Click this link to see the data and chart, which show a trend that has reduced the percent of AL and NL players born in the USA from consistently above 92% from 1901 through 1959 to as low as 71% in 2006.
1923 through 1941 greater than 98%.
1934 was the high: 99.2%.
1960 was the first year below 90%: 88.7%.
1962 and 1963 back to 90% but never again.
1997 was the first year below 80%: 78.3%.
1997 78.27%
1998 78.93%
1999 78.51%
2000 77.10%
2001 74.96%
2002 73.98%
2003 74.37%
2004 72.53%
2005 72.51%
2006 71.26% low
2007 74.16%
2008 72.92%
2009 73.51%
2010 73.75%
2011 73.89%
All this should not be surprising. Just check out your local baseball fields and you'll generally see them empty. I won't go into why but it's clear that we don't play enough to produce enough MLB quality players.
It's great that baseball is played in enough other countries for more foreign born players to participate at the highest level but it's still a bit disconcerting that Americans are becoming more indifferent to what has traditionally been described as our national pastime.
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