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| From left, Boston Red Sox pitchers Hideki Okajima, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Itsuki Shoda and Junichi Tazawa bow their heads during the moment of silence for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan during pregame ceremonies before the game between the Red Sox and Florida Marlins. (Brita Meng Outzen/Boston Red Sox) |
Baseball’s New Interpreters | The American Spectator
An apt definition of a multiculturalist is someone who tries to solve a problem that doesn’t exist and in the process creates real problems.
Case in point is Major League Baseball which, with the support of the players union, announced that beginning with the 2016 baseball season every Major League team will be required to supply a full-time Spanish language interpreter for its players. One questions the necessity of such action, as the integration of the Spanish-speaking player in Major League Baseball has been a rousing success till now. In 2013 it was calculated that over 28% of Major League players on opening day rosters were foreign born, with the overwhelming majority coming from Latin America. Nor is this a new phenomenon. Latin American ballplayers have been excelling on the baseball diamond for many generations now.
Prior to this season, teams used a variety of methods to help foreign-born Latino players learn English. The old school way was fairly simple but effective as the player would learn the language by the day to day activity of playing baseball and traveling with his teammates during the course of the long season. Were the results perfect? Of course not. Some players took longer than others to learn, and a few never quite got the hang of it. But that is true in any endeavor in life, and for the overwhelming majority of players, life without an interpreter worked out fine. The numbers don’t lie. By any measure, the Latin America player is thriving in Major League Baseball.
Perhaps not seeing the irony of their action, Major League Baseball and the players union for the last 30 years have lamented quite publicly and loudly their disappointment in the lack of non-whites in leadership positions such as team managers and those who run the teams’ baseball operations, such as
general managers. But by mandating full time interpreters, Major League Baseball has unwittingly delayed the immersion of the Latin American player in an essential skill that one needs to reach the pinnacle of leadership in Major League Baseball: the ability to speak English fluently.
-go to link-
Case in point is Major League Baseball which, with the support of the players union, announced that beginning with the 2016 baseball season every Major League team will be required to supply a full-time Spanish language interpreter for its players. One questions the necessity of such action, as the integration of the Spanish-speaking player in Major League Baseball has been a rousing success till now. In 2013 it was calculated that over 28% of Major League players on opening day rosters were foreign born, with the overwhelming majority coming from Latin America. Nor is this a new phenomenon. Latin American ballplayers have been excelling on the baseball diamond for many generations now.
Prior to this season, teams used a variety of methods to help foreign-born Latino players learn English. The old school way was fairly simple but effective as the player would learn the language by the day to day activity of playing baseball and traveling with his teammates during the course of the long season. Were the results perfect? Of course not. Some players took longer than others to learn, and a few never quite got the hang of it. But that is true in any endeavor in life, and for the overwhelming majority of players, life without an interpreter worked out fine. The numbers don’t lie. By any measure, the Latin America player is thriving in Major League Baseball.
Perhaps not seeing the irony of their action, Major League Baseball and the players union for the last 30 years have lamented quite publicly and loudly their disappointment in the lack of non-whites in leadership positions such as team managers and those who run the teams’ baseball operations, such as
general managers. But by mandating full time interpreters, Major League Baseball has unwittingly delayed the immersion of the Latin American player in an essential skill that one needs to reach the pinnacle of leadership in Major League Baseball: the ability to speak English fluently.
-go to link-
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