spanish speaking baseball players

(blues music plays)>>it is a beautiful day for baseball as fans pack into us cellular field in chicago. onefan in particular is paying special attention to every detail.this is where university of illinois history and latino studies professor, adrian burgos,jr does his research. his life’s work examines the complex history of america’s past time.>>we’re at us cellular field watching the white sox and minnesota twins. we have sixlatinos starting today: jose abreu at first, geovanni soto catching, and jose quintanais the starting pitcher. for many latinos, baseball is about family.it’s not just that guys are out there playing a game and we’re attending as fans, butthere’s a history as to how all of us got

to that moment.(atmospheric music plays) (music plays)>>adrian burgos, jr didn’t just stumble into baseball, he was born into it. born inthe bronx just blocks away from yankee stadium, it was only natural for him to fall in lovewith baseball and for the new york yankees to become his favorite team.(music continues) >>my youngest memories is of going to baseballgames, yankee stadium, with my friends, my family. there’s a part of yankee stadiumin the right field corner in the bleachers, where the guy use to play cowbells, a puertorican guy. it was kind of a caribbean feeling of the noise, the cheering. and so for me,that only made me more of a baseball nut.

we’d come and visit my grandmother who livedin the bronx. she was a baseball fan and i asked her, like who do you root for the yankeesor the mets? and she would say both, but i also root for the team with the most latinos.and that also shaped how i thought about baseball. and it taught me from an early way about whatlatino identity was about. i actually started learning about latinosin baseball by collecting baseball cards. i would look on the back and i learned thegeography of baseball and then i really got fascinated by why is it that so many playersfrom latin america were baseball players. and that really gave me a love of historyand a love of learning what was about latinos in baseball that spread throughout latin america.from the time that i was a senior in college,

i began to blend my love of history and mylove of baseball. (atmospheric music plays)>>it was that love that eventually guided adrian to the university of illinois wherehe continued his research and began to teach others about the “hard questions” of baseball.(music continues) >>the university of illinois provided me theperfect setting to begin my career. they understood it was more than baseball history. it’sabout american immigration stories. (music continues)>>taking his classes, i really started looking at the business side and also the individualplayers and what names are we seeing and who’s on the field. so i definitely became muchmore of an aware fan.

(music continues)>>for my students, i want them to understand baseball was always more than black and white,it was about brown. (insturmental guitar music plays)>>for baseball historians and fans, the ultimate shrine to the game is the national baseballhall of fame and museum in cooperstown, ny. (music continues)>>i first came to the hall of fame twenty years ago. i never thought that i’d havethe opportunity to go from researcher, to consultant, and now to becoming a collaboratorwith people at the hall of fame. (music continues)>>adrian’s work first came to the hall of fame’s attention when he submitted someof his early writings. it was through that

that we first began to understand what adriancould bring that was new and distinctive and quite frankly, filled a gap that we had inour knowledge base here. (music continues)>>it was then that the hall of fame asked adrian to lend his expertise in the museum’sfirst bilingual exhibit, viva baseball. (music continues)>>we’re here right now in the viva exhibit. this is a new exhibit that we created justa few years ago to talk specifically about the story of latino baseball players.(music continues) >>viva baseball exhibit is wonderful. theydid a great job curating it and it starts at the beginning with early latino players,but also brings you up to the present day.

(music continues)>>it’s the first effort to tell the entire story of latinos in baseball. it allows usto hear the music, feel the passion, see how latinos express, and see the history thatwhy are latinos so passionate about playing the game.(music continues) >>adrian’s work has even made an impactbeyond cooperstown…to a hall of fame legend. >>hi, i’m dave winfield(staccato string music plays) >>i grew up a baseball fan and someone whoadmired dave winfield. little did i know when i was a professor that one day he would callme. (music continues)>>it was early 2000’s and i’m working

in san diego an executive with the padresand i was putting together a tribute to the negro leagues. and i called the hall of fameand i said “gentlemen, who knows enough about latin american players that played inthe negro leagues?” they said adrian burgos. they gave me his number and i gave him a call.i surprised him he tells me later that i was one of his favorite players and he droppedeverything and we began to talk, been good friends since.(music continues) >>he brought me out to san diego to sharemy research and dave winfield told me that he had read my book. and i was a bit incredulous,why would he read my book? so he got the book and showed me how he underlined passages.he said, “adrian, would you mind signing

