Page 20 - ATODAY
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SPORTS A21
Monday 21 March 2016
Interview subsidized by the penalties dano Ventura, the 24-old In this photo taken Monday, March 14, 2016, Los Angeles
teams pay when exceed- righty who has pitched for Dodgers starting pitcher Julio Urias, center, watches from the
Continued from page 17 ing the international sign- the Kansas City Royals in dugout during the team’s spring training baseball game against
ing bonus limit. The amount the past two World Series. the Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix.
With that in mind, for the available for each club to As a starting pitcher in the
first time Major League cover the new positions in postseason, Ventura had Associated Press
Baseball instructed its 30 2016 will be $65,000. to sit in front of the camer-
teams this season to hire This way, nothing gets lost as for news conferences on and complicated. You’re who frequently are signed
full-time Spanish interpret- in translation. live broadcasts. The Domin- just trying to be able to re- as teenagers from their na-
ers for their Latino players. “It’s awesome, a welcome ican had an array of trans- spond well.” tive countries, only have
For years, teams employed change,” Rockies outfield- lators at hand, all make- In contrast, players from Ja- baseball academies as
personal translators for er Carlos Gonzalez said. do by the day, including pan and other Asian coun- their resource to learn Eng-
their Japanese or Korean “I was blessed because I catching coach Pedro tries usually have personal lish.
imports. But they rarely had learned English quickly, but Grifol, infielder Christian translators as part of their Jose Quintana, a starting
translators on their staff for others it’s not easy.” Colon and Jeremy Guth- contracts. When Ichiro Su- pitcher with the Chicago
for the dozens of players In his ninth season in the ma- rie, a pitcher born in Rose- zuki, Masahiro Tanaka and White Sox, mentioned his
mainly from the Domini- jors, the 30-year-old slugger burg, Oregon, who learned Hiroki Kuroda were part of predicament with the lan-
can Republic, Venezuela, from Venezuela was one Spanish when he served for the New York Yankees in guage barrier after he left
Mexico and Puerto Rico, of the veterans who usu- two years as Mormon mis- the 2014 season, all three Colombia at age 17. Navi-
instead relying on veteran ally helped teammates sionary in Spain. Japanese players had their gating between classes
Latino players, coaches or with interviews. Now he will The new program forbids own translators. while trying to jumpstart his
someone like Jarrin to help relieved of those duties. teams from employing But Latin American players, career was a challenge.q
out with interviews. “I was the Rockies transla- coaches or trainers to fill
Not anymore. tor!” Gonzalez joked. “And the position.
Reporting directly to the I didn’t get paid anything!” Ventura also recalled his
team’s public relations di- Minnesota Twins general trepidation at the 2012 All-
rector or general manager, manager Terry Ryan ap- Star Futures Game in Kan-
the bilingual employee has plauded the new initiative. sas City, an experience
to be available year-round “That’s one of the biggest similar to what Urias had to
for media interviews before regrets I’ve ever had: I deal with in the Dodgers
and after games, including don’t speak Spanish. That’s clubhouse in 2016.
road trips, according to a not good,” Ryan said. “There was no one around
memo sent by MLB and And how tough is it for a to help me until a reporter
the players’ union to all Latino player to deal with a showed up,” he said. “I
teams before spring train- different language? knew a few basic words,
ing. The initiative would be Take, for example, Yor- so it was very frustrating
