A Whole New Ballgame

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 26, 2003

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

One of them was left-handed, the other three were right-handed. Two were starters, one a reliever, the other a swingman. They all pitched for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2000 and 2001.

And they were all from the Far East.

Tomo Ohka was a native of Japan. Jin Ho Cho, Sun-Woo Kim and Sang-Hoon Lee were natives of Korea. The PawSox were the only team in professional baseball with four Far East players on its roster.

"The 'Great American Pastime'," chuckled Mike Tamburro, president of the PawSox.

Special to the Journal / Pawtucket Red Sox PawSox players in 2001 included Sang-Hoon Lee, front; Sun-Woo Kim, behind Lee; Jin Ho Cho, top right; Gus Gandarillas, left, and Angelo Encarnacion, center.

In the mid-1970s, Pawtucket would have only one or two Latin players on its roster in any given season. Shortstop Ramon Aviles was a starter from 1975-1977. Catcher Bo Diaz, shortstop Luis "Pichy" Deleon and outfielder Luis "Puchy" Delgado played together in 1977. Infielder Julio Valdez joined the PawSox in 1979.

Back then, the players arrived with few English-language skills. There were no academies in the Dominican, no classes for Spanish-speaking players.

All of which meant the Pawtucket staff was busy away from McCoy Stadium.

"Off the field in the early days, we did a lot more community outreach with the Latin players than we do today," said Tamburro, who was brought in as general manager when Ben Mondor bought the team in 1977.

"We would probably be at the banks helping them open accounts, or we'd be helping them rent apartments, or we'd be helping them get their everyday living situations squared away," said Tamburro. "Today there's more immediate help at the clubhouse level, but that doesn't mean we're not here to help as a backstop, because we always are here to help."

Along the way, as more and more Latin players began to arrive, bilingual players such as Josias Manzanillo, Luis Aguayo and now Andy Abad have helped bridge the language barrier.

"It was always a matter of trying to find the best English-speaking Hispanic player and trying to use him as an intermediary," said Tamburro. "Believe me, there were a lot of times when a lot was lost in the translation.

"If you're going to communicate, it has to be done at the highest possible level today," said Tamburro. "With the number of foreign-born players you have on your squads today you have to get your message across, your rules across and the manager needs to get his instructions across. And a lot of times language is an obvious barrier that needs to be overcome."

It was much more difficult in the past.

While many of the Latin players were reluctant to speak at all, one player found a distinctive way to announce his presence.

Jackie Gutierrez, the PawSox' starting shortstop in 1983, would become the first native of Colombia to make it to the major leagues later that year. When he was in Pawtucket, his English was limited. Infield chatter in English was not possible.

So Gutierrez whistled. Not your basic whistle, mind you. The most shrill whistle imaginable, the kind of whistle that would have dogs in the McCoy Stadium vicinity howling at the piercing sound.

Others, such as infielder Angel Gonzalez, a member of the PawSox from 1987-1990, knew more English than they would let on, at least to the media.

"Angel spoke English fairly well, but he was afraid to speak it," said Tamburro. "You had to pay extra special attention to those players and do extra things for them until you can create that comfort level for them."

Spanish-speaking players became relatively commonplace on the PawSox' roster beginning in the 1990s. But a new twist was added to the foreign-language barrier in 1999 when Cho and Ohka joined Pawtucket.

The next year Kim and Lee joined the PawSox.

To make them more comfortable, Chang-Ho Lee, who is fluent in Korean and Japanese, was hired to serve as an assistant trainer and interpreter. Lee was born in Korea, moved to Japan at the age of 2 and lived there for 12 years before the family moved to southern California.

"It was remarkable that we found a fellow with those skills at that particular time," said Tamburro. "He was a tremendous help."

"It was different," said Lee, who moved up to Boston in 2001 when the Red Sox signed Japanese native Hideo Nomo. "I think with all of them there it made the other players more aware of the Asian culture."

Unfortunately, it created a bit of a volatile political mix, given the tensions between Korea and Japan. Twice Ohka and Kim scuffled during the season.

It's all part of the Great American Pastime, whose stretched boundaries have been touching Pawtucket as the years have rolled by.