Dominican baseball players in Opening Day game, Peloteros Dominicanos juegan en el primer dia de la temporada MLB

It is finally opening day and the Reds and Marlins have just kicked off the first day of the MLB season, well not counting that opening game or two played in Japan.

So...you ask...how many Dominican baseball players will be playing in this Opening Day game?

Well the Cardinals start Rafael Furcal, and...crickets.  That is the only Dominican player the Cardinals have on the roster.  That has to be some kind of record, only one Dominican baseball player on the entire roster.  But it is so.  Furcal is from Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic.

The Marlins on the other hand, have a few Dominican players on their roster.  They have Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, and Emilio Bonificio all starting.  And that is it.  Reyes is from Villa Gonzalez, Ramirez is from Samana, and Bonificio is from the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.

This is a pretty small number of Dominican baseball players represented on these two teams.  It is just below the ten percent mark of last season for Dominican players on MLB rosters to start the year.  We should see the total number of Dominican baseball players on opening day rosters for this season in the next couple days.

Hanley Ramirez is one of several Dominican baseball players to start on opening day,
photo by afagen on Flickr