More foreigners in majors for sixth straight year

<a href=www.sfgate.com>Source Wednesday, April 2, 2003 (04-02) 11:36 PST NEW YORK (AP) --

The percentage of major leaguers born outside the 50 states rose for the sixth straight year, up to 27.8.

Of the 827 players on opening-day rosters and disabled lists, 230 were born among 16 foreign countries and Puerto Rico, the commissioner's office said Wednesday. The percentage has climbed steadily from 19.0 in 1997, reaching 26.1 last year.

Seventy-nine players were born in the Dominican Republic, 38 in Puerto Rico and 37 in Venezuela. Mexico had 17, followed by Japan (11), Canada and Cuba (10 each), Panama (seven), South Korea (six), Australia and Colombia (three each), Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles and Nicaragua (two each). England (Lance Painter), Germany (Will Ohman) and Vietnam (Danny Graves) had one player each.

Montreal has the most-foreign born players with 14, followed by Baltimore (12) and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Texas (11 each).

The percentage of players with minor league contracts who were born outside the 50 states dropped from 49.6 to 46.0 (2,851 of 6,196). The number of Dominican-born players dropped from 1,536 to 1,437. Venezuela was second with 793, followed by Puerto Rico (113), and Canada and Mexico (95 each).