Fuente: © Chicago Cubs
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MLB: CUBS: Cubs system a bilingual community

Teammates take turns teaching each other new languages

/noticias.info/ When Ozzie Guillen got in trouble for an inappropriate word choice earlier this year, it served as a reminder for several players on the North Side to speak cautiously.

Guillen, the outspoken manager of the Chicago White Sox, used a derogatory slang word for a homosexual in describing a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times back in mid-June.

Guillen is a Venezuela native and said the meaning of the word in his country depicts a man without courage. It meant something else entirely in American culture and Guillen later apologized for anyone it might have offended.

"I shouldn't have mentioned the name that was mentioned. A lot of people's feelings were hurt, and I didn't mean it that way," Guillen explained. "I apologize, but I wasn't talking about those people."

The Cubs' Latino players noticed the uproar and remembered the need to watch what they say, because it may not always be what they mean.

"You've got to be careful," said Aramis Ramirez, a native of the Dominican Republic. "Sometimes people can misunderstand what you say. Sometimes you don't want to say that, but that's what people think you are saying and that's why you have to be careful with what you say. ... This is not our language, we can make mistakes still and that's why you have to be careful with what you say."


Did Ramirez think Guillen, who played his first Major League season in 1985, was misunderstood?


"With Ozzie you never know," Ramirez said. "I don't think he meant to say that, but at the same time he did say it. Only he knows what was going through his mind at that time."

Latino players said situations when they're angry can be particularly dangerous.

"You have to be very careful because sometimes when you're [ticked] off or not in a good mood, you don't think at the moment and say something," Ronny Cedeno said. "I have to think before I say something.

"Ozzie, he's a great guy," added Cedeno, also a native of Venezuela. "He's got very good English, but sometimes we misspeak."

But long before players have to worry about dealing with the media, they have to worry about simply surviving in a very different, and sometimes very scary, country.

Difficulties in the transition: Cedeno was just a teenager when he left Venezuela to play for the Cubs' rookie team in Mesa, Ariz.

Cedeno was never taught English in school and all of a sudden he was surrounded by it.

"It was very scary," Cedeno said, "because the first thing when I try and go to McDonald's and get a chicken hamburger, I don't know how to say chicken hamburger because I don't know English."

Ramirez, also a teenager when he arrived in America, agreed that basic survival was one of the most pressing reasons to learn English.

"When you're in A-ball, you've got to go and do everything on your own," Ramirez said. "Like rent your own apartment and that kind of stuff and I had to do it, so I learned the hard way."

"Being in the situations that they're in and being in the positions they're in, they're forced to learn how to speak English," Cubs catcher Michael Barrett said.

But although most learn enough English to survive, it takes added work to speak it naturally.

"You have to want to learn to learn because there's a lot of guys that still haven't learned because they haven't put the effort into it," Ramirez said. "But I always wanted to learn.

"I knew it was going to be important in my career and everything else," Ramirez said. "For you guys -- for the media -- and even to go out with my family to a restaurant here you're going to have to speak English."

The transition wasn't flawless for players like Ramirez and Cedeno.

"If you want to learn English, it's tough," Cedeno said. "If somebody's laughing [at something I said, I'd think,] 'OK, I said something bad. I want to correct it.'"

Oneri Fleita, the Cubs director of Latin American operations, said that going to work is often a time of relaxation for Latin Players.

"Sometimes I tell people I think the easiest part of their day is the six or seven hours they're on the field," Fleita said. "The toughest part of the day is probably sitting in the hotel, watching TV -- which you don't understand any of the language -- and trying to find something to eat -- which the food probably isn't agreeing with you -- and you probably can't wait to get back to the field."

With the barriers being so large, it has been satisfying for Fleita to see so many of his players succeed.

"It's quite a challenge and I'm awfully proud of the guys that make it," Fleita said. "You see Carlos Marmol, who's up there now, and Carlos Zambrano and Ronny Cedeno were just in [Class A] recently, it seems like yesterday. But all the names you see up there, the Moises Alous and the Sammy Sosas, what these guys have had to do to go and get there, my hat's off to them."

How do they learn? Cedeno said two of the main tools a Latino player uses to learn English are his teammates and television.

"Just watching TV and asking the guys in here, 'What is that? What does that mean?'" Cedeno said. "In the Minor Leagues we had a roommate. I wouldn't stay with the Latin guys, I'd stay with American guys and try and learn."


The Cubs organization also provides a number of learning opportunities for Latin players in their Minor League system. According to Fleita, these programs include:
• A baseball academy in the Dominican Republic that can house up to 68 players. English and Spanish classes are offered to players there.

"A lot of kids stop going to school in third, fourth and fifth grade." Fleita said, "We try to teach them their own language as well as our language."
• English classes are also offered at the team's extended Spring Training facility in Mesa, Ariz.

• Players have the opportunity to attend classes at Mesa that teach about laws and culture in the United States.

• Once players move on to the Minor League clubs, the Cubs have a Latin coach at all of their Class A clubs (Boise, Peoria and Daytona).

"We're blessed to have a lot of coaches who have been there and done it," Fleita said of the Latin coaches. "We have a lot of guys who've had that experience and they know exactly what's going through these players' heads."

Once players move on to Double-A and Triple-A, Fleita said there's less assistance.

"After that we feel like they should be on their own, but more than that it comes down to the individual," Fleita said. "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink, and the ones that take advantage of it, usually they flourish and they have a lot of success."

But just because the Cubs don't offer programs at every level doesn't mean they won't provide assistance for players who ask. Marmol, who was brought up from Double-A this year, requested some additional help when he made it to Chicago. The Cubs provided him with a personal tutor.

