Mike Schmidt & Jerry Remy Get Lost in Translation

Yesterday, within hours of each other, two former MLB players get into hot water over language.




First came Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt who now serves as an occasional color analyst for televised Phillies games. While appearing on a local radio show, Schmidt said he didn't think Phillies could build the team around outfielder Odubel Herrera because English isn't his first language. Although Herrera has a working knowledge of English he prefers to use a Spanish language interpreter for media interviews. Following an uproar on social media, Schmidt apologized to Herrera over the phone which the Venezuelan born Herrera graciously accepted. Herrera's teammate and fellow countryman Freddy Galvis also came to Schmidt's defense.


I did think Schmidt's comments were odd. After all, the Seattle Mariners seemed to do a pretty good job building their team around Japanese speaking Ichiro Suzuki. Schmidt himself also played Winter Ball in Latin America early in his big league career. But I didn't believe they were malevolent. Herrera and Galvis struck the right chord and hopefully that will abate matters. But perhaps not.


Then came longtime Red Sox broadcaster and former player Jerry Remy (a.k.a. RemDawg) during last night's game between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka was the starting pitcher for the Yankees and after a mound visit, Remy's broadcast partner Dave O'Brien noted that Tanaka's translator was part of the visit. To which Remy replied he didn't think a translator should be "legal" and that Tanaka should learn "baseball language." Again there was an uproar on social media and Remy issued an apology on Twitter although there is no word if he has communicated with Tanaka or his interpreter. For their part, both the Red Sox and NESN (which broadcasts most Red Sox games) have distanced themselves from Remy's remarks. Remy, who has had a long battle with cancer and other health problems, has been working on a reduced schedule for several seasons. I hope the Red Sox don't use this incident as a pretext to phase him out altogether. Remy has been with the organization for too long to warrant that treatment.


As with Schmidt, I also think RemDawg's comments were odd. It wasn't so long ago the Red Sox had Japanese pitchers such as Daisuke Matzusaka, Hideki Okajima and, more recently, Koji Uehara on their staffs all of whom managed to collect World Series rings while using interpreters. It makes me think that it might be a Yankees thing with RemDawg. I also disagree from a civil rights perspective. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) to access an interpreter to receive services from agencies which receive funding from the federal government. Of course, the Boston Red Sox are not a government agency. But given that a large number of their employees have limited capacity in English it is useful for those teams to employ interpreters including during game time. The presence of the interpreters does nothing to disrupt the game and frankly I wouldn't paid the interpreter much attention until Remy called attention to it.


In the final analysis, while I think Schmidt and Remy were wrong in their commentary I don't either deserved to be tarred and feathered in any language. They just got lost in translation.