In baseball scoreboards news, this week Ozzie Guillen, the manger of Chicago, claimed that Asian players were getting preferential treatment over Latin American players. The basis for his dissatisfaction was that Asian players have been getting interpreters supplied and paid for by the teams, whilst Latin American players have had to do without. In the meantime, the majority of Spanish-speaking players who are not fluent in English have had to rely on teammates and coaches.

There is no policy in Major League Baseball to provide interpreters, but the league informally encourages teams to do what they can to make sure that interpreters are available when necessary. An interpreter’s job is complex and involves a wide variety of tasks, from taking phone calls from confused players to helping their family members deal with beaurocratic matters.

The Asian influence in the majors has grown in the last few years, as a result of the popularity of the sport in that part of the world. The baseball scoreboards show that there are two players from South Korea, three from Taiwan and no less than twelve from Japan playing in the NBL. All of these players always have an interpreter by their side.

The correct term here is interpreter as opposed to translator. It is often impossible to translate word for word between the Asian languages and English. The Asian players usually move to the US in the middle of their career, and are dropped straight into a completely new culture. The English language has different characters, and is completely different in structure and form. Many Asian players quite simply require interpreters as their native languages are so different to English.

In contrast, Latin American players are typically more familiar with the culture, have a much bigger support base (27% of major league players are from Latin America), and have typically had much more exposure to English, which is in any case structurally and grammatically similar to Spanish.

Quite a few Latin American players are from Venezuela, and before they get to the big league, they typically spend a number of seasons in the minor leagues in the U.S., at which time they receive language training on a daily basis.

As Guillen argues, despite this there are many Latin American players who don’t have the confidence to take part in high level English conversations. He would like to see clubs offering translators to all of its Spanish speaking players.

Personally I would say that this talk of “preferential treatment” is nonsense. As I outlined above, there is a huge difference between Asian players coming to the league and Latin American players. The most important difference is the difference between the languages, and the ease of the English language for players from Latin Americans compared with players from Asia.

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