Players also have a built-in support net with so many Latino players now in the clubhouse. Ten players on the Cubs 25-man roster were born in Latin America.

"[Ramirez], Neifi [Perez], Henry [Blanco] -- they help us when there's something we don't know," Cedeno said. "Sometimes I hear a new word and I go to them and say, 'What's that?' Because that's a new word."

Although most of the burden falls on Latin players to learn English, certain situations call for American-born coaches and players to speak Spanish.

Communicating on the field and in the clubhouse: With two outs and a three-run lead in the eighth inning on July 20, Zambrano walked a Houston batter to bring Lance Berkman -- a dangerous hitter -- to the plate.

Cubs manager Dusty Baker visited the mound to speak with his Venezuelan pitcher. It wasn't the first time he'd gone to talk to Zambrano, but it was the first time he decided to speak Spanish to him.

Zambrano, who said he has a good understanding of English, recounted what Baker told him.

"He spoke Spanish and said, 'Calm down and make your pitches and get out of this situation,'" Zambrano said.

Why had Baker chosen this moment to give Zambrano instructions in Spanish?

"I think he wanted me to understand clearly," Zambrano said.

Just like Latino players have learned English from their teammates, some Americans have picked up some Spanish from Latin players.

But how much players have learned differs as much as their reasons for learning.

Some players learn so that they can communicate important ideas like Baker did to Zambrano.

Catcher Michael Barrett, who said he felt fluent in Spanish at one time in his life, said having an understanding of the language has helped him build relationships with the Latin pitchers.

"There's been times where I'm working with [Marmol] -- and Carlos speaks great English -- but to really drive the point home to him I want it to be done in his native language where he's more comfortable," Barrett said. "I feel by doing that you build more confidence and you build another level of trust."

Players also learn Spanish to help the camaraderie in the clubhouse.

Relief pitcher Scott Eyre, who has several Latino players with lockers next to his, likes to know what's going on around him.

"It's fun to actually listen once in a while," Eyre said. "I sit right here and I listen to these guys and I try to understand what they say and a lot of it I do. When I don't I'll say, 'What'd he say?' and they'll tell me."

Ramirez said he doesn't think it creates any division in the clubhouse when Latino players speak Spanish to each other.

"They know that's our natural language," said Ramirez. "We never speak English to each other. We always speak Spanish because that's our language and all the other guys in here know that and they have to understand that we're not going to speak English to each other. We're going to speak Spanish."

The Latino players also appreciate their teammates taking the time to learn their language and making the effort to speak it with them.

"It's kind of cool because they try and learn Spanish and they don't have to," Ramirez said. "They're in their country and they don't have to speak Spanish, but we do have to speak English and it's kind of fun."

Barrett, who played winter ball in Latin America in 2000, said he knows how draining it can be to speak another language all the time.

"I know that it was nice for me when I played in Puerto Rico when the Latino and Spanish-speaking players spoke to me in English," Barrett said. "It gave me a break from having to really spend a lot of time speaking Spanish, because it wears you down when everywhere you go you have to think about what you're saying, think about what you're doing. ... It's nice to have teammates that support you and try to make you feel comfortable."

Shoe on the other foot: Barrett is not the only American player who has experienced life in Latin America playing baseball.

Barrett's experience differs from others because it began long before he spent that winter in Puerto Rico.

Barrett said he learned Spanish in school -- he took classes for six years in middle school and high school -- and from his mother and brother who both spoke the language.

"I kind of had a love for the culture as a young kid and then when I got drafted [by Montreal in 1995], I signed immediately and went to rookie ball where the majority of my teammates were from Latin countries," Barrett said. "I had an opportunity to get to know the language on a first-hand basis."

When Barrett arrived in the Major Leagues for a brief stint in 1998 and then full-time in 1999, his manager was Felipe Alou. Barrett said Alou, a native of the Dominican Republic, made him a proposition.

Alou told him: "Michael, I want to be able to talk to you in Spanish. I want you to be able to appreciate and understand what I went through as a player when I came up so that it'll make you a better person."

Barrett agreed.

"My first year in the big leagues Felipe spoke to me mainly in Spanish, and I had an opportunity to see a whole other world in terms of playing in the Major Leagues," Barrett said.

His experience with Alou helped prepare him for life in the big leagues, where roughly a quarter of Major League active rosters are filled by Latino players.

It also helped prepare him for his time in Puerto Rico. While he was there, Barrett got a taste of speaking a different language full-time, including with the media.

"I have done interviews in Spanish -- I did a lot of them in Puerto Rico and I did fairly well," Barrett said. "But I do appreciate and I do respect a lot of the Latin players who come here and do interviews in English. It's not easy and they do a really good job of it."

Scott Eyre, who played winter ball in the Dominican Republic in 1998, was able to find some help when dealing with the media.

"I had to do a couple of interviews after games because I was the starting pitcher," Eyre said. "Miguel Tejada was actually on my team and he'd stand next to me and translate, and it was really cool."

Eyre also experienced a lot of the same problems that Latino players have when they come to America.

"Trying to order food's a pain in the [behind]," Eyre said. "Trying to tell the cabbie you want to go to the ballpark and knowing how to say 'estadio' -- you don't know where he's going to take you."

Despite that, Eyre said he still thinks the Latin players have it tougher than he did.

"They come here not knowing anything," Eyre said. "As far as myself going to the Dominican, I think it's easier for me to go there. I've heard a lot of people say it is easier." notas_de_prensa_archivo