By GEORGE WILLIS
June 5, 2008
THE DECLINE of African-Americans in the Major Leagues has been well documented in recent years, but there's another ethnic group slowly disappearing from baseball rosters around the country: Puerto Ricans.
The home of Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda has seen its numbers dwindle from 39 on the 2002 Opening Day roster to just 29 at the start of the 2008 season.
The reduction might seem insignificant, but it's causing concern among those born on the Caribbean island.
It's sad," said Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado, a native of Aguadilla. "It's a game we love and we want as many role models as we can for the kids to grow up watching, so that they'll want to play baseball, too."
Here's further evidence of the decline:
In the 1980s, players like Candy Maldonado and Roberto Alomar were among the 59 Puerto Rican natives who made their debuts in the Major League. The number increased to 75 in the 1990s when players like Bernie Williams and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez arrived on the scene.
But in the first seven years of the 21st century, only 52 players overall and just 38 position players became first-time Major Leaguers.
Dr. David Bernier, Puerto Rico's Secretary of Sport & Recreation, doesn't like the trend and blames most of it on Puerto Rico's inclusion in baseball's first-year player draft.
Starting in 1990, Puerto Rican prospects have been chosen from the same amateur draft pool as their United States counterparts who typically are high-school graduates, junior college or college players.
While the draft works well in the mainland, Dr. Bernier says it's unfair for Puerto Rico because its youth programs are community-based and not school-based. Meanwhile, players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Central America and Asia are free agents and, once signed, play in MLB-sponsored academies before moving up through the minor-league system.
Non-US citizens can be signed to a contract once they turn 16 years old. It's why Major League teams build academies in those countries where they can often sign players more cheaply than drafted players and groom them from a young age.
