Alomar, Juan Gonzalez, and Carlos Baerga; Domincans Jose Rijo, Julio Franco, and George Bell; Cubans Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro; Nicaraguan Dennis Martinez; and Mexican Fernando Valenzuela. Aside from Latins, there have been 19 big leaguers born in the Atlantic/ Caribbean area, including 9 from the Virgin Islands (V.I.), 3 from the Bahamas, 3 from Jamaica, 1 from the Netherlands Antilles, and 1 (Edmund Porray) born aboard ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Notables from this region include Virgin Islanders Al McBean, a 1960s relief ace, and Jose Morales, pinch hitter extraordinaire with a .287 career average. Also, there have been two recent Jamaican stars: Devon White and Chili Davis. British Isles Dozens of Irish-and English-born players graced the diamonds in the first few decades of big league ball. By the early part of this century the immigration flow had abated, and Irish and English players became the exception; thus the year 1901 was selected as our cutoff point in categorizing these players as "foreign-born." Before 1901, there were five players born in Scotland and one from Wales. The first among these was David Abercrombie (Scotland), a one-game shortstop in 1871. The best were two pitchers: Jim McCormick (Scotland), who posted a 264-214 record in ten seasons; and Ted Lewis (Wales), who was 94-64 over a six-year career. In the present century, there have been 16 players from England, 9 from Ireland, 4 from Scotland, and 1 from Wales, to debut in the majors. The cream of this crop is Scotland's Bobby Thomson, author of the 1951 "shot heard 'round the world" and 263 other big league homers. Germany The first German-born top-level player was Joseph Miller in 1872. Nineteen other Germans, typically nicknamed "Fritz" or "Dutch", entered the scene before World War One, but only four made it in the half century thereafter. Probably the best German import was hurler Charlie "Pretzels" Getzien, who had a lifetime 145-139 record, including 30-11 and 29-13 seasons in 1886-1887. Another good one was slick-fielding second baseman Glenn Hubbard. Southern Europe This region has produced six big leaguers from France, five from Italy, three from Spain, and one--former Dodgers' player and executive Al Campanis--from Greece. The first Southern European in the majors was Joseph Woerlin (France), a one-game shortstop in 1895. Another Frenchman, pitcher Charlie Lea, was probably the most successful of this group. Northern Europe Five players born in the Netherlands, four in Sweden, three in Norway, and one each from Denmark and Finland comprise this group. The first was National Association pitcher-outfielder Reinder (Rynie) Wolters (Netherlands). Two members stand out. One is Norwegian outfielder-first baseman John Anderson, a turn-of-the-century switch-hitter who batted .290 lifetime. The other is the only current entry, Twins' pitcher Bert Blyleven, amassed 287 wins, 60 shutouts, and and 3,701 strikeouts during his impressive career. Central Europe Only seven players are included in this group, starting with Hungarian pitcher Josef Strauss (1884) and ending with Austrian hurler Kurt Krieger (1951). In between were four players born in the Austro-Hungarian empire and one from Switzerland. The latter was pitcher Otto Hess, the most successful of this group. Hess won 70 games, including 20 for the 1906 Indians, and was also used as an outfielder, first baseman, and pinch hitter. Eastern Europe There have been six natives of Russia, five of Czechoslovakia, and four of Poland to play in the major leagues. The first was Russian outfielder Jake Gettman in 1897. The most recent was Polish pitcher Moe Drabowsky, who hurled in the bigs between 1956 and 1972, and was a relief star in his later years. Another Eastern European standout was Czechoslovakia's Elmer Valo, who batted .282 in a twenty-year career (1940-1961). Asia/Pacific There have been five major leaguers born in Australia, two in Japan, and one each from China, Okinawa, American Samoa, and Afghanistan. A case can be made to add 1914 pitcher Johnnie Williams to this group; Williams was born in the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1889, 11 years before it became a U.S. possession. The first and best of these was Australian second baseman Joe Quinn, who collected 1,797 hits in a 17-year career (1884-1901). Another Aussie, Craig Shipley, recently played with the Dodgers. Other notables from this small group are Samoan slugger Tony Solaita, who hit 50 of his 372 professional homers in the majors; and Japanese pitcher Masanori Murakami.