my book?” and i never thought i would havea hall of famer asking me to sign a book for him.(music continues) >>he’s taught me a lot. i learned a greatdeal. he was a fantastic advocate for the guys, he understands his history, he’s metmany of these people, he knows them intimately. i appreciated his input, it helped me makethe events that i put together just the best that they could be so i appreciate him a greatdeal. (music continues)>>baseball had different pathways and that’s also part of what my scholarship has aimedto do is understand that studying latinos in baseball allows you to understand migration,labor, popular culture. and it allows us then

to explore why do latinos come? were theyrecruited? sometimes yes. did they come on their own? yes. and that it’s a complexset of stories about how latinos become a part of the american fabric. latinos werethe first group of immigrants who came to the united states who already knew baseball.and again many people today when they think about latinos, “oh, they’re recent rivals”,but dominicans, cubans, venezuelans, puerto rican’s: baseballs in the blood. it goesback generations. (music plays)>>although they have a foothold in major league baseball today, it wasn’t always easy fortalent coming from latin america. during almost fifty years of segregation, many latinos andafro-latinos were only permitted to play in

the negro leagues, an organized league designatedfor players of color. (music continues)>>if you look at the history of baseball, it is very intrinsically linked to the developmentof american culture and society. in many cases that a great positive, but then you look atthe negative side of that, the segregation that kept players like jackie robinson fromplaying in the big leagues until 1947. (music plays)>>in the united states there was the institutionalized, jim crowe kind of discrimination that tookplace. but that black and white perspective of sixteen white baseball owners held trueregardless of where the player was from. it was strictly the matter of the color of theirskin.

(music continues)>>many of the latin american subjects that adrian has written about and researched wereplayers that were dark-skinned latinos who could not play within the big leagues becauseof that segregation. just to play baseball, these men had to endure significant hardships.(music continues >>one of the elements that came about in termsof latino ballplayers was that trying to figure out how to get them into the major leagues.(music continues) >>as adrian’s research has shown, therewere some that had to become as white as possible to fit into the major leagues. the darkerskinned latino, regardless of ability, were not given the opportunity while the lighterskinned latino, very little cultural difference

other than the color of their skin, were treatedas a novelty. (music continues)>>one example is mexican-american ballplayer, vincente nava. his team, the providence grays,marketed him as “the spanish catcher”. being spanish was more socially acceptablethan being mexican and even made him an exotic commodity.(music continues) >>ethnicity was a gate attraction. and soone of the ways we see latinos being racialized initially, is to sell tickets.(music continues) >>when it became clear that they were in factstellar, great baseball players which any baseball man could see, stardom awaited. thatstardom could’ve come earlier had baseball

not been segregated in the way that it was.(stadium sounds) >>it’s a new ballgame now.(music plays) >>just because the unofficial ban color barrierwas lifted, didn’t mean that attitudes changed right away.(stadium sounds) >>we don’t like them boys playing ball aroundhere. (music continues)>>orlando cepeda would say, “we have two strikes against us. because we’re blackand because we’re latino”. (music continues)>>players who enter the league are dealing with the racial issue of either the dark skinor the latino heritage, which led to an initial

prejudice. secondly, they had language barriersthat prevented them from being able to communicate in a way that their american counterpartscould do so without issue. (music continues)>>one way this was seen was in the press. sports writers would often quote latin playersspeaking phonetically, which did not translate well with their american audience.(music continues) >>why does one do that? is to indicate thatthe person speaking can’t proper english, is probably not as intelligent as the layreader, and is different from us. he’s probably a foreigner. he’s definitely not a fellowwhite american. and as i write in playing america’s game, it’s the politics of languageand representation, but it’s about showing

difference.(music continues) (stadium sounds)>>and so their ability to integrate into the game, to succeed at the highest levels, hascome at an even higher threshold then some others that have had to challenge those barriers.(tango plays) >>when i grew up in minnesota, some of theguys on the team i idolized, but i didn’t know where they came from, what their backgroundwas. they were just good ballplayers and ballplayers were my heroes. the shortstop, zoillo versalles,he was from cuba. that was the first glove i got, a little 6-fingered glove and i wasa shortstop like him. i didn’t know that they may have not made a lot of money or may’vebeen taken advantage of or mistreated. they

