A MODEL FOR DIVERSITY; BASEBALL'S DRAW BROAD AND FAR.

Byline: Phil Rogers Chicago Tribune 

Last month in Tampa, Fla., a left-handed pitcher with the New York Yankees wanted to greet a right-handed pitcher who had just joined the team. It wasn't as simple as it sounds.

Hideki Irabu turned to his interpreter, George Rose. He fired off a burst of words in Japanese, which Rose translated into English. Jose Cubas, the father of agent Joe Cubas, listened intently. He then turned the English into Spanish for the sake of the Yankees' newcomer, Cuban defector Orlando Hernandez.

Welcome to baseball on the cusp on the new millennium.

With more international players pouring into the talent pool from more directions than ever, major-league clubhouses have become one of America's richest melting pots. The sport so often is criticized for lagging behind society quietly has moved far ahead in its ability to bring people from different backgrounds and cultures together.

Quick: Name another workplace in North America where the college-educated mix easily with high school dropouts. Then introduce race into the equation. Now sprinkle the mix with people from Latin America and Asia. And as a final challenge, get them all working together for the common good.

How many office settings do you know that are like that?

San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker spent time in the Marine Corps. An African-American, Baker sees warfare as the only activity that requires more of an open mind than professional athletics.

``You're in the military with guys of different colors and races, but you still have to protect each other's back,'' he said. ``That's the epitome of teamwork to me. It's not about liking the guy who is standing next to you. It's about taking care of him because he might have to cover your back one day.''

The NBA and the NHL have opened their doors to players from Europe, but neither is importing players to North America in numbers like baseball, where foreign players are not subject to an amateur draft.

According to figures Baseball America has compiled, the percentage of foreign players in the major leagues has grown from 5.8 percent in 1957 to 10.7 percent in 1977 and 20.4 percent in 1997. There were players from 17 different countries in the major leagues last season, including 89 from the Dominican Republic alone.

The totals at the major-league level barely scratch the surface of international professionals. Among almost 7,000 players under contract to major-league organizations last year, about 2,200 were foreign-born players requiring visas. The competition among minor-leaguers for the temporary work visas is keen, as the United States government will grant 865 visas this year.

Even after a major-league organization signs them, players often have to prove themselves on Latin American summer-league teams before gaining a chance to play in the minors. And more and more, players from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are finding themselves competing against imports from places such as Japan, Korea and Cuba.

When the Dodgers brought Korean prospect Chan Ho Park and former Kinetsu Buffaloes ace Hideo Nomo to America in the mid-1990s, they were novelties. So was former Cuban national team pitcher Rene Arocha when he reached the big leagues with St. Louis in 1993.

But the newness of the situation is wearing off. This spring, the majority of camps had players from once-exotic locations such as Australia, Cuba and Japan.

``It's not going to stop now,'' said New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, whose team features Cuban shortstop Rey Ordonez and Japanese rookie Masato Yoshii. ``We're finding too many good players to stop looking. . . .The world is getting to be a smaller place.''

Major-league teams also see the potential for expanding their fan base by embracing the ethnic communities within their markets. The Mets sent a delegation of high-ranking club officials to the Dominican Republic in January to kick off an effort to sign more players and make their team more appealing to New York's Dominican population.

Club President Fred Wilpon, General Manager Steve Phillips and Valentine were joined by the team's farm director, marketing director and public-relations director in a blitz of the nation that has produced more active major-leaguers than any country other than the United States.

As the cost to sign drafted players continues to spiral upward - more than 50 players received signing bonuses between $500,000 and $2.2 million last year - teams have been drawn away from Puerto Rico (added to the amateur draft in 1989) and toward the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, where the free market still rules.

``The Dominican is the one place you probably get the most bang for your buck,'' Phillips said. ``You can develop 30-45 players for what it costs to sign a second-round draft pick in the United States.''

Phillips says the Mets have taken renewed interest in developing a diverse fan base since seeing the Dodgers' Park pitch last August at Shea Stadium. The game attracted about 12,000 walkup fans, many waving Korean flags.

``And that game was part of a double-header scheduled because of a rainout,'' Valentine said. ``Imagine what someone could do if they had a chance to promote it.''

According to the Wall Street Journal, salsa has replaced ketchup as America's favorite condiment. The Census Bureau estimates there were 28 million Hispanics in the U.S. last year, accounting for 11 percent of the population. That's up from 6 percent in 1980.

The Dodgers were the first team to get a hint of the drawing power outside the American mainstream. Mexican prodigy Fernando Valenzuela helped pack Dodger Stadium as well as parks on the road en route to winning a Rookie of the Year award in 1981.

