List of countries with their first Major League Baseball player

The following is a list of countries with their first Major League Baseball player. Listed are each country that at least one current or former major league player was born in, along with the name of the first person born in that country to play in a major league game, and the year and sports league of that player's major league debut.

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.^[a]
  • 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.^[b]
• 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.^[c]

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:

The seven major Negro leagues from 1920 to 1948 were officially recognized as "major leagues" in December 2020.^[1] Note that the status of the National Association as a major league is in dispute.^[2] National Association players are included in the major league records of sites such as Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet, thus are also included here.

Country	Player	Debut		Ref.
		Year	League
Afghanistan	Jeff Bronkey‡	1993	American League	[3]
American Samoa	Tony Solaita	1968	American League	[4]
Aruba	Gene Kingsale	1996	American League	[5]
at sea	Ed Porray‡	1914	Federal League	[6]
Australia	Joe Quinn‡[d]	1884	Union Association	[7]
Austria	Joe Hovlik‡	1909	American League	[8]
Bahamas	Ormond Sampson	1932	Negro Southern League	[9]
Belgium	Brian Lesher‡	1996	American League	[10]
Belize	Chito Martinez	1991	American League	[11]
Brazil	Yan Gomes	2012	American League	[12]
Canada	Bob Addy	1871	National Association	[13]
China	Harry Kingman‡	1914	American League	[14]
Colombia	Lou Castro‡[e]	1902	American League	[15]
Cuba	Steve Bellán	1871	National Association	[16]
Curaçao	Hensley Meulens	1989	American League	[17]
Czech Republic	John Stedronsky‡[f]	1879	National League	[18]
Denmark	Olaf Henriksen‡	1911	American League	[19]
Dominican Republic	Pedro San	1926	Eastern Colored League	[20]
Finland	John Michaelson‡	1921	American League	[21]
France	Larry Ressler‡	1875	National Association	[22]
Germany	George Heubel‡[g][h]	1871	National Association	[24]
Greece	Al Campanis‡	1943	National League	[25]
Guam	John Hattig	2006	American League	[26]
Hawaii [i]	Johnnie Williams	1914	American League	[27]
Honduras	Gerald Young‡[j]	1987	National League	[28]
Hong Kong	Austin Brice‡	2016	National League	[29]
Indonesia	Tom Mastny‡	2006	American League	[30]
Ireland	Andy Leonard‡[k]	1871	National Association	[31]
Italy	Lou Polli‡[c]	1932	American League	[32]
Jamaica	Oscar Levis	1923	Eastern Colored League	[33]
Japan	Masanori Murakami	1964	National League	[34]
Latvia	Joe Zapustas‡	1933	American League	[35]
Lithuania	Dovydas Neverauskas	2017	National League	[36]
Mexico	Mel Almada	1933	American League	[37]
Netherlands	Rynie Wolters‡[l]	1871	National Association	[39]
Nicaragua	Dennis Martínez	1976	American League	[40]
Norway	John Anderson‡	1894	National League	[41]
Panama	Victor Greenidge	1941	Negro National League (II)	[42]
Peru	Jesús Luzardo‡	2019	American League	[43]
Philippines	Claudio Manela	1921	Negro National League (I)	[44]
Poland	Skel Roach‡	1899	National League	[45]
Portugal	Frank Thompson	1875	National Association	[46]
Puerto Rico	Gacho Torres	1926	Eastern Colored League	[47]
Russia	Jake Gettman‡	1897	National League	[48]
Saudi Arabia	Craig Stansberry‡	2007	National League	[49]
Singapore	Robin Jennings‡	1996	National League	[50]
Slovakia	Jack Quinn‡	1909	American League	[51]
South Africa	Gift Ngoepe	2017	National League	[52]
South Korea	Chan Ho Park	1994	National League	[53]
Spain	Al Cabrera[m]	1913	National League	[54]
Sweden	Charlie Hallstrom‡	1885	National League	[55]
Switzerland	Otto Hess‡	1902	American League	[56]
Taiwan	Chin-Feng Chen	2002	National League	[57]
United Kingdom	George Hall†	1871	National Association	[58]
	Harry Wright†
United States	multiple players[n]	1871	National Association	[59]
U.S. Virgin Islands	Alphonso Gerard	1945	Negro National League (II)	[61]
Venezuela	Alex Carrasquel	1939	American League	[62]
Vietnam	Danny Graves‡	1996	American League	[63]

† Hall and Wright both made their debut on 5 May 1871.
‡ Immigrated to, raised in, and/or developed in the United States.

• 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