Thread: Bad News Baseball: Yuma Scorpions’ American-Born Players D

Bad News Baseball: Yuma Scorpions’ American-Born Players Displaced By Imported Colombians
By Joe Guzzardi

With the major league baseball season a little more than one-third completed and with the All-Star Game voting underway, the biggest stories so far have taken place off the field.

Specifically:

Before the first Opening Day pitch was thrown, the Yankees wondered how they were going to fill those $2,500 boxes in its new stadium now that the Wall Street economy has melted down to bleachers-only level of affordability.
One of baseball’s highest visibility players, Yankee Alex Rodriguez, exposed during spring training as having used banned substances, e.g., steroids, missed several weeks from a hip injury. But when Rodriguez returned to the Yankee line-up, teammates and fans alike welcomed him as if he were a conquering hero.
And in what could be the most absurd incident in baseball’s long history of less-than-brilliant moves, another steroid abuser, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez, is on the verge of being elected to the starting National League All-Star team. What’s remarkable is not only that the fans who vote for the All-Star players apparently don’t care if they are dopers—even more amazing is that Ramirez could be an All-Star starter even though he will have missed more games (50) because of his drug violation suspension than he will have played.
Meanwhile in Yuma, Arizona— literally 2,500 miles from the Bronx but figuratively ten million miles away baseball-wise—an astonishing development occurred two weeks ago that has negative implications for young, aspiring American baseball players for decades to come.

The Yuma Scorpions, a team in the Golden Baseball League, signed an affiliation agreement with the Colombian Professional Baseball League that resulted in the abrupt termination of the careers of many American hopefuls.

Golden Baseball League Chief Executive Officer Dave Kaval, [email him] a Stanford MBA, said the league still owns the Scorpions. Kaval described the Colombian league transaction as a standard affiliation agreement, on par with the ones major league teams have with their minor league affiliates.

According to Kaval, it’s the first affiliation contract with a foreign league for any American baseball team at any level.

Under the contract’s terms, promotions, concessions and other front-office business remain with the Scorpions and its president Mike Marshall.

But—importantly—the Colombian league handles on-the-field and player issues.

And, as the first matter of business, the Colombians fired the Scorpions’ manager, the coaches, trainers, clubhouse attendants, ground crew, and all the American players—a total of about 50— and replaced them with their own personnel including two umpires.

Presto—Colombian players displace Americans.

After the finalizing the agreement and two days before the season began, Kaval offered this analysis:

"I think for Yuma, one, you get higher quality baseball, which is great; two, it's really a groundbreaking kind of thing for independent baseball. Yuma isn't an independent team. They play in an independent league against independent teams, but they are affiliated. So that's really good because it provides additional stability, higher quality of play, additional excitement with an international accent. It's really a cool thing." [Scorpions To Be Affiliated With Colombian Pro League, by Edward Carifio, Yuma Sun, May 20, 2009]

While I’m sure the transaction provides “additional stabilityâ€

Baseball has become an almost non American sport a long time ago. Many players are here on visas from other countries while fewer Americans get in the major leagues. One manager was caught smuggling Cuban baseball players here. It is ridiculous but our government just looks the other way and hands out visas.

Originally Posted by swatchick

Baseball has become an almost non American sport a long time ago. Many players are here on visas from other countries while fewer Americans get in the major leagues. One manager was caught smuggling Cuban baseball players here. It is ridiculous but our government just looks the other way and hands out visas.

And they cheat too! Remember a few years ago in the little league world series when Cuba used a pitcher that was way over the age limit? IT was obvious that this "kid" was much older.

As a Texas Rangers fan I am proud to say that we have mostly Americans on this team, and we are actually doing good this year!

Oh! Alex Rodriguez, I have a message for you:

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Jshmr: I am a Toronto Blue Jays fan as I am orginally from that area. Too bad they play the Florida Marlins in Toronto. They play Tampa Bay on week days in July and a weekend in August. You would have to make a weekend of it to go as it is a 4 hour drive for me each way.

I love your A-Rod comment. That is cool. As for Rush I have seen then live in Toronto numerous times and the best concert had to be their Moving Pictures Maple tour concert st the old Maple Leaf Gardens. What I find odd is that they play more Rush here in South Florida than they did in Toronto.

What is sad is as a former baseball assistant coach I worked with boys and one girl from poor families and most from single parent homes from the poorest black neighborhoods. We had 3 Pureto Rican brothers on our team and all were good players. The oldest was the best and was an awesome shortstop. We had a Haitian kid who could not only pitch a perfect inning but could also hit home runs and catch. This kid also is a quarterback on a football team. We had a young Puerto Rican kid who was pitching and was also a decent player. I am hoping next year we have the funding to put another team together. The sad part is even though many of these kids excelled most will never see the major league as they bring people in from other coutries which is a shame. That Haitian kid who was so good will end up in the NFL and not be the first Haitian star in MLB. The Puerto Ricans at least stand a chance.

Originally Posted by swatchick

Jshmr: I am a Toronto Blue Jays fan as I am orginally from that area. Too bad they play the Florida Marlins in Toronto. They play Tampa Bay on week days in July and a weekend in August. You would have to make a weekend of it to go as it is a 4 hour drive for me each way.

I love your A-Rod comment. That is cool. As for Rush I have seen then live in Toronto numerous times and the best concert had to be their Moving Pictures Maple tour concert st the old Maple Leaf Gardens. What I find odd is that they play more Rush here in South Florida than they did in Toronto.

What is sad is as a former baseball assistant coach I worked with boys and one girl from poor families and most from single parent homes from the poorest black neighborhoods. We had 3 Pureto Rican brothers on our team and all were good players. The oldest was the best and was an awesome shortstop. We had a Haitian kid who could not only pitch a perfect inning but could also hit home runs and catch. This kid also is a quarterback on a football team. We had a young Puerto Rican kid who was pitching and was also a decent player. I am hoping next year we have the funding to put another team together. The sad part is even though many of these kids excelled most will never see the major league as they bring people in from other coutries which is a shame. That Haitian kid who was so good will end up in the NFL and not be the first Haitian star in MLB. The Puerto Ricans at least stand a chance.

I am a Blue Jays fan as well. Geddy Lee from Rush is a HUGE baseball fan and can be seen regularly at Jays games. I'm glad to see them doing so well this year!

You were very fortunate to see Rush during the Moving Pictures era. My first Rush concert was in 1991 during the Roll the Bones tour. I haven't missed a show yet.

Our fearless leader, William is also a Rush fan. What can I say, the man has taste