by Robert Heuer
For those who are jittery about the growth and influence of the U.S. Hispanic Argentina population, there’s a lesson to be learned from the experience of one U.S. institution.
Major league baseball long ago stopped freaking out about its own “Latino takeover.”
It discovered Latinos are not a threat that should be fenced out. The pathway leading to baseball’s transformation is truly international. Spanish-speaking ballplayers have become a dominant force in the game as baseball has been setting attendance records and generating lucrative TV deals.
Baseball’s future is decidedly multicultural. Fears about allowing too many foreigners on the diamond are very much part of its past. A century-long Latin American connection is the cornerstone of MLB’s strategy to tap talent and fans worldwide.
Cubans began playing major league ball in 1911. At first, obviously-white guys were the only ones allowed, then sort-of white guys and, since1947, ballplayers reflecting the island nation’s full spectrum of racial hues. That pipeline closed after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.
With Cuba off-limits, various teams found cheap talent elsewhere in the Caribbean.
This trend did not sit well with Minnesota Twins manager Cookie Lavagetto.
Claiming the “national” game was in jeopardy’ he told a reporter in 1961: “How will you ever fill the stands for the World Series if you have nine Yankees from Venezuela playing nine Giants from Puerto Rico?”
Latinos accounted for 7 percent of major league rosters that year. Twenty years later the numbers had climbed to 11 percent. Latinos were hardly taking oven but the prospect worried others in baseball.
Pittsburgh Pirate scout Howie Haak was another insider willing to say so. This scouting legend got his start !n Latin America in the 1950s on orders from Pirates general manager Branch Rickey to find the next Roberto Clemente.
Noting the game’s best young players were African American and Latino, Haak told a Pittsburgh reporter in 1982 that the Pirates probably should trade for a few whites.
Haak’s offhand remark made headlines nationwide. Baseball management’s heated denial fueled speculation !n the press about some magic percentage of white players needed on the fi eld to fi ll the ballpark.
In a recent interview, Philadelphia Phillies’ general manager Pat Gillich said Haah stated a fear then widely held inside baseball. With many of the best U S.-born athletes pursuing football and basketball careers, baseball was forced to seek talent outside of the U.S. despite uncertainty as to how its white fan base would react to changing demographics.
Gillich credits Hash with opening his eyes to prospecting opportunities overseas. In the 1960s, Gillich launched his baseball management career by developing Latin American scouting operations for Houston and then Toronto. In the early 1980s, the Blue Jays and Dodgers were at the forefront of a major league acceleration to secure players from around the world.
On opening day 2008, players from 16 foreign countries and territories fi lled nearly one-third of MLB’s rosters and nearly half of its minor league feeder system.
Dominican major leaguers totaled 86, Venezuelans 52, Puerto Ricans 29 and Japanese 16.
Clearly, ethnicity is no longer a concern. After all, eight of 17 players that fans voted onto starting lineups for this summer’s All Star game were either Latino or Japanese.
“Americans are a lot less prejudiced than they used to be,” Gillich explained. With the talent search now global in scope, Gillick sees the greatest promise in China and Cuba. And he considers nearby Mexico City on the short list for future expansion.
Meanwhile, MLB’s international business arm expands the enterprise’s appeal through special events, broadcasting, licensing and sponsorship initiatives. Many corporations see baseball as a vehicle to sell consumer products through out the planet.
An MLB spokesman said 2008 game broadcasts were retransmitted in 13 languages to more than 200 countries. Next March, teams from 16 countries will take part in MLB’s second World Baseball Classic.
The plan is to hold the tournament every four years thereaffer, including an expansion of the participant fi eld in 2013.
Baseball’s internationalization could lead to reinstatement in the 2016 Olympic Games. The Olympic committee dropped baseball from the 2012 schedule because professionals don’t participate. (National Basketball Association players can compete because summer Olympics take place during the off-season; the National Hockey League takes a two-week hiatus so its players can participate in the winter Olympics).
MLB is receptive to scheduling a vacation in August 2016 for the Olympics, allowing players to represent their homelands.
According to a 2007 ESPN sports poll, 63.1 percent of U.S. Hispanics are MLB fans. Seventeen of its 30 teams broadcast at least partial schedules in Spanish.
(Robert Heuerr of Evanston, IIL, is a public policy consultant. He has covered baseball’ Latinos for Hispanic Link since 1983.)
