List of countries with their first Major League Baseball player

The globalization of baseball has been occurring since its inception. After an influx of players from western Europe in early years, the major leagues came to see fewer European players and more players from Latin America. Players born in over 50 countries and on every continent except Antarctica have now appeared in major league games. Considerations:

• The list is based on players' birthplaces and each location's current country, per detailed records at Baseball-Reference.com.[lower-alpha 1]
  • For example, a player born in Berlin would be included with other players born in present-day Germany, even if when the player was born it might have been part of East Germany or West Germany.[lower-alpha 2]
• The countries listed are generally consistent with those that compete in the Olympic Games. For example, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands appear in the list.

• The players listed are not necessarily the first citizen of a country to play in a major league game, as nationality is determined under a country's nationality law and may differ.
• The list does not reflect where players grew up and learned to play baseball.
  • Some players on the list, despite their birth location, are or were Americans or Canadians who returned to their parents' home country as children and were raised there. One example is Harry Kingman, who was born in China but grew up in California.
  • Many European-born players on the list moved to North America as children. For example, the first person born in Italy to play in the major leagues, Lou Polli in 1932, moved with his family to Vermont at seven months of age.[lower-alpha 3]

Listed players appeared in at least one game of a professional baseball major league (commonly referred to as Major League Baseball, although that entity did not exist before 1903), which encompasses:

Note that the status of the National Association as a major league is in dispute.[1] National Association players are included in the major league records of sites such as Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet, thus are also included here.

The European countries highlighted in blue have had a least one player born there play in a major league game, through the 2019 season.

Country	Player	Debut		Ref.
		Year	League
Afghanistan	Jeff Bronkey	1993	American League	[2]
American Samoa	Tony Solaita	1968	American League	[3]
Aruba	Gene Kingsale	1996	American League	[4]
at sea	Ed Porray	1914	Federal League	[5]
Australia	Joe Quinn	1884	Union Association	[6]
Austria	Joe Koukalik	1904	National League	[7]
Bahamas	Andre Rodgers	1957	National League	[8]
Belgium	Brian Lesher	1996	American League	[9]
Belize	Chito Martinez	1991	American League	[10]
Brazil	Yan Gomes	2012	American League	[11]
Canada	Bob Addy	1871	National Association	[12]
China	Harry Kingman	1914	American League	[13]
Colombia	Lou Castro	1902	American League	[14]
Cuba	Steve Bellán	1871	National Association	[15]
Curaçao	Hensley Meulens	1989	American League	[16]
Czech Republic	John Stedronsky	1879	National League	[17]
Denmark	Olaf Henriksen	1911	American League	[18]
Dominican Republic	Ozzie Virgil Sr.	1956	National League	[19]
Finland	John Michaelson	1921	American League	[20]
France	Larry Ressler	1875	National Association	[21]
Germany	George Heubel	1871	National Association	[22]
Greece	Al Campanis	1943	National League	[23]
Guam	John Hattig	2006	American League	[24]
Honduras	Gerald Young	1987	National League	[25]
Hong Kong	Austin Brice	2016	National League	[26]
Indonesia	Tom Mastny	2006	American League	[27]
Ireland	Andy Leonard	1871	National Association	[28]
Italy	Lou Polli	1932	American League	[29]
Jamaica	Chili Davis	1981	National League	[30]
Japan	Masanori Murakami	1964	National League	[31]
Latvia	Joe Zapustas	1933	American League	[32]
Lithuania	Dovydas Neverauskas	2017	National League	[33]
Mexico	Mel Almada	1933	American League	[34]
Netherlands	Rynie Wolters	1871	National Association	[35]
Nicaragua	Dennis Martínez	1976	American League	[36]
Norway	John Anderson	1894	National League	[37]
Panama	Humberto Robinson	1955	National League	[38]
Peru	Jesús Luzardo	2019	American League	[39]
Philippines	Bobby Chouinard	1996	American League	[40]
Poland	Skel Roach	1899	National League	[41]
Portugal	Frank Thompson	1875	National Association	[42]
Puerto Rico	Hiram Bithorn	1942	National League	[43]
Russia	Jake Gettman	1897	National League	[44]
Saudi Arabia	Craig Stansberry	2007	National League	[45]
Singapore	Robin Jennings	1996	National League	[46]
Slovakia	Jack Quinn	1909	American League	[47]
South Africa	Gift Ngoepe	2017	National League	[48]
South Korea	Chan Ho Park	1994	National League	[49]
Spain	Al Cabrera	1913	National League	[50]
Sweden	Charlie Hallstrom	1885	National League	[51]
Switzerland	Otto Hess	1902	American League	[52]
Taiwan	Chin-Feng Chen	2002	National League	[53]
United Kingdom	George Hall	1871	National Association	[54]
	Harry Wright
United States	multiple players	1871	National Association	[55]
U.S. Virgin Islands	Joe Christopher	1959	National League	[56]
Venezuela	Alex Carrasquel	1939	American League	[57]
Vietnam	Danny Graves	1996	American League	[58]

Hall and Wright both made their debut on May 5, 1871.
There were 18 players–all born in the United States–in the first game of the National Association, played on May 4, 1871.[55][59]

• List of current Major League Baseball players by nationality

• Player Place of Birth and Death at Baseball-Reference.com
• The Directory of Birth, Death and Cemetery Locations at Retrosheet