Immigration to the U.S. has never been easy, baseball prospect or no.

Looks like the art of smuggling baseball players has finally drawn the long arm of the federales. Peter Gammons is reporting that Major League Baseball is working with the FBI to get to the bottom of a litany of problems originally brought about by issues within the Nationals and White Sox organizations.

Former Nats GM Jim Bowden was recently forced to resign over accusations that he was skimming bonus money from contracts offered to Latin American players, and the White Sox have been accused of falsifying birth records to speed up the immigration process  for their prospects.

So far, over 70 players have been detained. It seems like much of the investigation at this point is clerical; just making sure every player is in fact who he says he is. But who knows how far the investigation can run up the chain.

Smuggling players out of Cuba has been a cottage industry for quite some time, as Michael Lewis wrote in “Commie Ball.” Much of what Lewis discovered was shady as all get-out, but due to Cuba’s diplomatic status with the U.S., Cuban players have the luxury of asking for political asylum before going on to make millions in the Majors.

Source.

Joe Blancato espn, immigration, jim bowden, nationals, peter gammons, smuggling, white sox