home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Total Baseball (1994 Edition)
/
Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso
/
dp
/
0004
/
00042.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-02-24
|
11KB
|
201 lines
$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.