Mandatory Spanish translators give Latino players own voice

TAMPA — Carlos Beltran stood in the visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park two years ago and watched Michael Pineda try to explain his ejection for using pine tar.

Pineda, a Dominican native, had worked hard over the years to learn English, wanting to be able to express himself properly to coaches, teammates and the media.

On this night, Pineda seemed to struggle to get the words out. He insisted on doing the interview in English rather than having a coach or team staff member translate for him.

“That was a really tough night,” Pineda said. “I’m a little sensitive and I was sad. I wanted to explain everything. I forgot English, Spanish, everything that night.”

Beltran looked around the room and saw Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda and Ichiro Suzuki standing by their lockers with their own personal translators, ready to interpret their words at a moment’s notice.

“They all had their own guys, but when Pineda had the situation with the pine tar, it would have been great for him to have someone next to him so he could have expressed himself the way he wanted to express himself,” Beltran said. “There would have been no misinterpretation of how he was able to handle the media that day.”

Beltran made it a personal crusade to have Spanish translators in every major-league clubhouse, giving young Latin American players their own voice with those inside and outside their clubhouse.

“When I was coming up through the Royals’ minor-league system, a lot of people thought I was introverted,” Beltran said. “People said, ‘He’s a good player, but he doesn’t talk to anybody.’ Maybe my teammates were great people, great human beings, but I didn’t get to meet them because of the language barrier.”

When Beltran reached the majors, he noticed his lack of English even began to affect him during games.

“If you made a mistake in the game, even before it was over, you would be worrying about having to talk to the media,” Beltran said. “What am I going to say? How am I going to say it? It was a learning experience.”

Since 1997, the Basic Agreement between MLB and the players association has required each team to offer an English-as-a-second-language course, at its expense, as long as at least one player on that club requested such a course.

As the demand for Spanish translation grew among players, it was up to each club to decide how to address the need, whether it was using players, coaches or staff to help out. Ultimately, MLB and the union agreed to make a full-time translator a requirement.

“The reality is that most of these guys come and get to the big leagues, sometimes they don’t know how to express themselves the right way,” Beltran said. “I look at having a translator as a no-brainer because it will help communication between everybody. Players and coaches, players and players, and players and media. I don’t know why it took so long.”

Beltran doesn’t believe the presence of translators for virtually every Asian player led to the mandate, which went into effect this season. After all, dropping Tanaka into a Yankees clubhouse in which not one person spoke Japanese would have been a disaster.

“Most of those guys come right to the big-leagues, so they need to have somebody,” Beltran said. “Most Latino players, they go through the minor-league process, so the teams think because they’ve been here for three or four years before they get to the big leagues, that’s enough time to pick up the language. The reality is that it’s not enough.”

While Asian players were almost always given translators — Chien-Ming Wang, who speaks Chinese, is one of the few in recent years who didn’t have one — many of the imports believe it’s imperative to learn English after coming to the majors.

“I felt there was a certain minimum level that was required, that you needed to learn,” Hideki Matsui said through a translator. “That was at least greeting people, and then the baseball communication that takes place on the field.”

Like many players from Japan, Matsui still uses a translator to do interviews, afraid that his thoughts won’t come across properly. But Matsui, Ichiro and Tanaka are among those who can hold casual conversations in English, enabling them to communicate without the use of a translator.

“When I was playing in Japan, I saw a lot of the non-Japanese players that came from abroad and it was always nice when guys made the effort to want to learn Japanese, because it showed their intention to become part of the team and the culture,” Matsui said. “Having seen that, I felt that was the right way to approach it here.”

Long before translators were required, organizations began taking steps to remedy the problem. English classes were offered to Spanish-speaking players in the low levels of the minor leagues, giving them a head start long before they reached the majors.

“The English classes they have in the minor leagues are great for starting,” Pineda said. “You start to learn English at level one, but to speak normal English, you need to talk to the American guys. You need to speak to players, practice it. If you don’t practice, you’ll never get better.”

Tony Pena began playing in the minor leagues in 1976, coming to the United States from the Dominican Republic without a single word of English in his vocabulary.

“I had to rely on other players,” Pena said. “When you don’t know how to communicate, it’s the toughest part for any Latin American player.”

It took Pena two or three years before he was able to communicate with teammates and coaches, but he didn’t have the help that today’s players are given from the moment they sign their first contract.

“I never took a class,” Pena said. “Every baseball organization now in their Dominican academy, they teach kids to speak the language. That’s great.

They understand the struggle with the language.”

Teams have had plenty of Spanish-speaking players and coaches to assist through the years, but Pena always felt uncomfortable playing the role of

translator for players during media interviews. And it had nothing to do with his own command of the English language, which he admits is still far from perfect.

“If I’m translating an interview, players might be afraid to say something because I’m a coach,” Pena said. “I’m glad they did what they did. It’s better late than never. I think it’s a great step for baseball.”

