Making My Point - Talent
rumpleforeskiin said:Where there are now over 100 players in baseball from the Dominican Republic, in 1959 there was Felipe Alou. Between 1960 and 1969, 23 more Dominicans made their debuts. Between 1990 and 1999, 135 Dominicans entered the major leagues. Between 2000 and 2007, another 140 made their debuts in the Show.
In 1960, there was one Venezuelan, Luis Aparicio. In 2007, 22 Venezuelans have appeared in major league games. No Japanese players appeared in 1960, eight in 2007. There are even more Cuban born players today than in 1960. Taiwan, zero in 1960, 4 in 2007. Korea, zero in 1960, 4 in 2007.
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Basically all that your numbers show is that athletes from outside the USA are playing baseball because that is their best economic option AND because MLB teams targeted certain countries in the Americas for baseball programs to get around the baseball draft. This impacted the inner city kids,black,white and hispanic in the USA.
The USA/Canada can afford the cost of youth / school football and hockey programs whereas the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Asian countries etc either cannot or choose not to. Look at the number of non-traditional ethnic minority kids playing hockey and football in the inner cities today.
The total number of non - American MLB talent that you listed above is far short of 200 players. Since 1960 MLB requires 560 more players so where are the remaining 360 plus coming from?
Compare NFL,NHL,NBA roster and talent growth for the same era and you see that North American athletes are gravitating to these sports.