I'm tired of Angel players who don't speak English. At least not with a mike in from of them. This Kendry Morales ignoring our language for Spanish the way Vlad does is outrageous. This is an American team with American fans paying them American millions. Learn to speak to us without a Jose Mota dictionary, for crying out loud.
Follow hockey's lead. Guy Lafleur and Mario Lemieux were two French Canadians who entered the NHL knowing hardly any English. The Habs and Penguins made sure they learned it. Simple marketing. They knew their fan base spoke English, so get with the program, guys.
The Angels should do the same. So should every team in baseball, which has crashing attendance as it is. Fans want players they can relate to. It sure would help if they could understand them.
-- Bucky Fox of The Columnists.com, forgetting that, even though it's an American team with American fans paying them American millions, the players themselves are not, in fact, Americans. Fox also forgets that the team is owned by a Latino and plays in a Latino-heavy market and that, for that reason, maybe having a lot of Spanish speakers is not the unmitigated disaster he thinks it is. Finally, Fox fails to state how the ballplayers not speaking English hurts anyone other than themselves in terms of missed endorsement opportunites. Last time I checked, they were paid to hit and throw baseballs, not serve in public relations.
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Just another member of the media forgetting that the interests of a few members of the media don't really intersect with those they ostensibly serve (us, that is). Bucky Fox's inability to pad his columns with meaningless quotes from Kendry Morales changes my enjoyment of baseball not one iota.
Seriously, do we really need more bland cliches like those that issue from the mouths of guys like Derek Jeter and other American-born players? I submit that we do not.
Whatever, here's Lemieux with just a hint of accent at age 23. Dude grew up speaking a lot more English than Morales.
I love Ichiro no less because he doesn't talk to the media like he does in the clubhouse. Who can blame ESL players? They're not paid to learn or speak English, they're paid, in Morales' case, to keep his team in contention.
GTFO. I want players who win, are likable, and seem to work hard. In that order. I can't relate to a professional athlete, whether they're from Iowa or Cuba.
I'm with you Tyler...I care about how the player plays and not how he speaks in an interview.
Regarding the bland cliches in interviews...remember that scene in Bull Durham where the old pro is teaching the rookie how to give interviews without actually saying anything? Everytime I see an interview with a baseball player that's just blah blah blah cliches, I think of that scene...it's true...they make an effort not to say anything.
Jeter is the king of that. No one knows anything about Jeter.
Un qué tirón
Celosos!
you know if bucky fox learned spanish he wouldnt have this problem
Yes, indeed.
I agree. Speak the language or get out. End of story...
It's optional to learn English but I do agree that if players want to come to America and be paid millions they should be required to pass a basic English test. We get all sensitive and PC about this stuff but travel to other countries and then you will really understand how liberal we are when it comes to "understanding peoples motives".....
But why should they be required? What part of their jobs requires that they speak English? In what possible way do they inconvenience you or anyone else by not speaking English? They are not straining our public services. They are presumably obeying our traffic laws. Other than simply not liking to hear people speak other languages, why does anyone get upset at this?
Actually, I've been to foreign countries, and they were a lot more tolerant of people in their country speaking a foreign language then we are.
There's being "all sensitive and PC," and then there's trying to find arbitrary justification for discriminatory practices.
People in foreign countries are usually functional in at least a second language.
I firmly believe an idiot like Bucky Fox should be barred from America for a year so they can learn about the world.
And so continues the conservative movement and their philosophy of intolerance...
Yes, because those things are inevitably intertwined. Do you have any scientific evidence to back up your statement, ScienceGuy?
Fox may be a "conservative" -- I haven't asked him -- but on this issue he does not speak for "the conservative movement." What he said is beyond the pale.
Ah, time to play my favorite game whenever someone brings up people not speaking correct English.
I'm tired of Angel(sic) players who don't speak English. At least not with a mike in from of them(sic). This Kendry Morales ignoring our language for Spanish the way Vlad does is outrageous. This is an American team with American fans paying them American millions. Learn to speak to us without a Jose Mota dictionary, for crying out loud.
Follow hockey's lead. Guy Lafleur and Mario Lemieux were two French Canadians who entered the NHL knowing hardly any English. The Habs and Penguins made sure they learned it. Simple marketing(sic). They knew their fan base spoke English,(sic) so get with the program,(sic) guys.
The Angels should do the same. So should every team in baseball,(sic) which has crashing attendance as it is. Fans want players they can relate to(sic). It sure would help if they(sic) could understand them(sic).
Also, aren't Cuba and the DR part of America?
Oh, and cry more
Um...no Cuba is not part of America. If they were, their cigars would be way less expensive.
Perhaps we have a case of different definitions of America? People from the United States frequently use the term to include only their own country. Much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere (Sometimes called "The Americas") often uses the term in an inclusive manner to include all or most of North and South America.
I myself attempt to get out of the habit of using "America" only to refer to the United States in order to avoid confusion.
I think he means America as in North, Central, and South America. Not USA.
Kevin: not the United States of America, but America nonetheless. Our southernly neighbors will gladly tell us that there's more than one country in the Western Hemisphere.
Come to America to work - learn English. Case Closed. Don't want to learn - work somewhere else. Whether it is millions or just dollars ... learn and earn ... or go home.
hah, right, or we could just let the employers decide if its worth it to force people making minimum wage to learn a whole different language.