played the game hard and they had fun. andthat’s who i would imitate. (music continues)>>it was a passion and yes, latinos played the game differently because they had a differentcultural sentiment about it. that would create lots of conflict.(music continues) >>latino ballplayers, because of an inheritpassion and joy that they bring to the game, often have been criticized throughout historyby their white counterparts for celebrating and for having such joy. some would even callit excessive energy that they bring to the field and we see this play out today.(music continues) >>recently we had a pitcher, bud norris, whosaid “this is our game. this is america’s

game”.(music continues) and bud norris doesn’t realize that latinoshave been playing baseball for 150 years. and so it is their game. the cubans see baseballnot as the us game, they see it americas’ game, plural. and they play it with passion,they love it, and they see it as what they do.(music plays) >>if a player is not selected for a majorleague roster, they typically begin their careers here…in the minor leagues.(stadium sounds) here the newest and brightest ballplayersshowcase their talents in the hopes of achieving their dreams.(music continues)

>>my name is ildemaro vargas. i play secondbase. i’m venezuelan. well from seven years old, as a small child, my mother put me into play ball. my goal is to keep working hard, finish well, taking advantage of the opportunityand the great moment that i’m living right now. and the future is like every sports playerin major league and maintain myself in major league.(atmospheric music plays) >>latino players come to the united statesto pursue that baseball dream. the majority of them actually don’t make it. in baseball,october is a very cruel month. it is the moment when the 21, 22, 23 year-old latino is thinking“am i going to get bumped up to the next level in the minor leagues?” if they don’tget raised to that high a ball or aa level,

they could be 21, 22 years old and finishas a professional because there is always another supply of 16 year old dominicans,venezuelans who’s ready to take their spot. the entire talent development structure ofmajor league baseball is reliant upon that fresh supply of very young talent that mightproject beyond that 21 year old, 22 year old latino. and so in october, their playing fortheir baseball lives. but the truth to the story is most of those young latino playerswho come at 16 years old never get another a second organization. the chance to cometo the united states does help transform their lives. the latino players send money backto their families. they’re helping not just themselves. and they face the challenge oflearning the language because communication

is so important in baseball. the biggest challenge,as some of the players would tell me is, it’s when we leave the ballpark.(music continues) >>well i always knew it would be differentfrom puerto rico because we speak spanish over there. we’re part of the united statesbut we speak spanish over there and it’s a different culture. when i signed i had anidea more or less of how life was going to be here, how the situation was going to beand i learned to defend myself in those moments so that when the opportune moment came likei am now of course. (music continues)>>we have teenagers, 16, 17, younger than my college students who are professional ballplayers. and i often share with my students

as we’re studying about sport and society,do you remember what you were doing at 16 years old? now put yourself in a foreign country,not speaking the language and being told “you’re a professional, act like it”. what thattells me, the ballplayers who do make it and succeed they faced challenges to become thestars that they are. >>for many baseball hopefuls, they dream ofsomeday playing in the major leagues. (hopeful music plays)one player that was lucky enough to be signed by the chicago white sox, was all-star firstbaseman, jose abreu. born in cuba, jose set out to make his mark on baseball, but stillremembers the pain of leaving his homeland. (music continues)>>well how can i tell you? it was a very difficult

step. there was a moment that one felt reallybad because you’re leaving a country that watched me be born, raised me, and nothing.believe me, always a dream of my mother’s to watch me play in major leagues and thatdream became a reality and i’m grateful to god for having him by me, and be in thebest place in the world. (music continues)>>a third of our clubhouse is from latin america and the pride that those guys took and thegenerations that came before them is evident. they don’t just play for the white sox,they play for a flag as well. (music continues)>>the white sox reached out to me when i was an assistant professor because they learnedabout the research i was doing and how it

