Playing Baseball: Another Job Americans Won’t Do?

By Joe Guzzardi
October 24, 2011

Texas Rangers’ pitcher Alexi Ogando, an outstanding performer in the World Series, had his voyage from the Dominican Republic to Dallas delayed by five years. In 2005, the State Department caught Ogando, and 30 other players, in a visa scam and denied them entry into the United States until 2010.

As the story goes, “Wilfredo” approached Ogando and the others to offer them $3,000 to vouch that they were married to Dominican women. The women migrated to the United States allegedly as spouses but really as part of an extensive prostitution ring.

State Department officials became suspicious when they noticed that an unusually large number of Dominican players claimed to be married to women whose visas had previously been denied. When the players eventually showed up to pick up their visas, a state department representative questioned them about their overt involvement, then banned them.

When the news reached Major League Baseball, many administrators rushed to the players’ defense even though they were clearly complicit. The players, after all, had signed falsified documents. But their supporters insisted that the players should be excused on the grounds that they were young, vulnerable, poor and eager to make the proverbial new American life.

Allowing that the case made on the players’ behalf may be accurate, the United States is right to enforce its visa laws. Most who obtain their visas fraudulently could tell equally compelling stories. If the United States concurred with most of them, then why bother with visas at all? More specifically, why does the United States issue visas to baseball players? Every year the nation’s leading schools that participate in the College World Series like the University of Texas and Stanford graduate hundreds of fundamentally sound baseball players. Having squads made up of all United States-born players would enhance fans’ enjoyment.

Moreover, during the course of a season, owners constantly remind fans that baseball is a business. Without of doubt, that’s true. But if baseball is a business, then the players are workers. The jobs they hold are America’s best. And with only about 750 of them, why are they given to foreign-born players? If anyone is going to become a multi-millionaire playing baseball, please let it be an American.

Like so many other jobs that Americans once held, foreign-born players work for less money. In 2007, then-President and former partner in the Texas Rangers organization, George W. Bush signed the Creating Opportunities for Minor League Professionals, Entertainers and Teams Act. Known as the Compete Act, the legislation eliminates visa requirements entirely and allows owner to import foreign players in unlimited numbers.

Instead of signing hundreds of U.S. amateurs out of high school, the traditional model for stocking the minor leagues, teams draft fewer U.S. kids and replace them with what’s called non-draft free agents, the majority from Latin America.

Money talks. Most American players, especially top college prospects, want $100,000 or more to sign; foreign kids can be had for $1,000 and the dream of becoming a permanent U.S. resident.

Once, baseball, Old Glory and apple pie were synonymous with America. But with a growing number of players unable to speak English, we’ll have to settle for Old Glory and apple pie.

Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the Internet Baseball Writers Association. Contact him at [email protected]