Quote: (10-15-2015 05:59 PM)TigerMandingo Wrote:
I remember watching baseball in the late 90s during the Yankees dynasty years and it was rare to see Latino players. Maybe a stupid question, but why did MLB feel the need to import Cuban and Dominican players all of a sudden? Was something lacking in baseball? Was it really just to diversify the game?
Latinos in baseball is not something that just came out of nowhere since the turn of the millennium. From 1995-1999 these are the respective percentages of Latino born players in the MLB: 19.2%, 20.4%, 23.5%, 22.8%, 23.5%. In 2012 the percentage of Latino born players was 26.9%, hardly a huge increase from the late '90s.
I don't really know why everyone is thinking that all of a sudden, BOOM, Latin America just started taking over baseball in the states. Its presence has been felt since most of us were born. Since 1967 at least 10% of the league has been comprised of players born in Latin America. Link
Owners and GMs never cared, and probably still don't care about diversifying the game. They obviously saw a huge talent pool that was untapped from which to profit. I don't know which team or ownership group began to profit off the DR and Venezuela before the rest of the league caught on, but the supply of stud players was simply too much to ignore.
Personally I feel more Latinos succeed in making it to the majors now is due to teams investing more on assimilating prospects into American culture. Rather than a sink or swim mentality used 30-40 years ago, teams give their prospects every chance to succeed, whereas before it was on you (the player) to adjust without as much guidance from the team.