For MLB, Spanish-Speaking Interpreters Are Long Overdue
In a league where over a quarter of the players tout a first language other than English, a new mandate is welcome.
Have you ever found yourself traveling in a foreign land and clumsily stumbling over every alien syllable in an effort to find the nearest bathroom, restaurant, or landmark? Lucky for us, on most city streets in the world, there likely is someone who speaks English. As a result, we tend to get away with only knowing a few, bare-bones basics of the local dialect.
But what happens when a foreign-born person comes to work in the U.S.? What if that person happens to be a baseball player, from one of any number of Latin American countries? Unlike most technical jobs, where speaking English often is a professional requirement, ballplayers can still excel in their roles without knowing all that much of the language, but being able to communicate with your professional peers certainly makes things easier.
Today, over 28 percent of all Major League Baseball players are Latin American. Naturally, not all of them can hold a complete conversation with English-speaking teammates, coaches, or reporters — particularly if they’ve just recently arrived stateside. Having interpreters available is a boon not only to the players, but to the business of baseball itself. When you step back and consider everything, it seems pretty crazy that it took MLB this long to institute a mandate that all teams employ a Spanish-speaking translator.
But mandate it they did. Every team will be required to have at least two Spanish interpreters on staff for the 2016 season.
On Wednesday, The New York Times’ David Waldstein reported that veteran New York Yankees outfielder Carlos Beltran was integral in the formulation of the new league policy. Beltran, who hails from Puerto Rico, has since become a fluent English-speaker, fielding questions from reporters on a near-daily basis; good game or bad.
Not all players of Latin descent can do that, though, and Beltran had a vision for a translation program well before he watched teammate Michael Pineda struggle with reporters after the pitcher was caught with pine tar on his neck during a game in 2014. It was the second time Pineda had been seen using the substance, but the first time he’d actually been ejected for it.
Pineda, who was born in the Dominican Republic, does perform his interviews in English, but the interview process can get strained even for those with his relative level of comfort when questions veer away from run-of-the-mill postgame talk. Pineda actually handled himself pretty well after that game, giving answers as best he could, even if most were of the standard-issue, mea-culpa variety, but Beltran knew afterward — and from years spent in the game — that something needed to change.
“It was that (the Pineda incident),” Beltran told Waldstein, “But it was something I was thinking about for a long time, even before that happened. I’ve seen a lot of the younger Latin guys struggle to communicate, and I just thought it would be helpful for everyone.”
It remains unknown whether Pineda would’ve expounded upon his answers that night had there been a translator standing by his side, rather than repeat the same phrases over and over until he cut the interviews off altogether, but I’ve long been sympathetic to ballplayers embroiled in these situations.
I’ve seen reporters — most of whom don’t speak a lick of Spanish — use terminology well beyond a subject’s English comprehension, ask the same question repeatedly and louder as if a player simply didn’t hear him, and ask detailed follow-ups when it’s evident the player is having trouble understanding the initial question. It’s not a productive, or flattering, situation for anyone.
Having an interpreter available will allow these conversations to be clearer, and more helpful, to all involved. That, in turn, will help foster better player-media dynamics and, it is hoped, even more transparency in the future.
(Ideally, the role of the translator won’t be confined exclusively to pre- and post-game interviews in the clubhouse, but will also include providing interpretive services to coaches and players during team meetings, dugout chats, mound visits, and the like.)
The sport has long had translators for Japanese and Korean players, but they tend to be hired on an individual basis by the player himself. The benefits of having one, though, as outlined by former big leaguer Kazuo Matsui during an interview with MLB.com, are profound.
“He speaks Japanese, and that helps, and he has a good friendship with other teammates, and that’s really important,” Matsui said. “I speak a little bit of English, but if I’m in a serious conversation, or with the media, I need him.”
Many foreign athletes, baseball or otherwise, take learning English quite seriously, and are often borderline fluent even before landing in the States. Others, somewhat understandably, principally choose to hone and perfect their sporting craft in hopes of forging a brighter future playing the game they love, potentially for significant sums of money. In many instances, there’s simply too little time beyond the demands of the diamond (not to mention whatever “regular” jobs one might have on the side) to fully learn English.
Now, the comfort level of Latino players recently relocated to the U.S. will undoubtedly improve. In fact, I’d argue that having a full-time Spanish interpreter on staff might even push the player to learn English faster — contrary to the belief that the player wouldn’t bother learning it at all.
There are bound to be those for whom these services won’t provide the proper impetus; not everyone can be a Carlos Beltran. But nor is that an adequate argument against the program. The process, regardless of how individual teams implement it, is going to take time. Learning a new language as an adult is exceedingly more difficult than it is for children.
That’s why, in my view, it would be wise for MLB to push for a similar program for the minor leagues as well. The game is flush with cash, and can easily afford additional efforts like this at the lower levels. The hope is then when a player does reach the majors, he’ll be that much ahead of the curve.
If implemented patiently and properly, I see nothing but good coming from the league’s new translator protocol. Personally, I’ll be looking forward to post-game pressers with a bit more fervor. Maybe we’ll begin to learn something about the men beneath these uniforms, to glean something more as he speaks his own language in an attempt to convey a deeper message.
At the very least, there should be more comfort between a subset of players and the media that covers them, which in itself means the past-due program will pay real dividends — for both the players and the game itself.
