Foreign Born Baseball Players - The first from each Country by Baseball Almanac

Famous First Foreign Born Baseball Players

Foreign born baseball players have had a rich history in Major League Baseball and the numbers of players on major league rosters has been rising steadily during the previous century.

Baseball Almanac is pleased to present a comprehensive chart with the first baseball player born in a country or territory other than the United States listed with details about their major league debut.

"For starting pitchers we have two Dominicans, one Italian, one Mexican, and one Japanese. In the bullpen we have a Venezuelan, a Mexican, a guy from the United States, and a guy from St. Louis." - Manager Tommy Lasorda

Famous First Foreign Born Baseball Players In Alphabetical Order By Country
Country	Name	Debut / Box	Team	Lg
Afghanistan	Jeff Bronkey	05-02-1993	Texas Rangers	AL
American Somoa	Tony Solaita	09-16-1968	New York Yankees	AL
Aruba	Gene Kingsale	09-03-1996	Baltimore Orioles	AL
Australia	Joe Quinn	04-26-1884	St. Louis Maroons	UA
Austria	Kurt Krieger	04-21-1949	St. Louis Cardinals	NL
Austria-Hungary	Amos Cross	04-22-1885	Louisville Colonels	AA
Bahamas	Andre Rodgers	04-16-1957	New York Giants	NL
Belgium	Brian Lesher	08-25-1996	Oakland Athletics	AL
British Honduras	Chito Martinez	07-05-1991	Baltimore Orioles	AL
Canada	Bill Phillips	05-01-1879	Cleveland Blues	NL
Canal Zone	Pat Scantlebury	04-19-1956	Cincinnati Reds	NL
China	Harry Kingman	07-01-1914	New York Yankees	AL
Colombia	Luis Castro	04-23-1902	Philadelphia Athletics	AL
Cuba	Rafael Almeida	07-04-1911	Cincinnati Reds	NL
Cuba	Armando Marsans	07-04-1911	Cincinnati Reds	NL
Curacao	Hensley Meulens	08-23-1989	New York Yankees	AL
Czechoslovakia	Elmer Valo	09-22-1940	Philadelphia Athletics	AL
Denmark	Olaf Henriksen	08-11-1911	Boston Red Sox	AL
Dominican Republic	Ozzie Virgil	09-23-1956	New York Giants	NL
England	Al Nichols	04-24-1876	New York Mutuals	NL
Finland	John Michaelson	08-28-1921	Chicago White Sox	AL
France	Joe Woerlin	07-21-1895	Washington Senators	NL
Germany	Charlie Getzien	08-13-1884	Detroit Wolverines	NL
Greece	Al Campanis	09-23-1943	Brooklyn Dodgers	NL
Guam	John Hattig	08-19-2006	Toronto Blue Jays	AL
Honduras	Gerald Young	07-08-1987	Houston Astros	NL
Indonesia	Tom Mastny	07-30-2006	Cleveland Indians	AL
Ireland	Andy Leonard	04-22-1876	Boston Red Caps	NL
Italy	Julio Bonetti	04-22-1937	St. Louis Browns	AL
Jamaica	Chili Davis	04-10-1981	San Francisco Giants	NL
Japan	Masanori Murakami	09-01-1964	San Francisco Giants	NL
Mexico	Mel Almada	09-08-1933	Boston Red Sox	AL
Netherlands	John Houseman	09-11-1894	Chicago Colts	NL
Nicaragua	Dennis Martinez	09-14-1976	Baltimore Orioles	AL
Norway	John Anderson	09-08-1894	Brooklyn Bridegrooms	NL
Panama	Humberto Robinson	04-20-1955	Milwaukee Braves	NL
Phillippines	Bobby Chouinard	05-26-1996	Oakland Athletics	AL
Poland	Henry Peploski	09-19-1929	Boston Braves	NL
Puerto Rico �	Hi Bithorn	04-15-1942	Chicago Cubs	NL
Russia	Jake Gettman	08-20-1897	Washington Senators	NL
Saudi Arabia	Craig Stansberry	08-25-2007	San Diego Padres	NL
Scotland	Jim McCormick	05-20-1878	Indianapolis Browns	NL
Singapore	Robin Jennings	04-18-1996	Chicago Cubs	NL
South Korea	Chan Ho Park	04-08-1994	Los Angeles Dodgers	NL
South Vietnam	Danny Graves	07-13-1996	Cleveland Indians	AL
Spain	Al Cabrera	05-16-1913	St. Louis Cardinals	NL
Sweden	Charlie Hallstrom	09-23-1885	Providence Grays	NL
Switzerland	Otto Hess	08-03-1902	Cleveland Indians	AL
Taiwan	Chin-Feng Chen	09-14-2002	Los Angeles Dodgers	NL
Venezuela	Alex Carrasquel	04-23-1939	Washington Senators	AL
Virgin Islands *	Joe Christopher	05-26-1959	Pittsburgh Pirates	NL
Wales	Ted Lewis	07-06-1896	Brooklyn Bridegrooms	NL
Country	Name	Debut / Box	Team	Lg
Famous First Foreign Born Baseball Players Key: � = U.S. Commonwealth and * = U.S. Territory

Major League Baseball does not recognize those who played in the National Association as "Major League players." Some resources / books do. If you do then the first player from Cuba was Esteban Bellan who made his debut on May 9, 1871, with the Troy Haymakers.

Did you know that during the late 1800s at least seven Canadians altered their birth certificates so they could play baseball and avoid the restrictions set forth by the 1894 Alien Exemption Act?

Ed Porray of the Buffalo Buffeds made his Major League debut on April 17, 1914 and his place of birth is listed as "At Sea - On Atlantic Ocean" � another first.

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