``What's happening now is just the extension of Fernandomania,'' Valentine said. ``Everybody thought that was a phenomenon unto itself - a star player on a star team. But now people are realizing Fernando wasn't an island unto himself. He tapped into a potential, an economic potential, that was there. It has been lying there in a lot of cities since then. Now teams are seeing it. They are realizing it at an escalated rate.''

The Census Bureau projects the Hispanic population of the U.S. will increase to 53 million by 2020. That will be one in six Americans. Other ethnic groups are growing at comparable rates, including Asians.

``We do live in a true melting pot,'' Valentine said. ``If you don't believe it, you should have seen those Korean flags when Chan Ho Park was pitching.''

In the not so distant past, the teams that worked the hardest scouting players in distant lands were able to land their services at bargain prices. San Diego, Pittsburgh and Texas franchises that couldn't compete for front-line free agents instead signed talented teen-agers and developed their own All-Stars.

But the days of the (almost) free lunch are over. Teams from the biggest markets are beginning to dominate the international market because they can outspend the opposition to land the most coveted players. In reaction to that, some scouting directors are calling for an international draft.

Japan's Irabu got an $8.5 million bonus from the Yankees after refusing to sign with San Diego, which had acquired his rights through a relationship with his old team, the Chiba Lotte Marines. Cuba's Rolando Arrojo signed with Tampa Bay for $7 million. The most recent Cuban defector, Hernandez, received $6.6 million for four years.

``The players are finally getting what they deserve,'' agent Rob Plummer said. ``The players deserve to get what they're worth.''

In a free market, no one will argue that point. But cost-conscious teams such as the Florida Marlins are re-evaluating their commitment to international scouting. Considering that the arm of Cuba's Livan Hernandez (Orlando Hernandez's half-brother) and the timely hitting of Colombia-born shortstop Edgar Renteria largely delivered their World Series title, that says something.

The teams that can't win auctions for the most visible international players more often are relying on their pipelines to one particular region. The White Sox have a rich history in Venezuela, getting 29 of the last 48 seasons out of shortstops Chico Carrasquel, Luis Aparicio and Ozzie Guillen. Their current 40-man roster has three Venezuelans, including talented young outfielder Magglio Ordonez.

Pittsburgh has parlayed a long working relationship with the Mexico City Reds into a stream of productive signings. Right-hander Francisco Cordova, who threw a no-hitter last year, could be joined by four other native Mexicans on the Pirates' pitching staff.

``We have worked at building this relationship for a long time, since 1988 or '89,'' Pittsburgh GM Cam Bonifay said. ``We exchange players with them, sending them some of our minor-leaguers to help them. We've tried to do everything we could to help the Mexico City Reds be successful, and it has worked well for us.''

Such creative efforts have helped the Pirates build competitive teams on a tight budget. But the emphasis on international scouting elsewhere is making it tougher to get bang for their buck.

``If we get into a bidding war with a major-market team for one of the free agents in international baseball, we're usually going to get beat,'' Bonifay said. ``We have to do a good job scouting. We have to sign the other players before other clubs find out about them. ... The teams that have the most dollars to spend still have the upper hand.''

According to Baseball America, Atlanta scout Bill Clark was the first to spot an Australian teen-ager he thought could develop into a good pitcher. But when Clark returned a year later, 14 other clubs had joined him in the pursuit of Rikki Johnson.

``Baseball has finally caught up with the times,'' said Clark, who was in the leading wave of international scouts. ``Talent is talent, no matter where it is.''

It is the job of managers such as Baker and Valentine to get that talent to work together. It helps that the players themselves are usually tolerant of their differences.

While American society works to provide common ground for its different races and classes of people, cooperation long has been the norm in baseball. It is news when a team is fragmented along cultural lines, as some believe the Dodgers were last year.

FOREIGN LEAGUES

International growth: The percentage of foreign players in the major leagues has grown from 5.8 percent in 1957 to 10.7 percent in 1977 and 20.4 percent in 1997.

International flavors: There were players from 17 countries in the major leagues last season, including 89 from the Dominican Republic alone.

Charge it: Among almost 7,000 players under contract to major-league organizations last year, about 2,200 were foreign-born players requiring visas. The competition among minor-leaguers for the temporary work visas is keen, as the United States government will grant 865 visas this year.

Source: Baseball America

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1) When Dodgers right-hander Chan Ho Park pitched in Shea Stadium last year, 12,000 walk-up tickets were sold. Many of the fans were Korean-American.

Michael Caulfield/Associated Press

(2) Hideki Irabu is one of several high-profile foreign pitchers who now pitch in the major leagues.

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

BOX: FOREIGN LEAGUES (see text)