Language, race, and relationships in transnational baseball

Anthropology Lecture Series

School of Language, Culture, and Society

College of Liberal Arts

Brendan H. O’Connor, PhD

School of Transborder Studies

Multilingual baseball: the big picture

Learning from bilingual moments

Key idea: National identity and language diversity

Key idea: “Baseball language”

The multilingual past

Pathways to multilingualism

Language and professionalization

Why be multilingual in baseball?

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Methods and participants

Observation (AZ and Dominican Republic)

Interviews

Archival/document analysis

Mediated discourse analysis (baseball media/journalism)

Current and former players, executives, coaches, interpreters, scouts, English teachers, education coordinators

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Three bilingual moments

I don’t think that should be legal … Learn baseball language. It’s pretty simple. You break it down pretty easy between pitching coach and pitcher after a long period of time.”

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Three bilingual moments

Before I say anything in English, I would like to say something for my mother and father in Spanish. En el día más grande de mi vida, para los nenes, la bendición mía, y que mis padres me echen la bendición de Puerto Rico.”

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Three bilingual moments

OK, OK, hey. Eso juego no es much importante.”

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Key idea:National identity and language diversity

Baseball, like the United States, has always been multilingual. But US professional baseball, like the country, has often preferred to think of itself as monolingual.”

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National identity and language diversity

American monolingualism has never been the case in descriptive terms—that is, “how things are”—but has historically been touted as a national ideal in prescriptive terms, or “how things should be.” This is perhaps the defining linguistic contradiction of the United States and one that is mirrored in the national pastime.”

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Key idea: “Baseball language”

Baseball language is universal. Knowledge of the game ‘transfers everywhere,’ I was told: ‘The languages and cultures can be so different, but when you step on the baseball field,’ everyone’s speaking the same language. ‘At the end of the day . . . we are all playing baseball, which is a language in and of itself.’”

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“Baseball language”

Baseball language is different everywhere. Latino teenagers have to understand what it means to talk and act like a “professional” from the point of view of an MLB team; US import pitchers in Korea confront different expectations for interacting with umpires; coaches learn to modify their speech to work successfully with interpreters; English and Spanish speakers recognize that bilingualism can strengthen their relationships with teammates and coaches, and so on.”

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Recognizing baseball’s multilingual past

1869 Troy (NY) Haymakers

Esteban Bellán (standing, far right)

Mike “King” Kelly

c. 1880-86

Charles Bender

c. 1905

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USA and Puerto Rico(Amateurs)

Play baseball in high school and/or college

Get drafted by MLB team

Team bonus pool/slot bonus (for high draft picks)

Attend instructional league/extended Spring Training/short-season affiliate

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan

Often, play professional in East Asia for the first part of one’s career

NPB(Japan)/KBO(South Korea)/CPBL(Taiwan) negotiate ”posting” of player with MLB teams

Begin playing in MLB immediately after signing

Cuba

Defect (sometimes at international baseball tournaments)

Migrate to Dominican Republic (often through Mexico, other countries)

Establish residency in DR (1 yr) while training

Sign with MLB team

Go to instructional league/extended Spring Training/short-season affiliate in USA

Pathways to multilingual baseball

MLB and MiLB players (USA/Professional)

Play in Latin American (Venezuelan, Mexican, Dominican) leagues—during the winter (offseason), while trying to work one’s way back to MLB, or as a Plan B (if no MLB contract)

Play in Asian leagues (e.g., at the end of one’s career or as a Plan B)

Work as a coach or scout in Asian or Latin American leagues

Continue playing in MLB/MiLB while working to become bilingual or develop one’s language ability

Pathways to multilingual baseball

Others

Multilingual umpiring crew from 2013 World Baseball Classic (Japan)

International free agents in the Dominican academy system

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Eligible to sign at 16

Living, training, and taking classes at MLB academies (mostly near Santo Domingo)

Ideology of “becoming professional” through English learning and/as moral development

Potencia vs. “ceiling”

“It All Starts Here”

“Becoming Professional”

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“We look at ourselves more as professional development. . . . So we talk about class and school, and it’s all true. But our ultimate goal is to help these guys achieve their ceilings and help them have success on the field.

And the language barriers, obviously, when players, young men come here, if there’s struggles or issues, it can cause problems. So if we can help alleviate those, it’ll help them feel better about themselves and also help them [in] the job that they do.”

Jeff Diskin, Senior Director of Professional and Community Development, Kansas City Royals

Countering deficit discourses about Dominicans (specifically)

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“it’s very parallel to the stuff that I hear in local school districts when they talk about immigrant parents. . . . It’s that deficit discourse: “When you’re talking to them, you need to know that . . . they probably didn’t go to school, they don’t know how to read or write, very low literacy, they don’t know . . . a lot of Spanish, so expecting them to learn English is hard”

Eric Johnson, former English teacher for Rockies/Padres, now WSU prof)

“So when you receive players as a Dominican leader who understands the culture here and the education system, I think you can, instead of judging players because of their behavior or because of their level of education before they come to the academy, instead of judging, you start to understand . . . the players and why they behave the way they do.”

Johan Febrillet, former Lead Educator, Kansas City Royals Dominican Academy

Why be multilingual? Communication and relationship-building

I saw it with Alex Cora as our manager. Because he’s bilingual, he can connect with so many people. He can sit down and talk with Latino players very comfortably and honestly, and he can do the same with the American players. And I think the ability to communicate one on one like that without having a third person in the room all the time goes a long way towards building the relationships that are so important.

Dave Bush, pitching coach, Boston Red Sox

Why be multilingual? Empathy and solidarity

I think that a lot of guys don’t necessarily understand, when a Spanish[-speaking] guy’s trying to say something in English and they’re struggling …I’m like, “Dude, you know how nerve wracking that probably is for that guy, just to put himself out there and be willing to fail?

Try to put yourself in his shoes for a second. I’m just gonna drop you in Venezuela, and you’re gonna play for one of their winter ball teams. And there are gonna be no other guys who speak English on the team and good luck. Like, are you gonna feel comfortable? Are you gonna be willing to fail like that?”

Parker Dunshee, P, Oakland A’s system

Why be multilingual? Adapting to new contexts

There was an emphasis on trying to make the [Marlins’] program truly bilingual and prepare players [from] the US, as well, for the diversity of culture and life in South Florida. . . . The truth is that the program was created because to be successful in South Florida, you need to speak some Spanish. And it’s not just about an emphasis on, you know, teaching the Latin players English and some of those skills. It was also about preparing our draft picks and the players from the US to understand the diversity that is South Florida.

Emily Glass, Scout and Scout Operations Administrator, Colorado Rockies (formerly Education Coordinator for Miami Marlins)

Why be multilingual? Language as a window into different baseball cultures

There’s no word for “judge,” to judge somebody. . . . It’s a weird thing here, because I found coaches over-judged their players when they don’t have to. . . . Now there is a word for “criticize.” . . . “Criticize” is kind of judging, but . . . you can judge in a good way, you can judge in a bad way, but “criticize” is really just a bad thing.

So when I asked my translators about that word . . . and “to criticize” is pīpíng, I’m always saying, like, “Stop judging yourself. You guys need to stop. Like, in practice, just be free and don’t get upset because you made the mistake.”

Nick Additon, pitching coach, Chinatrust Brothers (CPBL)