The Wall Street Journal reports that foreign ball players are having a big impact on baseball’s minor leagues:
Recent changes in U.S. immigration law and growing competition in baseball for raw talent have allowed the minor-league farm system to flourish with imported players. It has been a home run for globalization, but bad news for U.S.-born players, who suddenly have much more competition. Across the minor and major leagues, the total number of foreign-born players is growing fast, to almost 3,500 of the 8,532 players under contract this summer, from 2,964 three years ago.***
This summer’s crop of foreign players in the minors includes baseball’s first-ever pros from India, two of them on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Gulf Coast league team. That league’s rosters include players from Honduras, Haiti, Russia and the Czech Republic.
Eight teams have minor leaguers from Brazil, including Fábio Murakami, an outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies’ Williamsport, Pa., minor-league team, the Crosscutters. Mr. Murakami is one of several South Americans of Japanese descent in the minors, a list that includes Claudio Fukunaga and Lucas Nakandakare, both from Argentina and under contract to Tampa Bay.
One Red Sox farm team boasts an even more exotic tandem: the brothers Crew Tipene Moanaroa, called “Boss,” and Hohua Moanaroa, called “Moko.” Born in New South Wales, Australia, the Moanaroas are believed to be the first members of New Zealand’s Maori tribe to play baseball professionally in the U.S. “Boss” is a first baseman. “Moko” plays outfield.
New Zealand’s representative in the minors is Scott Campbell. He plays third base for the Blue Jays’ Eastern League affiliate, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
According to experts, the changes in 2007 to the P-1 category have made it easier for minor league teams to file visa petitions for foreign players.