Carlos and Charlie
Greetings from Houston, Texas.
Let’s talk about 
Los Mets. The Mets.
I know the Spanish-speaking Mets players have to love the fact that they can speak in their native tongue (pretty much about anything) right in front of reporters without having to worry about the periodistas understanding what is going on.
Good for them. Bad for us, readers, etc. It’s still hard to believe how few experienced bilingual baseball reporters there are out there. It’s hard not to believe that good stories are being missed and fans are being cheated a bit. I don’t think I heard any Mets player speaking English in the clubhouse before Friday’s game.
Off the soap box and back into the press box:
Can anybody explain Carlos Delgado’s recent streak? The man from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico is on fire. He says it’s all about the timing. No kidding.
Mets infielders Jose Reyes and Argenis Reyes are childhood friends and from what I hear, attached at the hip. Let’s hope Jose helps the “other” Reyes in his growth as a Major Leaguer.
Fernando Tatis? Remember him Rangers fans?
Whatever Pedro Martinez does on the mound Friday against the Astros is a bonus. At least in my book. He has not pitched since the second week of July and is mourning the loss of his father. This has to be an emotional outing for him — win or lose.
Jesse Sanchez
MLB can hire me…. I speak English and Spanish very well. I speak a little Turkish and Hebrew lol
But seriously, you are right, it’s odd that there isn’t more bilingual reporters. We got one here in L.A. by the name of Dylan Hernandez from the L.A. Times. He basically told all the gringos from Cali what Manny Ramirez was telling the spanish media the other day. It was great
Thanks Jesse for all the work you do. I enjoy it like always…
-Roberto
http://baseballislife.mlblogs.com/
I’m a bit late to the party, perdón a me!
Jesse Sanchez wrote: It’s still hard to believe how few experienced bilingual baseball reporters there are out there. It’s hard not to believe that good stories are being missed and fans are being cheated a bit.
With the predominance of Hispano-Latino ballplayers in the MLB (not to mention U.S. society at large these days), one would think the metropolitan media outlets would hire at least one bilingual sports-beat writer—particularly in cities with thriving Latino communities, such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Miami, St. Petersburg, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., etc.
As a native English speaker/reader, it seems my options are largely limited to stories written by a non-Spanish-speaking/writing reporter. I suppose I could flail my way through a story written in Spanish to extract its gross content; except, what would be the point? Invisible to my Spanish-illiterate eyes would be the rhythm, mood and style originally intended by the author.
As a writer, this strikes me as using sledge-hammer to crack a walnut. Sure, you end up with the nutmeat, but it’s not pretty. From a journalistic ethics perspective, this sort of socially-condoned intellectual barrier-building is counterproductive, at the very least. I mean, lede-generation aside, what about getting the story right? Wasn’t it a single missing piece of information about gender nominatives that resulted in Gregorio Cortez becoming a wanted fugitive by the Texas Rangers?
Just my $0.02 FWIW, . . .the times they are a changing, MLB powers that be. Might I suggest the words of Thomas Paine, “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” Or perhaps a more 21st century version, “Resistance is futile.” . . .BeesGal