San Diego Padres ´Outsource´ Baseball

Last week the San Diego Padres went absolutely loopy spending an inconceivable amount of money on five foreign players – an unprecedented total of 4.8 million dollars in signing bonuses. The real frightening aspect of this deal was that four of these players are 16 years old! Probably not even yet old enough to drive, they can now buy the whole car lot out!

Two of the child athletes are from the Dominican Republic, two are from Venezuela, and one is Australian. The sixteen year old pitcher from Venezuela, Adis Portillo, was guaranteed a two million dollar signing bonus, a Padre record for a foreign amateur and more than they have paid any player drafted for the past four years – Americans included. (The poor Australian boy only received $500,000.)

The Padres have been courting these kids, probably not even shaving yet, for a time. Such exorbitant spending can be neither healthy for baseball nor these young kids. It will be years before they can make it to the majors and even that is iffy. So many things can go wrong with kids growing up and developing into adult players. What a gamble when the Padres need desperately to spend now on a team struggling to keep afloat in the National League West where they have resided in or near the basement most of the season. That kind of money could have gotten them a pretty good hitter which is so needed.

The Padres have made their presence known in Latin America with an elaborate $8 million baseball complex opening this spring in the Dominican Republic, an academy of baseball for foreign players - mostly Latin Americans. Their future is apparently hinged on Latin players.

Foreign players are not new to baseball here in the United States. What is new is the percentage of them now playing for major league teams. According to sources, of 855 players on major league rosters at the beginning of the 2008 season, 239 were foreign born. This is about 28% of all players; while it dropped very slightly from 2007 rosters (29%) the drop is an illusion. The trend is increasingly to sign foreign players. Every team does so to a degree - some more than others. The New York Mets have the most foreign players, fifteen, followed by Seattle with fourteen. The Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and New York Yankees each have eleven. All teams have them. I ask why? Or, perhaps, why so many?

My main gripe with this ´outsourcing´ of ´America´s Pastime´ is that it has become perverse. For every foreign player brought here to play baseball, some American boy somewhere in the United States has just lost a job opportunity. I am certain there are superstars overseas who will and do bring excitement to Major League Baseball. Seattle´s Ichiro Suzuki comes to mind immediately. In the past, such players as Roberto Clemente thrilled fans with his athletic playing ability. There is a place for foreign players in America. But to recruit overseas so extensively that American youth are overlooked to the extent they are in the small towns and inner cities throughout the land is not a good idea nor is it a good business practice. Fans will eventually - many already do - resent the ´foreignization´ of our game here at home. And I am not so sure extensive cultural diversity in the clubhouse promotes the ´team´ aspect which baseball is so dependant upon; I cringe to think that hallowed cry "Play Ball!" may someday be given in Spanish or perhaps Japanese.

What can you do? Do what I am doing – letting Major League Baseball know I am not happy with the trend. I want baseball owners, especially baseball owners swimming in profits, to first look here at home for young boys with potential. I want Major League Baseball to invest their money in small town America and the inner cities where there is not the money to build parks to encourage our youth to play baseball. I want Major League Baseball to stop outsourcing jobs that surely Americans have done for over a hundred years and can continue to do. I don´t resent baseball signing some few foreign players; I do resent Americans losing jobs so unnecessarily.

If Major League Baseball, and my hometown San Diego Padres, don´t address this issue, I just may ´outsource´ my ticket money to the NFL!