Cuban defectors Yoslan Herrera and Alay Soler are part of one of the Eastern League's most diverse rosters
The current version of the Altoona Curve features nine players born outside the United States

Binghamton, which has become a haven for international players signed by New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya, and Harrisburg are the only other EL teams with as many foreign-born players

Five countries are represented on the Curve's roster including
----------Australia (Brett Roneberg)
----------Canada (Dave Davidson)
----------Dominican Republic (Alex Fernandez, Javier Guzman and Luis Munoz) and
----------Venezuela (Milver Reyes and Romulo Sanchez)

"It's pretty neat" manager Tim Leiper said
"Every year there seems to be more and more of that because the game has expanded globally"

The diversity has created some challenges for pitching coach Ray Searage, hitting coach Brandon Moore and Leiper

Searage, who listens to CDs to learn Spanish, often communicates to pitchers by using sentences with words from two languages
"It's called 'Spanglish' in my book" Searage said
"The players are all very helpful and polite
They try to help when I'm trying to convey something"

Bringing players from different backgrounds together can create clubhouse fissures
But Leiper called the team "pretty close," although music from multiple nations often blares from clubhouse stereos
"They seem to have a lot of fun with it and tease each other" Leiper said
"Everybody seems to get along and have a lot of respect for the people from other countries"