For Ortiz, Tiant, fathers knew best
01:00 AM EDT on Monday, August 25, 2003
BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer
Luis Tiant is 61 years old, a native of Cuba. David Ortiz is 27, a
native of the Dominican Republic.
But they have one experience in common.
When they came to the United States to play baseball, neither one knew
much English. They felt lost in a foreign land as they launched their
professional careers.
Tiant had a little English instruction in Cuba at his father's urging.
But he didn't take it seriously . . . something he regretted when, at
age 20 in 1962, he found himself playing professionally in
Charlottesville, W. Va.
Not only was he a victim of overt racism at the time, says Tiant, he
also, predictably, had trouble dealing with the language.
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AP photo
David Ortiz's father pushed him to learn English as a child. "He told me you don't know when you'll need it," Ortiz says, "but I didn't get the message until I got here."
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"We had Spanish players who didn't speak English and the American
players didn't speak Spanish," said Tiant, the ace of the Red Sox'
pitching staffs in the 1970s, who's still difficult to understand
because of his heavy Cuban accent. "My manager, Johnny Lipon, spoke a
little Spanish. But he'd come to the mound and he'd talk to me and I'd
be nodding my head. I had no idea what he said. Everything he said I'd
be like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' He could have been cussing me, telling me I
was no good, whatever, and I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' Then the
catcher, Duke Sims, would come talk to me and I'd just send him back. I
had a lot of trouble like that with the language.
"I think baseball was the easy part because that was the way you showed
your ability and it didn't matter what language you spoke. That gives
you security and you don't worry that you don't speak English."
But Tiant -- currently a member of the Sox' Spanish-speaking radio
broadcast team -- wanted to learn, if only to understand what others
were saying.
"A lot of times you see a group of guys laughing and you don't know what
they're laughing about. But I see everybody laugh, so I laugh, too. They
might have been laughing about me, and there I was laughing, too. That's
really sad when that happens," said Tiant.
"But I watched television, I talked to players, I listened, putting in
my mind that I wanted to learn one word each day. When I found out more
words, I started talking a little bit more and that made it a lot easier
for me."
Ortiz also was pushed to learn English by his dad, who worked in an auto
parts store in the Dominican.
"He told me you don't know when you'll need it, but I didn't get the
message until I got here," said Ortiz, now a first baseman/designated
hitter for the Red Sox.
Ortiz was signed by Seattle as a 17-year-old non-drafted free agent on
Nov. 28, 1992. The Mariners ran mandatory English classes during spring
training the following year in Peoria, Ariz., but Ortiz admits he didn't
take it as seriously as he should. "In Arizona," he said, "there were a
lot of Spanish people around."
When the 1993 season began, he was assigned to a team in Appleton, Wis.
"In Appleton," Ortiz recalled with a smile, "zero Spanish people around."
He tried to learn English. But, naturally, he was a bit paranoid at
first.
"When you hear a different language in the locker room and the guy is
looking at you, you think he's talking about you. That's when the
questions come out, 'Hey, what kind of language are you speaking? You
talking about me?' " said Ortiz.
"But you could learn if you weren't afraid," added Ortiz, recalling his
early classes. "There were (Latin) guys who were afraid to make a
mistake if they were talking. Here in baseball it's the best chance for
somebody to learn the language. If you say something wrong, people might
laugh at you, but I think they'll correct (you). They don't mean to
laugh at you. It's just that sometimes what you say sounds funny."
Ortiz became more comfortable with the language after meeting his wife
when he was playing in Appleton.
"I'm not afraid to speak English. I love English," said Ortiz. "I love
speaking the language because I know I need it and because it's great to
know more than one language."
