When the Florida Marlins introduced new manager Fredi Gonzalez to the South Florida media this week, shortstop ? and NL rookie of the year candidate ? Hanley Ramirez stopped by the proceedings to welcome his new skipper. Ramirez told a reporter how important it was to him, as well as to the club?s other Hispanic players, to have a manager who spoke their language. He said that while most of his Hispanic teammates could speak acceptable English, there were some things they found difficult to express in anything but their own native tongue. I hope the Orioles took note of that.
This is no knock on manager Sam Perlozzo, but following the passing of Elrod Hendricks ? which, you?ll recall, came after he?d been told he was no longer a major league coach ? the Orioles did nothing to replace Elrod with someone who could speak Spanish like a native.
Maybe you think that doesn?t matter. Maybe you think that, hey, you?re in this country making good money playing a game, and if you can?t speak the local lingo, too bad for you. If you think that, and you consider yourself a true fan of the orange-and-black, you?re not thinking clearly.
Ever vacationed in another country where you don?t speak their language? You?ve got one of those pocket-sized dictionaries with useful words and phrases, but when you intend to order ham-and-eggs at the local bistro, your lack of familiarity with inflection and pronunciation has you telling the waiter that your wife?s mustache is on fire. You can bet there are situations where a manager or coach says something very specific to a Hispanic player that gets lost in translation. The player frequently nods as if he understands, when, in fact, he?s only acknowledging that something was said.
If the lack of a coach fluent in Spanish doesn?t concern you, then you?re also probably not in the least bothered by the fact that the Orioles are the only team in baseball without a single minority coach. On the same day the Orioles drafted David Cash in June, they relieved his father, Dave, of first-base coaching duties. Cash was replaced by bullpen coach Rick Dempsey, who in turn was replaced by Ottawa pitching coach Larry McCall. When the all-white aspect of the staff was pointed out to club management, the response was something along the lines of “We don?t think that really matters.”
In a sport that?s crying out for more African-American participation, and a team that, on any given day, is at least 25 percent Hispanic, black, or both, wouldn?t you think that things like that do matter? If your best players are more comfortable talking baseball in their first language, shouldn?t there be some accommodation? If there?s a cultural divide that slows down, or restricts communication between management and the players, wouldn?t it be pretty easy to fix? With rumors swirling over the past month that changes on the coaching staff are afoot, now would be a good time to address the situation.
What may seem trivial to some might be a much bigger deal to others who can actually impact wins and losses.
Phil Wood has covered baseball in the Washington/Baltimore market for more than 30 years. You can reach him at [email protected].
