Braves react to Ozzie Guillen's comments about translators

Among other things, Guillen said, “We bring a Japanese player and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid ... go to the minor leagues, good luck.”

Until last season, any potential disparity would have been unnoticed in the Braves clubhouse. But with the addition of Japanese pitcher Kenshin Kawakami a year ago and reliever Takashi Saito this season, the issue hits closer to home. Both Kawakami and Saito have their own personal interpreters.

Latin players in the Braves clubhouse who have trouble with English typically use teammates and coaches to translate.

Rarely have Latin players openly voiced complaints about not having assigned translators in the Braves clubhouse. But former shortstop Yunel Escobar, who was traded to Toronto last month, was vocal about his problems with the Atlanta media.

He thought he was treated unfairly by the media since he spoke limited English and was typically only approached about injuries or when he struggled, not when he was playing well.

Escobar, a native of Cuba, spoke some English with his teammates but wasn’t as comfortable speaking in a formal interview setting.

"The only time they want to talk to me is when I'm struggling," Escobar said earlier this spring, with Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens translating for him. "And when I do something good, nobody wants to talk to me. When I'm struggling or I'm hurt, the reporter has no right to come to me if the excuse is the language."

The Braves had coaches and teammates who could and did translate for Escobar. They also have programs in place in the minor leagues and at their complex in the Dominican Republic to teach players English.

"We all have Spanish-speaking coaches who can help bring players along and at the same time, we all have English programs and are able to facilitate players getting to the big leagues," Braves general manager Frank Wren said. "In the case of Asian players, in most cases, they've played their whole career there and the first time they step in America, they're playing at the major league level without the benefit of the language and without any of our staff members knowing the language. So it's a major difference."

Saito said Guillen was wrong in assuming every Japanese player had an interpreter. He said when he first signed with the Dodgers in 2006, he didn't have an interpreter. He didn't get one until Hiroki Kuroda joined the team two years later and they shared.

"For formal interviews, the traveling manager for the Dodgers was able to speak Japanese," said Saito through his interpreter, Kosuke Inaji. "He was able to serve as an interpreter, but every day in the lockers, with conversations with teammates, I did not have a translator. So I had to get by with just a book, a translator book."

Probably out of necessity, Saito has a better command of English than Kawakami does. That’s something Perez has noticed and seen as a positive. Without a personal translator, he was forced to learn the language.

“If I had a translator with me, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” Perez said.

Perez remembers coaches making him run five laps after a game in extended spring training after saying “La tengo” while going for a pop-up, for the benefit of the first baseman who was from the Dominican Republic. He learned to say “I got it” from that day forward and taught himself most of the English he knows.

Perez learned from TV and from song lyrics. He read game stories in the newspaper and used context to figure out what was meant.

Braves shortstop Alex Gonzalez, a native of Venezuela who came from Toronto in the Escobar trade, said he learned English by watching movies in English with closed caption in Spanish.

But he is torn between knowing how hard it is to command a new language and understanding the value in learning it.

“Maybe (Guillen) is right, maybe he’s not,” Gonzalez said. “Japanese guys have a translator because it’s a hard language. For everybody it’s hard to learn another language. ... Maybe some players need (translators). But we have to learn. We are in another country and we have the opportunity to learn another language.”

He pointed out that it’s one thing to be comfortable talking in a second language to teammates and coaches and another thing talking with the media.

“I know some guys may be scared to speak to the media and say something wrong,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe they need a translator to answer the question right. But we have to learn.”