Hey Nick, here's a fun fact: English is not the official language of the United States. Also, did you know that the U.S. has the 5th largest Spanish-speaking population in the world? Your xenophobia looks sorely out of place in this changing world.
Here, I'll amend it for you so you sound like less of a d-bag:
"Come to America to work in a job where speaking English is a requirement - learn English. Case closed."
See, now that makes sense. It doesn't sound like a tired xenophobic screed anymore at all! No need to thank me, just here to help.
Who cares if they don't speak english? The only people that care about this is the media, because their only purpose is to fill columns with bland cliches.
Reporter: "Tell me about the home run?"
Player: "It was a good pitch and I was lucky to get a good swing on it."
WHO CARES?
Players can't say what they truly feel, so why bother?
Most of the foreign players do speak english in some form, but choose not to. Why you ask? To avoid being bombarded with dumb-ass questions for 10 minutes, that's why!
This is a great point. It was good game and both teams played hard. We're just going to have to take it one game at a time. I'd actually rather hear that in Spanish, come to think of it.
Another columnist who once again failed to do his homework.
Since when is there anyone on the Angels worth listening to in any language?
I mean, really?
Sounds like my grandma.
its been proven that if you speak english you can hit better
Mandatory english?.........don't see it...but I can understand an organization doing it's best to be able to have any and all of it's assets readly to represent them at any time.....it's just good business sence.
Maybe this point of learnig english is pretty shallow. However here's a why learn example. Maybe the non speaking spanish team player might not be so happy when his latino starts screaming at him only to realize he wasnt asking to go to Taco Bell but was trying to warn him about the ball careening at his head at 90 mph. For which he now has brain damage and can only find work as a sports writer!!!!!
All Hispanic people LOVE Taco Bell and want to go there ALL THE TIME! That's HILARIOUS.
Just as a side note, you had to love Sammy Sosa, who couldn't keep his mouth shut when times were good, for having the cojones to "forget" all of his English when appearing before Congress.
This has been addressed a thousand different times, but let me address it once again: answering a reporter's questions about a play in the sixth inning is a totally different thing than answering questions before Congress under oath under penalty of perjury. Let's say you had some conversational Spanish, to the point where you can order some cervezas in Cancun during spring break. Then you get picked up and start being questioned by the police for something. Something tells me that you'd be asking for an interpreter pretty damn quick too.
Fair point, Craig, although I would challenge your analogy. Sammy spent eight months a year in the States for some 20 years, and listening to his regular interactions with media demonstrate that his knowledge of the language was considerably more advanced than the American college kid with "some conversational Spanish" example you raised.
I don't dispute that, but I'm a lawyer by trade, and though it pains me to admit it, lawyers -- and all of those congressmen who questioned Sosa were lawyers -- make their living parsing language in ways that routinely confuse native English speakers. Remember "depends what you mean the definition of 'is' is?" This is especially true in the steroids cases which have proven to be perjury traps.
I am not alone among laywers in believing that any lawyer who allows a non-native speaker to testify under oath without an interperter is committing malpractice.
Hey Craig where were you when he got caught using a corked bat during a game. His english was certainly understandable that day even though it was the most lame excuse one could possibly imagine.
A little side note to this learning a foreign language> From most things I see the good old USA doesn't care about its citizens speaking our english language!!! YO MAAAAAN HAY DUDE WASSUP watz tha METH wit YU! And that came from the english teacher in the HOOD
Teachers in inner cities teach some sort of weird mashup of stereotypical hippie slang, hip-hop slang and old Budweiser commercials! HILARIOUS. Keep 'em coming, your particularly clumsy and idiotic brand of racism is EXACTLY what these comment sections needed.
Citizens of non-English speaking countries come to the US to do jobs that don't require speaking English and have the nerve to not speak English? I am shocked and appalled at this. Really.
I've always been curious why is it that we only hear things like this said about the Spanish-speaking community? Why not include the many Japanese players, none of whom (to my knowledge) speak English? You never hear any complaints about communication with them. Maybe it's because they all have their own interpreters - but I kind of doubt it. It seems to me that there is a ever-growing prejudice specifically aimed toward Latinos in this country, and I find it troubling.
Excellent point, ecpglp. Ichiro has used an interpreter for nearly a decade, and you don't hear anyone complaining about it. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a racial component that goes along with this.
I think it bears pointing out that the Habs play in Montreal, which is a majority Francophone city in a majority Francophone provence of Canada. Under the attempt at logic presented by the quote, why the Canadiens would have their players learn English is thereby unclear. Of course, it is not as though we should expect some thing this stupid to make sense. Indeed, it only raises the good question, as Craig gets at, as to why teams in markets with large Spanish-speaking populations (Houston, Texas, Arizona, SD, both LA teams, DC, and on) do not encourage their Anglophonic players also learn Spanish, a move that would seem to make some business sense.
This is a fabrication. Everybody knows that racism magically vanished the day that Obama took office.
*cough*
dikembe mutombo even spoke english..i think
Speaks. He's not dead. Wiki:
haven't seen a sports interview with him in a while Ty so I can't confirm if he still speaks english or not. :)
I hope he realized his dream of a doc.
I suppose he could have stopped. :)