MONTERREY, Mexico – Hernan Sanchez, the public address announcer at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey, likes to lean into every home run, using several different phrases and going with whatever feels right.
In the eighth inning of the Reds’ 9-5 loss to the Cardinals Sunday, Yasiel Puig crushed Giovanny Gallegos’ first big-league pitch in his home country, a 93-mph fastball, to left-center for his first home run as a Cincinnati Red.
Advertisem*nt
“Se fue,” Sanchez said to the 16,793 fans in attendance. That’s “he left,” in Spanish, as in “he left the yard.”
That was followed by “Yasiel Puig,” except Sanchez drew out the third syllable of Puig’s first name.
“I love to hear voices in Spanish across the stadium,” Puig said afterward. “That’s super cool.”
Puig is one of seven Reds players of the 26 on the team’s roster for the two-game series for whom Spanish is their native language. All seven of those native Spanish speakers speak English to varying degrees. But Spanish is their first and best language, no matter how good their English is.
“It feels really good when you hear people, even the fans talking to you, even when they don’t say something nice to you, at least you understand it,” Reds closer Raisel Iglesias said, according to translator Julio Morillo. “It feels like you’re playing back home.”
Three of those seven players are from Cuba (Puig, Iglesias and José Iglesias), two are from Venezuela (Eugenio Suárez and José Peraza) and two are from the Dominican Republic (Wandy Peralta and Luis Castillo). Peralta said it felt like every time a Latin player came to the plate or in from the bullpen, the fans had a little extra, even though only one player on either team was actually Mexican.
Then there’s the fact that for some, like Suárez, there’s something to hearing his name on the PA from a native Spanish speaker like Sanchez.
“When you hear your name in Spanish, they do a really good job of it like in Venezuela,” Suárez said before Sunday’s game. “Yesterday was my first game and I felt like I was playing winter ball in Venezuela.”
That was a common refrain among Reds players, both those from Latin-American countries and the ones from English-speaking countries.
Many of the players played in the Dominican Republic or Venezuela earlier in their careers. For the players from the United States, this week was not just a flashback to winter league, but also a reminder of what it can be like for teammates who don’t speak the language of those around you.
Advertisem*nt
“Simple things are not simple anymore, they become very complex,” said outfielder Scott Schebler, a native of Iowa. “Ordering room service. Anything over the phone is tough at the hotel.”
That can include something as simple as calling the bellman to come to get a suitcase or asking for more towels.
“Now you know what we feel when we’re in the United States when you want to express your feelings or something like that,” Iglesias said, according to Morillo. “Now you know what it feels like on this side.”
Those kinds of things are easily overlooked, but on the field, miscommunication or lack of understanding can make their job more difficult. For example, there had been several substitutions by the ninth inning of Saturday’s 5-2 Reds victory over the Cardinals.
Schebler, playing center field, couldn’t understand the PA announcer and didn’t know who was at the plate at one point. Reds outfielders have cards in their back pockets as a cheat sheet for where to play certain batters, but it’s hard to cheat when you don’t know the question.
“I’m looking at my card and I don’t know who is up there,” Schebler said. “It’s already somewhat dark and I can’t tell who it is. I knew they had three righties on the bench, so I didn’t know who it was until they put him up on the screen, which was two pitches later. That was in the ninth, so I was panicking a little bit. I didn’t know where I was playing on this dude, because I don’t know who is up.”
Amir Garrett will sometimes help out a fellow reliever in the bullpen with something they overhear but can’t understand. Garrett said for these two games, he was the one asking for help understanding what was said. He’s picked up some Spanish here and there, but with native speakers talking quickly, he was often lost.
“It’s been pretty funny because all the time at home, you ask your teammates to translate for you and now my teammates are coming to me asking me to tell people something,” Peralta said, according to Morillo. “It’s a little different.”
Advertisem*nt
Said Castillo via Morillo, “this feels like we’re switching roles.”
The language was a challenge for Morillo, as well. But it wasn’t speaking Spanish or English, it was that his workload as the team’s translator was more than doubled. Morillo, a native of Venezuela who also serves as a baseball operations assistant, not only interpreted for the Spanish-speaking players with the English-speaking media, but he had to serve as the interpreter for English-speaking players for the Spanish-speaking media.
Some other markets have several Spanish-speaking media members, but Cincinnati does not. Rarely are the likes of Iglesias, Suárez or Peralta questioned in their native tongue allowing them to answer in their better language.
“It’s a comfort for me and other Latin guys to be able to communicate and do interviews in Spanish,” Suárez said, in English. “We can talk to fans in Spanish, talk to everyone in Spanish.”
Suárez, Puig, José Iglesias and Peraza all conduct interviews in English with media, eschewing Morillo’s services. Raisel Iglesias, Peralta and Castillo use Morillo’s help.
It wasn’t just the media and the announcers in Mexico, but also the fans the Spanish-speaking players got to hear. To hear Spanish in the stands, Spanish from fans, no matter what was said, is comforting. It’s a taste of home, something the Dominican and Venezuelan players don’t get until after the season and something the Cuban players don’t often get.
There are no Mexican players on the team, but this was close enough for so many of the Latin players.
“I’m just happy they get to experience that and I get to experience it with them,” Schebler said. “I can tell they have a little extra pep in their step, as they should.”
(Top image: Raisel Iglesias takes a picture with a fan before Sunday’s game. Orlando Ramirez/USA TODAY Sports)
C. Trent Rosecrans is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball. He previously covered the Reds for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post and has also covered Major League Baseball for CBSSports.com. Follow C. Trent on Twitter @ctrent
