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Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 6 posts ] 
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 Post subject: No comprende
PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2005 7:21 pm 
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Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
I highly recommend Dan Le Batard's column on page 14 of the May 23 edition of ESPN The Magazine. Le Batard also writes for The Miami Herald and does a consistently good job of putting sports and athletes into a "real world" context.

He argues that David Ortiz's suggestion that Latin players don't understand the new steroids policies (or the old steroids policies) is not the pathetic cop-out that a lot of talking heads have made it out to be. It certainly opened my eyes to just how much of American life is bewildering to baseball refugees from impoverished nations.

I would provide a link, but the magazine is only available online to paid subscribers.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2005 2:19 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:01 am
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It was a really good column.

Here’s a brief excerpt:
You know why Hall of Famer Tony Perez had apple pie a la mode every morning for breakfast for the first month of his professional career? He couldn’t recognize anything else on the menu and he didn’t want to sound dumb asking questions. You know why former A’s pitcher Ariel Prieto stuck his $1.3 million signing bonus in his jeans and forgot about it? Because he didn’t realize its worth or know about checking accounts.

And when you think about it, not only do most (not all) international Latin players arrive in the United States with limited English comprehension and seriously lacking in American cultural capital, many of them return to their home countries in the off-season to play there — which means they don’t get much of a chance to become fully fluent and functional in American language, customs and frames of reference.

If I remember correctly, when Miguel Tejada signed with the A’s, he was given $3,000 in cash, and he broke out crying, partly because it was more money than he or his family had ever seen.


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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2005 5:31 pm 
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Location: New Jersey
The example I found most saddening was the minor league pitcher from Cuba who nearly bought dog food for his son, because there was a picture of a little boy playing with a dog on the can and the pitcher was unfamiliar with the concept of food made just for dogs.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2005 5:31 pm 
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Location: Bethesda, Md.
I have to wonder about such stories.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2005 5:32 pm 
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Location: New Jersey
You may think it's too good to be true, Phillip, but I'm more inclined to think it's too sad to be false.

The greatest scandal in baseball is not steroids or cheating or salary disparities, but the way MLB scoops up the best Latin players while doing so little in return for their home countries beyond the salaries that a talented few ultimately receive.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2005 7:06 pm 
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The individual anecdotes may or may not be sensationalized, but I find it easy to believe that players come to the U.S. and find themselves in the position of having to trust trainers and coaches to translate language, rules and customs, and that must make it harder — initially, at the very least — to make autonomous decisions about their training and careers. I think that was Le Batard's point.


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