The Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper is running a five-part series on the Major League Baseball academies operating in the Dominican Republic. These academies have been established as the teams seek to find the next Sammy Sosa and Pedro Martinez, while securing their services at bargain prices. The Star Tribune series, written by Jim Souham, reports that while in 1970 only 10 percent of ballplayers on the Major Leagues rosters were foreign-born, last year more than 26 percent were not native to the United States. The series also deals with the rags-to-riches tales spawned by the foreign-talent quests.
Even more impressive than the impact of the foreign scouting efforts is the fact that in April 2002, almost half of the 5,781 players signed to minor-league contracts with major-league teams were born outside the United States. Of those, 1,536 were Dominican and 738 were Venezuelan, as the Star Tribune article points out.
The series indicates that Major League Baseball is in the midst of a five-year global development plan that began with a game between Colorado and San Diego in Mexico in 1999. For the past two years, season-opening games have been played in Tokyo and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Essentially, baseball may one day become a global game. The Star Tribune article points out that the Expos, the team owned by the MLB, will play three home stands in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this season. Four spring training games were played in Venezuela and Mexico last year. MLB has international development offices in New York, London, Toronto and Sydney, Australia.
In the Dominican Republic, there are more than 20 academies operated by the North American teams.
To read the article, see http://www.startribune.com/sports/