Pena was thrilled when he heard MLB would require every team to have a translator in the clubhouse, but the 58-year-old baseball lifer believes that teams were already doing their part to help Latin American players adapt to their new culture.

“The biggest step was that they take the time to teach these kids in the minor leagues,” Pena said. “You don’t want them to depend on somebody for the rest of their lives. For me, I was a catcher. My job was to communicate with my pitcher, so if I didn’t know the language, I was going to be stuck. You can’t bring a translator with you every time you go to the mound.

“If kids in the minor leagues learn one new word every day, they’re going to be OK.”

Marlon Abreu was working in the Yankees’ IT department before they moved him into the clubhouse as the team’s translator. He’s spent much of his first spring interpreting for players such as Aroldis Chapman and Gary Sanchez, but some Latino players insist on using whatever English they have at their disposal to conduct their own interviews.

“In 2011, when I made the team (in Seattle), I had an interview every five days, talking to the media, so I needed to speak English,” Pineda said. “I started feeling a little more comfortable and I started to learn. I always try. I like to try. I’m not shy. I would say, ‘Sorry guys, I’m doing my best.’ It wasn’t easy for me, but I’m going to try. I’m sorry I don’t speak good English, but I love to try.”

Luis Severino used a coach or staff member to help him with interviews when he came to the Yankees last August, but watching Pineda gave him the confidence to shed the translator and do his interviews in English, something he continues to this day.

“When I first got to the majors, my second or third one, I saw Pineda talking English,” Severino said. “I thought, ‘Pineda’s English is close to mine, so if Pineda is doing an interview, why can’t I do it?’ It was important for me to have that connection with (the media) and with the fans. We’re in America, so you have to learn how to speak English.”

“Big Mike has learned a lot the past couple years, Severino has learned a lot and (Ivan) Nova is basically fluent,” said Dellin Betances, who grew up speaking both languages. “It’s good to see.”

Severino’s desire to learn English extended beyond his interaction with reporters. Three years ago, Severino — then a minor-leaguer in Charleston, S.C. — realized that simple tasks in his daily life were much more difficult than he’d ever imagined.

“When I would order pizza on the phone, I had to tell them what toppings I wanted, where to deliver it, whether I was doing cash or card,” Severino said. “It was hard. Sometimes you’re by yourself and you have to eat. What are you going to do if you don’t speak English?”

Beltran can relate. During his first years in the Royals organization, the Puerto Rico product didn’t know any English at all. He would go to the food court at a nearby mall and look for somebody eating something he liked.

“I would be on line and there were three people in front of me, so I would watch what they were ordering,” Beltran said. “When it was my turn, if the person in front of me ordered something I liked, I would point and say, ‘Same.’ If they ordered something I didn’t like, I would go to the back of the line and try again. I would sometimes go to the back of the line three or four times.”

Beltran had a minor-league teammate named Ricky Pitts who wanted to learn Spanish, so they agreed to help each other learn their respective languages.

“He said, ‘Don’t be afraid to just talk. If you say it wrong, I will correct you but I won’t laugh at you,’ ” Beltran said. “For me, that was a big deal because that was my biggest fear.”

Nova had the same deal with a minor-league teammate named Grant Duff, something Nova knew he needed to do when he signed with the Yankees as a 17-year-old from the Dominican Republic.

“I went to a camp when I was about 12 where Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Guillen were teaching us,” Nova said. “One of the things Pedro said was, ‘If you get to sign with a big-league team, try to focus on learning English.’

“After I made it to the big leagues, I was at dinner one night and Pedro was in the same restaurant. I went over to say hello to him and he said he remembered me from that camp when I was 12. One of the first things he asked me was, ‘How’s your English?’ ”

Even with a translator at their disposal, Beltran and Pena both believe young players should work to learn English to make their daily lives in America easier. Six years after he came to the States, Chapman is still trying to pick up as much English as he can.

“It’s very important for us to learn,” Chapman said through Abreu. “I try every day to learn a little bit. When you do learn some, it gives you confidence with your teammates and in your daily life.”

When Orlando Hernandez left Cuba to sign with the Yankees in 1998, they assigned a translator named Leo Astacio to help “El Duque” adapt to his new surroundings. Hernandez relied on Astacio to be his voice with anyone who didn’t speak Spanish, though in retrospect, he wishes he had taken the time to work on his English.

“My first five years with the Yankees, I had Leo; it was easy,” said Hernandez, who didn’t begin learning English until he was traded to Montreal in 2003. “It’s not good to wait. It’s easy, but it’s not good. You’ll never learn or improve. It’s better now, but I’m still nervous.”

Whatever extent Hernandez’s lack of English impacted his daily life in the U.S., he said it didn’t hamper him on the baseball field.

“If you have bases loaded and one out and you’re up two runs, the tying run on second base, you think I need Mel Stottlemyre to come to the mound to say something? You know what you have to do,” a smiling Hernandez said. “In the games, the most important language is baseball. You understand every move in the field. Baseball is baseball.”

Baseball – NY Daily News

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