Latin American athletes continue to be an important part of one of the best baseball competitions in the world

The sport of the hot ball annually offers a demonstration of the highest quality: the All-Star Game of the Major League Baseball (MLB) of the United States. On Tuesday, July 17, the exclusive game will be played at Nationals Park in Washington, where there will again be a massive participation of Latin American baseball players: 22 in total.

The U.S. baseball league is one of the best of all the world and for this reason to belong to this exclusive All-Star Game is an honor and a meritorious achievement that very few have. How is this exclusive match played and who are the Latin American players that came to the All-Star Game 2018?

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MLB All-Star Game: honor and popularity

United States baseball has been in charge of organizing the All-Star Game since 1933. In this event, the best players of the National League face off against the best players in the American League, which constitute the highest baseball competition. The idea of ​​creating the All-Star Game where the best players of both leagues meet was the journalist Arch Ward, who was the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, according to El Nuevo Herald.

The players participating in the MLB All-Star Game are chosen by a voting system, which has been online in recent years. Through the voting system, fans choose the players that will make up the teams of both the American League and the National League.

Once the players of each team have been selected, the fans can start voting again to choose the last player from each league's list through the final vote of the All-Star Game. "The fans will submit their votes from a list of five players from each league during the voting period," MLB states on its official website. The 2018 All-Star Game voting ended on July 11, while the match will be held on July 17.

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Latin Americans: history and high presence in 2018

The Latin American baseball players who work in the MLB have gained more strength over the years since they have been present in the All-Star Game for more than six decades. "The Latin presence in the All-Star Games began on July 10, 1951, at the Briggs Stadium in Detroit, when the Venezuelan Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel, the Cubans Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso and Conrado Marrero, were selected by the American League", explain El Nuevo Herald.

According to the MLB in its "History" section, 12 Latin Americans have been chosen as "The best player" of the All-Star Game:

    The Dominican Juan Marichal in 1965
    The Cuban Tony Pérez in 1967
    The Venezuelan David Concepción in 1982
    The Dominican Julio Franco in 1990
    The Puerto Rican Sandy Alomar in 1997
    The Puerto Rican Roberto Alomar 1998
    The Dominican Pedro Martínez in 1999
    The Dominican Alfonso Soriano in 2004
    The Dominican Miguel Tejada in 2005
    The Dominican Melky Cabrera in 2012
    The Panamanian Mariano Rivera in 2013
    The Dominican Robinson Canó in 2017

In the 2018 All-Star Game, there will be a total of 22 Latin Americans spread out on each team. According to the official list offered by the MLB, among the initial players of the National League team, eight in total, are the Venezuelan catcher Willson Contreras and the Puerto Rican second baseman Javier Báez. Among the reserves will be Puerto Rican catcher Yadier Molina, Venezuelan first baseman Jesus Aguilar, second baseman Ozzie Albies from Curacao and third baseman Eugenio Suárez from Venezuela. Inside the pitchers will be the Venezuelan Felipe Vásquez and Kenley Jansen from Curacao.

Among the initial players of the American League team were 14: Venezuelan catcher Wilson Ramos, Cuban first baseman Jose Dariel Abreu, Venezuelan second baseman Jose Altuve and third baseman Jose Ramirez from the Dominican Republic. Venezuelan catcher Salvador Pérez, Venezuelan second baseman Gleyber Torres, Puerto Rican shortstop Francisco Lindor, Dominican shortstop Jean Segura and Dominican right fielder Nelson Cruz are among the reserves. Inside the pitchers will be the Cuban Aroldis Chapman, the Dominican Luis Severino and the Puerto Ricans Joe Jiménez, José Berríos and Edwin Díaz.

The Latin American talent is still in force in the MLB, because in the recent All-Star Game, the distribution was the following: there were 21 Latinos in 2017, 28 in 2016 and 20 in the 2015 season. The best baseball in the world continues to be nourished by Latin Americans, and these dazzles more and more lovers of one of the most popular sports in America and the Caribbean.

LatinAmerican Post | Javier Aldana

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