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This past Monday, the Pittsburgh Pirates called up pitcher Dovydas Neverauskas, and he became the first Lithuanian to ever play in MLB by pitching 2 innings against the Chicago Cubs.
Today, the Pirates have called up infielder Gift Ngoepe of South Africa. He will become the first South African and first player born in Africa to ever play in MLB.
I think it was the Pirates who signed a couple cricket bowlers from India a few years ago.
Was Moss first Aussie?
from wikipedia:
Australia became the sixth country (not counting the United States) to have a player represent it in the major leagues, when Joe Quinn made his debut on 26 April 1884 for the St. Louis Maroons. Quinn also became the first Australian-born manager, as a player-manager for the St. Louis Browns in 1895.[5] After Quinn played his last MLB game, it was almost 85 years before another Australian would appear in an MLB game: Craig Shipley on 22 June 1986 for the Los Angeles Dodgers.[6]
Everyone knows about players from Japan, Venezuela, the Dominican, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Taiwan, and other Latin American countries.
Peter Moylan from Oz. A few Canadian and Mexican players. Colombian and Nicaraguan players.
Now we've got Kepler from Germany.
Gohara in our system from Brazil. I believe Yan Gomes and Paulo Orlando are from Brazil, as well.
Demi Orimoloye, an OF in the Brewers system, is a Canadian born in Nigeria.
You've got Neverauskas and Ngoepe.
Our game is growing so quickly!
pales in comparison to soccer though as a global sportQuote:
Originally Posted by SJ24
Right now, it sure does. It will be interesting to see if China or India pick up a love for baseball as they continue to develop. Those are more important markets than soccer-saturated Europe, IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by nsacpi
Baseball's footprint in Asia outside Korea and Japan is very small. Soccer far ahead pretty much everywhere. Cricket is big in India and a few other places. I'd say baseball is generally behind the other American sports (basketball and football) in many places in Asia. People from that part of the world who went to an American university are much more likely to follow basketball and football than baseball.Quote:
Originally Posted by SJ24