Felipe Alou has watched the faces of baseball change a lot since he first started playing in the U.S. Major League in the 1950s. At that time, he was the one of the first Major League players from a Spanish-speaking country. Now in his seventies, Alou continues to work as a special advisor to the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Watching international players from his own country, the Dominican Republic, play on teams with players from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Japan, and Korea, he recalls the tough years he faced in the past. And he will proudly tell anyone, "We were the ones who opened the doors for the rest of them.Searching for new young baseball play with potential, team recruiters these days are traveling all around the world. Today, about one in every four players on Major League team in the United States comes from a foreign county, including players from South America, Asia, Australia, Canada, and the Caribbean. Meanwhile in the minor leagues, almost half of the players with professional contracts were born outside the United StatesProbably the most internationally mixed team in either the U.S. American League or National League (the two professional baseball leagues in the United States) is the New York Mats. Among the twenty-five players on the team,eight different countries are represented. Along with players from the United States, the team includes players from Canada, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Panama, puerto Rico, and Venezuela.Although diversity is important, what really counts is performance, and international players of the past have just gone to show that great baseball players do not have to be American. From Puerto Rico came Roberto Clemente, who became the first Latin American to be voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He played in the major leagues from 1955 until his death in 1972. Another Latin player who made it into the Hall of Fame is Luis Aparicio from Venezuela, who played in the major from 1956 to 1973. Both of these players have been listed among the top 100 baseball players of all time.These days fans are accustomed to seeing talented players coming from Asian countries including Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Japanese players have been recruited by Major League team since the 1960s, but few of those players were able to make big names for themselves, at least not until 2001. That year Ichiro Suzuki caught the attention of baseball fans everywhere. It was his first year playing on a Major League team, and he got 242 hits, stole 56 bases, and helped lead his team to 116 wins for the year. Suzuki has continued to play exceptionally well over his career in the majors. In 2010, Suzuki won his 10th Gold Glove Award in Major League Baseball for his outstanding fielding. Only five outfielders in history have won this many Gold Gloves. Two of those players, Willie Mays and Roberto Clements, won twelve. Suzuki still has a chance to tie or beat that record.
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