Foreign influence in Major League Baseball

By Guest
Updated: October 24, 2019

Major League Baseball is enjoying its most diversity in terms of players and their origins than ever before. The 2019 Major League Baseball season saw 20 different countries (one fewer than last season) represented by players showing the growth and impact baseball has around the globe. It isn’t just Latin America that is producing baseball’s stars as some surprising countries from Europe have also contributed stars.

Of the league’s players, 251 were from countries outside the United States of America. What was once simply known as “America’s Game” is now played by far more countries and players from other nations and are now making their way to Major League Baseball.

Building a diverse league

According to Major League Baseball, the 2019 season started with 28.5% of its players being born outside of the US. The diversity of Major League Baseball’s players has led to several changes to the way the game was played for decades prior when the foreign player pool was shallower.

Each country that plays baseball has its own way of playing the game. The amazing aspect of the big leagues’ diversity is the different playing styles that are now seen. One of the biggest differences the explosion of foreign-born players has brought to the league is the celebrations. Unwritten rules on celebrations have long been in effect around Major League Baseball. However, those rules are slowly changing as more bat flips, standing in the batter’s box to watch home runs, and other celebrations are becoming commonplace in baseball.

Latin American has long been the area in which Major League Baseball draws most from outside of the US. The Dominican Republic continues to be a fertile breeding ground for Major League Baseball clubs. The small country of over 10.77 million people contributed 102 big leaguers at the start of the 2019 season. Venezuela was second in the number of players from outside the US with 68.

Growing the game abroad

Perhaps most amazing about the foreign-born players now making up Major League Baseball’s player pool are the individuals from non-traditional baseball playing nations. Max Kepler of the Minnesota Twins is a great example of these new stars. Kepler was born in Germany and is the son of two ballet dancers. Kepler’s life story is far different to others in Major League Baseball as he grew up in Berlin and attended the John F. Kennedy school where he began playing little league along with tennis and soccer.

Baseball’s international growth saw the league head to England over the summer for its first two-game series in London. The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees played in front of a combined two-day crowd of more than 118,000 fans. While many of those fans either were long-time fans, a sizeable portion was made up of people simply interested in watching a live baseball game. Creating players from these international games may be far more difficult to do as a baseball infrastructure may not exist in countries like England, however.

In 2020, Major League Baseball will once again head to London with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals playing. It will be another chance to grow the game and export it to individuals from outside the US.