Communication Issues

Adding another question mark to the colorful career of Ramirez, is what he did when being introduced at a press-conference. For the first time in black and white, Manny showed up with an interpreter to translate the questions he was asked into Spanish as if he didn't speak English fluently. Taking it as a joke more than anything, you would have to think it didn't sit well within the clubhouse and more specifically with his manager. But with the hot headed Ozzie Guillen on the throne, he couldn't be happier. Not to mention this very subject sounds all too familiar to Guillen who was in the news recently, speaking about the MLB and their usage of translators.

As if Guillen hasn't already bitched and griped enough in the past about everything in the book, he's up to his old self again. In an pre-game interview before taking the field against the Oakland Athletics, Guillen expressed his disinterest in how the league assigns Asian born players translators and not Latinos. "I say, why do we have Japanese interpreters and we don't have a Spanish one. I always say that. Why do they have that privilege and we don't?" The Venezuelan born skipper went on to say, "Don't take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid ... go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it's always going to be like that. It's never going to change. But that's the way it is."

I think Guillen's take on Latin players being "Taken advantage of" is wrong and poorly judged on his behalf. The reason being is obvious, as Asian players stick out like a sore thumb when it comes to the Major Leagues. Latino players on the other hand, have more of an advantage than Guillen is given credit for, granted one fourth of the players are of Latin ethnicity. Therefore there's more Latin players in the league that know English and can translate to their fellow teammates, where as Asian players take up less than 2% of Major League rosters and are a lot farther from home meaning those who understand the language are harder to come across thus resulting in the need of a translator. Whether Ramirez' latest antics were a publicity stunt or were just another episode of 'Manny being Manny', Guillen gets his wish as a Latin player was provided with a translator.