Major League Baseball’s immigration problem

Joe Guzzardi
April 17, 2015
As seen in:
Lodi News-Sentinel

On Jackie Robinson Day, 58 years after the great Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Fame infielder broke the color line, blacks number fewer than 10 percent of MLB rosters, less than half of the 1981 total of nearly 20 percent. The San Francisco Giants, 2014 World Series World Series champion and the team that once included Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, does not have a single African-American.

Every year, retired commissioner Bud Selig would wring his hands, and declare that increasing black representation was his top priority. In 2013, Selig announced that he would establish a task force to investigate how to further advance the black players in baseball. New commissioner Rob Manfred recently told the New York Times that his long term mission is to renew inner city interest in baseball.

Those statements make nice sound bites, But they’re deceptive. Proving the duplicity behind MLB’s insistence that it wants more African-American players is this easy-to-understand fact: 29 of the 30 franchises have camps in the Dominican Republic that sign, house, and give MLB-level coaching to players to develop their skills and accelerate their climb to baseball’s highest rung. There’s not a single similar camp in the U.S.

Signing Dominican prospects appeals to the $9 billion MLB industry because they’re cheaper. The signing bonus is approximately half what is given to American players. Include the prospect of a green card to come to the U.S. legally, and no player who’s offered a deal will turn it down regardless of how little money is on the table.

MLB’s lure in the Dominican is so powerful that it’s led some players to lie about their ages, falsify their names, and take performance enhancing drugs. Unscrupulous agents have skimmed bonus money from unsuspecting players. A few years ago, Washington Nations’ general manager Jim Bowden resigned after an investigation into his possible misappropriation of bonus funds. The Nationals fired other executives involved in the scheme. The FBI traveled to the Dominican to investigate possible malfeasance. Targeted teams included the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Chicago White Sox dismissed its player personnel director and other front office staffers when it learned that they had been taking kickbacks from Dominican players in exchange for a contract. Readers can learn more unsavory details through an Internet search.

Black players, and to a lesser degree white players, have been systematically displaced because of the little-known P-1 visa. Here’s how it works.

In 2006, Congress passed the COMPETE Act which eliminated the cap on the P visa for professional athletes. George W. Bush, then-president, had been a managing partner in the Texas Rangers. Before the COMPETE Act, most players came to the U.S. on a seasonal employees’ H-2B visa, capped at about 66,000 annually. Players also had to vie with agricultural workers or summer resort staff for the hard-to-get visas. After the COMPETE Act became law, MLB owners could sign an unlimited number of foreign-born players with knowing that they could bring them north at will. More than 50 percent of the minor leagues is foreign-born.

Fans rarely think of playing baseball as a job. But the 750 roster slots represent the best jobs in the world: a $500,000 minimum annual salary, $4.2 million average annual salaries, with the potential to earn $10 million or more in post-arbitration income.

The players fans see every night are outstanding. But there’s equally skilled American players who never get a chance. Andrew McCutchen, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2013 most valuable player, said that as a poor black kid growing up in Florida, he got lucky when he got his contract. McCutchen, whose teammates include only one other African-American, wishes blacks had the same opportunities as Dominicans.