highlighted the role of latinos in baseball.thewhite sox have sought to highlight their role in history. this is important history to knowand it’s even more today because so many more latinos are in baseball.(music continues) >>we’ve got such a rich tradition of latinobaseball stars and i think that’s one of adrian’s skills is to kind of give you asense of the history and tradition that our game enjoys and that the white sox enjoysand that stretches back to chico carresquel, luis aparichio, ozzie guillen, and countlessothers, minnie minoso. (brass fanfare)>>the white sox are getting in trim to make it a real race in the american league thisyear. minnie minoso is one reason for chicago

optimism.(fingerstyle acoustic guitar music) >>the ballplayer who i think deserves a lotof credit for facing these challenges as being a black latino in baseball is orestes, theman we know as “minnie”, minoso. he came in 1945 and 46, he started in the negro leagues.and minnie minoso literally bridged us from the era of segregation and pioneered us intointegration. and so his story was of black latinos breaking into professional baseballin the united states. and orlando cepeda said it himself, “minoso is our jackie robinson”.(music continues) >>the same rules that applied to jackie robinsonalso apply to minnie minoso. although minnie minoso wasn’t african american, he was cuban.(music continues)

>>minoso had to endure the challenge of beingblack in america and being a foreigner. but also that people expected him to be a “hot-bloodedlatin”. and so he had to prove himself every time on the field, carry himself differently.and i think one of the achievements of minoso in terms of his on-field excellence is thathe allowed space for other latinos like roberto clemente and felipe alou who were not necessarilyof the pioneering generation, but they didn’t have to go through the negro leagues. andminoso combated the image of the hot-blooded latin on the field so that other latinos couldstand on his shoulder and speak for latinos very forcibly.(music continues) >>he played the game hard, he played it theright way, he played it differently. you know

he brought some of that negro leagues, someof that latin american style and flash. stealing bases, just making things happen. that wasunusual, there wasn’t a lot of that going on. i’m sure that he was the target of somepitches that most guys may not have gotten. being one of the first, he just had to overcomea lot of obstacles. (music plays)>>in 2011, as a professor at the university of illinois, we were able to give back tominnie minoso and honor him with the mlk award. it was the 60th anniversary of him breakingthe color line with the chicago white sox. so we brought minnie to campus, we gave himthe award and he was very touched. (music continues)>>thank you for giving me this. to me, it’s

like if you gave me your heart.(music continues) >>over the past six years we’ve done somespecial seminars to raise minnie’s profile on a national level and adrian was instrumentalin helping us there. and as we started to sadly put together his funeral, we neededsomeone who could eulogize him in a way that put him into context and we thought who betterthan adrian. (music continues)>>as minnie goes to his eternal home, let us to continue to honor his baseball legacyas the man who opened the modern era of baseball. que viva minoso.(music plays) >>baseball has come a long ways. it has gottento the point now where there’s just no way

in the world that we could operate, even inour minds, without the latino presence in baseball.(music continues) >>as the latino legacy in baseball has grown,so has the need to celebrate their rich history. it was obvious that more of their presencewas needed to be felt in the halls of cooperstown. the hall of fame once again called on adrian’sexpertise. (music continues)>>we invited adrian to be a part of a 5-year program on the negro leagues and whether thereshould be additional negro leaguers inducted into the hall of fame.(music continues) >>they valued the work that i did studyinglatinos on both sides of the color line, in

the negro leagues and the major leagues. andthe hall of fame knew of my work and then they created the opportunity to do two thingsi never thought i would do. how many historians can say that had the opportunity to vote ina hall of fame election? in 2006 i was one member of the twelve that were selected tovote on the negro league election and it was a historic election. it was where the firstwoman, the only woman who’s in the hall of fame, effa manley, was elected for hergroundbreaking work and really bringing the civil rights movement into the ballpark inthe 40’s. (music continues)>>i feel that my baseball research has illuminated how latinos were part of the integration story.this is something that i love doing because

i get to share what i’m passionate aboutand then open their eyes to what was right in front of them.(music continues) >>you can tell when he’s teaching it thathe’s so passionate, not just about the game, but about the players of the past. he’snot just a historian in the subject but he’s also just a true fan of the game.(music continues) >>two decades ago, there was very little writtenon people who were not allowed to play in the major leagues, so absolutely his workhas had an impact. (music continues)>>he has helped unearth the ways in which people as a society celebrate this game ofbaseball and it’s all kind of done with

that adrian smile.(organ music)