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Foreigners down a bit
By Wire services
Published April 6, 2006
The percentage of major-league players born outside the United States dropped slightly to 27.4 on opening day from last year's record of 29.2.
Of the 813 players on opening-day rosters and disabled lists, 223 were born outside the 50 states, the commissioner's office said. The only years with higher percentages were 2005 and 2003 (27.8).
The Dominican Republic had the most non-U.S. players with 85, followed by Venezuela (43), Puerto Rico (33), Canada and Mexico (14 apiece), Japan (nine), Cuba (six), South Korea (five), Panama (four), Taiwan (three), Australia and Colombia (two each) and Aruba, Curacao and Nicaragua (one apiece).
The Mets (15) had the most foreign-born players, followed by the Dodgers (14).
MARLINS: Joe Girardi received more than two dozen congratulatory calls from friends and former teammates after getting his first win as Florida's manager Tuesday. The most ill-timed came from Yankees hitting coach Don Mattingly, who called at 2 a.m. Wednesday, after the Yankees lost in Oakland. "It woke me up," Girardi said. "But all the calls have been neat." Girardi and Mattingly coached together on the Yankees' staff last season.
PADRES: First baseman Ryan Klesko is debating whether to have surgery on his strained left shoulder, which forced him to start the season on the disabled list. "I'm doing some soul searching, trying to figure out what I'm going to do," he said. "Do I want to play healthy for three months or ride this out?" Klesko said his joint is basically bone-on-bone. He aggravated it late in spring training.
[Last modified April 6, 2006, 02:22:42]
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