he percentage of Major League Baseball players born outside the United States rose to its third-highest level. The commissioner's office said Thursday that among the 856 players on opening day rosters, 243 were born outside the 50 states. The 28.4 percentage is up from 27.7 last year and trails only 2005 (29.2) and 2007 (29.0). The Dominican Republic led with 95 players, four shy of its high in 2007. Venezuela set its high with 66, four more than last year. Canada (15) was next, followed by Japan (13), Cuba and Puerto Rico (11 each), Mexico (nine), Panama (seven), Curacao and Australia (four apiece), Nicaragua (three), Taiwan (two), and Colombia, Italy and South Korea (one each). Read more: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7779279/percentage-foreign-major-league-baseball-players-rises
