Major League Baseball

Ozzie should put up or shut up

Published Aug. 2, 2010 11:35 p.m. ET

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Apparently bored with the American League Central race — which his White Sox lead by a half-game — the Mouth of Oz ranted again on Sunday.

And if Bud Selig is the forward-thinking commissioner he strives to be, then I will soon receive a news release from Major League Baseball titled as follows:

Ozzie Guillen named chairman of Commissioner’s Special Committee on Latin American Relations. 

Yes, Ozzie is the squawking parent whose histrionics at the school board meeting just volunteered him to chair the Sadie Hawkins bake sale.

Guillen is clearly passionate about the plight of young Latin American ballplayers. He raised some genuine concerns, even if he muddied the overall message with misinformation. (More on that in a minute.) But I see nothing that would prevent him from taking the leap from talking to doing.

So what, exactly, did he say? Here are the highlights:

• He believes he is the “only one” warning Latino players against steroid use.

• He said teams do more to accommodate Japanese players than Latino players. “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?”

• He also criticized organizations for not hiring enough Spanish-speaking coaches. “In the United States, we don’t have to bring any coaches that speak Spanish to help anybody,” he said. “You choose to come to this country and you better speak English.”

OK. On the first point — about Latin American players and performance-enhancing drugs — Guillen is entirely off base.

In recent years, MLB has done an admirable job of educating young players about the dangers of steroid use and the testing program that enforces the sport’s current policies.

Players are given information about nutritional supplements in a variety of formats — memos, wallet cards, clubhouse posters — in both English and Spanish. This year, the testing service Drug Free Sport traveled to all 30 spring training sites — as well as every academy in the Dominican Republic — for live presentations. MLB has also offered steroid-related presentations in Venezuelan academies through their Employee Assistance Program.

And baseball has begun the difficult and worthwhile work of regulating amateur baseball in the Dominican Republic, where some scout/agent hybrids (buscones) have profited from distributing steroids to teenagers.

MLB’s drug education and testing program generates about as much literature as the census. And the money invested in the Dominican Republic shows Selig’s earnestness in addressing the problems there. MLB spokesman Rich Levin correctly pointed out in a Sunday interview with the Associated Press that baseball officials “spend more time and effort educating our Latin players about PED use than we do our domestic players.” 

So, Ozzie is wrong. He’s not the “only one” advising Latino players against PED use. Hundreds of people are doing more extensive work in that area than he.

Guillen should stick to what he knows — the game itself, and how to help players (Latinos included) succeed on the field.

It is in this realm that Guillen has the opportunity to effect meaningful change, if he can learn to be just a little more diplomatic.

Guillen pointed out that Japanese players have personal interpreters, while Latin American players do not. He is absolutely right.

Most major-league teams have someone available to interpret for Spanish-speaking players, but these employees are often coaches, broadcasters or front office staffers with other responsibilities.

Take Guillen’s team, for example: The White Sox don’t employ a Spanish translator, per se. But they do have employees who assist in that capacity when needed, according to a team spokesman.

By comparison, Japanese players come to the U.S. as free agents and negotiate clauses into their contracts that require teams to provide interpreters — at six-figure salaries, in some cases.

I know of no similar clauses for current Latin American players, but their agents should be empowered to make similar requests when necessary.

By contrast, a Japanese star might come to the U.S. at 30, having never lived in the Western Hemisphere. And there were only 14 Japanese big leaguers at the start of this season, roughly one per every two teams.

Still, Guillen’s point is well taken. Yes, virtually every organization offers cultural assimilation classes to Latino players. But is everything being done to ensure that they are comfortable off the field and successful on it?

The need is greatest at the lower levels of the minor leagues, when the language barrier is most daunting and players are most likely to get homesick. The economics of the game are brutal in Class A, where many players earn less than $10,000 per year (apart from signing bonuses).

It would make good sense to have a full-time employee at every level of the minor league system, with the responsibility of supporting the team’s international players. That could probably be done at a cost that is somewhere south of the major-league minimum salary. And if that helps a team develop the next Vladimir Guerrero, wouldn’t that be money well spent?

Apart from its ongoing effort to encourage minority hiring, Major League Baseball doesn’t mandate a Spanish-speaking coach or trainer on every team in the minors. But maybe it should. And perhaps the Guillen Committee would study the issue and make a specific recommendation to that effect.

It should be noted that some organizations have wisely adopted that practice already. The Cardinals, Mets and Pirates are among the teams that have a Spanish-speaking staffer at every level of their minor-league system, according to information FOXSports.com obtained Monday.

That way, if a Latino player has a personal, family or health issue, he knows he can speak with someone who truly understands what he is saying. Thousands of miles from home, that is crucial to the well-being of a young ballplayer.

The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, employ Hatuey Mendoza as the organization’s Latin American liaison for the minor league system.

“He’s away from his home more than I am, constantly traveling through the minors,” said Mike Berger, the Diamondbacks’ director of player development. “We’ve gotten tremendous results. He’s been invaluable — not only to the players, but the department as a whole. He’s been able to bridge the communication gap that would otherwise exist.

“It’s just the right thing to do.”

Yes, and it’s the right thing for Ozzie Guillen to be a leader, not a talker, on this vital issue to the game’s future. He has the platform. He has the personality. He has the cachet that comes with being the first Latin American manager to win a World Series. And he has some good ideas, whether you agree with him or not.

And if he’s concerned enough to stir up controversy in the middle of a pennant race, then he should be proactive enough to do something about it.

Chairman Guillen, the floor is yours.

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