Before Sunday’s series finale with the Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen addressed the media just like he does before every game. But this time, he had a lot to say about some serious issues that transcend baseball. His take on Major League double standards relating to Asian and Latino players touches on topics that resonate all over the globe.
From an AP report
“I’m the only one to teach the Latinos about not to use,” Guillen said about his attempts to educate Latin American players about steroids and other banned drugs.
“I’m the only one and Major League Baseball doesn’t [care]. All they care about — how many times I argue with the umpires, what I say to the media. But I’m the only one in baseball to come up to the Latino kids and say not to use this and I don’t get any credit for that.
“They look at you and they say, ‘Good for you Ozzie,’ ” he said. “Ozzie said it, don’t worry about it. If somebody else said it they would be playing that [stuff] every day on the jumbotron. … I’m the only one that came up with that idea. I did it for the Latino kids. … I want to help those kids.”
And he brought up how his team, and others employ translators for assisting the Asian players, but not for the Spanish-speaking ballplayers.
“And we had 17 Latinos and you know who the interpreter was? Oney. Why is that? Because we have Latino coaches? Because here he is? Why? I don’t have the answer,” Guillen said. “We’re in the United States, we don’t have to bring any coaches that speak Spanish to help anybody. You choose to come to this country and you better speak English.
“It’s just not the White Sox, it’s baseball,” Guillen added. “We have a pitching coach that is Latino, but the pitching coach can’t talk about hitting with a Latino guy and that’s the way it is and we have to overcome all those [obstacles]. You know why? Because we’re hungry, we grow up the right way, we come here to compete.”
“Very bad. 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?” 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.”