Pro Baseball Has International Flavor
C L E A R W A T E R, Fla., July 7 -- The baseball played on these Central Florida fields has a distinctly international sound.
This is the Gulf Coast League, the lowest rung of minor league baseball and the first stop for a growing number of foreign players.
Coaches say most of them speak little or no English. Sometimes, translators outnumber the coaches.
"Just last week I had a Korean pitcher, a Japanese catcher and a Latin shortstop, Frank Klebe, manager of the Gulf Coast League Phillies, noted recently. "And we wanted to do something out at the mound we were allowed to bring the interpreters out."
Crash Course
For many teams, each day begins with English classes.
"El ayvado," Sal Artiaga, the Philadelphia Phillies' director of Latin American operations told a group of players at a recent sessions.
"Fly ball," they said.
"Delina," Artiaga said.
"Line out," they said.
"Okay, good," Delina told them.
It's a crash course on language and culture now required by professional baseball as it assimilates talent from around the world.
"A major league club will put the best player on the field regardless of whether he's American, whether he's Latin, or Japanese, or Korean, or whatever," Artiaga said.
… or whether he speaks English. All-stars like Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero need full-time interpreters.
‘Vital to Learn English’
But they are not models for success, say professional scouts. For lesser-known players like 17-year-old Dominican Carlos Rodriguez, learning English can be the difference between moving up, or moving out.
"If you want to make it to the majors, it's vital to learn English," said Rodriguez, a shortstop, through an interpreter. "Otherwise, you can't communicate, you can't be effective."
One advantage is that there is an international language of baseball — with hand signals and expressions like sacrifice fly, double play and cut-off man that, in this game, can be understood even by non-English speakers.
Still, among the rookies, everything seems to move more slowly. As they learn to play like the pros, they're also learning the language.
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