Truly mundane and pointless, but baseball related so I’ll put it here.
It is amazing how international the game has gotten in the last 20 years.
My team - Colorado Rockies
USA
Panama
Canada
South Korea
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Venezuela
Japan
One was born in West Germany, but by his name I’d guess he’s an American.
Click on your team, then on “roster” on the top toolbar.
NY Mets:
US
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Cuba
Venezuela
They have on South Korean on the 40-man roster, but he was the last one cut.
Los Angeles Dodgers
USA
Japan
Dominican Republic
Panama
Taiwan (on the disabled list)
New York Yankees
USA
Japan - Matsui and Igawa
Panama - Rivera
Dominican Republic - Cabrera, Vizcaino, Cano; Veras and Sanchez (both on DL)
Puerto Rico - Nieves and Posada
Venezuela - Abreu, Cairo; Gonzalez (40-man roster)
Cuba - Miranda (40-man roster)
China - Wang (DL)
My NL team, the Braves, is even more international
USA
Mexico - Vilarreal
Dominican Republic - Gonzalez, Soriano and Aybar
Cuba - Pena
Canada - Orr and Thornton
Curacao - A. Jones
Panama - Acosta
Venezuela - Renteria; Ascanio and Blanco (40-man roster)
Australia - Moylan and Stockman (40-man roster)
Interesting how some teams are built vs. others. The Braves don’t have a single Asian (unless you count Australia, where Atlanta was early to scout) while every other team mentioned has at least one, and many have several. Is Wang (China) from the mainland or Taiwan?
Cleveland Indians:
USA
Venezuela
Puerto Rico
Dominican Republic
Indonesia (!!! - Tom Mastny - Raised in Indiana)
We seem to have a lot more American boys than we used to. We had Manny, the Alomars, Felix Fermin, Carlos Baerga…we had a lot of Latinos.
I recall we also picked up a player from Japan last year but he’s not on the active roster.
San Diego Padres.
Considering just how multicultural San Diego is, it’s rather shocking that not a single Padre was born outside of the USA. The closest culturally are probably Jose Cruz of Arroyo, Puerto Rico, and Adrian Gonzalez of San Diego who (I believe) played for Mexico in the WBC and has lived in Mexico. Nine Californians, FWIW, including four from San Diego County (brothers Marcus and Brian Giles as well as the aforementioned Gonzalez and pitcher Heath Bell).
And those guys weren’t American? All three major-league Alomars and Carlos Baerga were born in Puerto Rico, off the top of my head.
I’ll pick the closest team that I follow, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays:
United States
Japan
South Korea
Dominican Republic
Venezuela
Multiple Dominicans and Koreans (and Americans). One guy listed as West Germany, also, but probably just a military kid.
Last yet it was practically My Entire Team’s Spanish
Oakland A’s:
Puerto Rico - Kiko Calero
Canada - Rich Harden
Venezuela - Marco Scutaro
Mexico - Esteban Loaiza
United States - Everyone else