Ozzie Guillen: Baseball Translators for Japanese, but not Latino Players

From the Washington Post:

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen spoke his mind again Sunday…and this time he wasn’t haranguing his players or umpires or any of the usual suspects.

He spoke about what he perceives to be a disadvantage for Spanish-speaking players in the Major League Baseball. Specifically, he cited the availability of translators for Japanese players.

“I say, why do we have Japanese interpreters and we don’t have a Spanish one. I always say that. Why do they have that privilege and we don’t?” Guillen said Sunday. “Don’t take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid … go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it’s always going to be like that. It’s never going to change. But that’s the way it is.”
Howard Bryant, ESPN columnist, NPR contributor, former Washington Post Redskins reporter and author of “The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron”, thinks that Guillen has a point.

“Used to love Ozzie Guillen, now I looooove him,” Bryant tweeted. “Japanese players=huge financial investment. Latino players=low risk speculation. Cash rules.”

Bryant (a former Boston Herald columnist who speaks Spanish) also thinks the media bears some responsibility here.

“2002 NYY fired Orlando Hernandez’s translator, saying he “had been here long enough to speak English.” Hideo Nomo 12 MLB years w/translator. … Nuestra culpa, tambien. Writers guilty, too. How do you cover a beat where you can’t speak to 30 percent of your sources in their language? … Mo Rivera excellent on this subject: says Latinos MUST speak english to represent themselves in US, but journos should try to learn espanol.” Click here for the rest of the story.

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