{"id":161409,"date":"2025-09-22T16:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/161409\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:34:11","slug":"the-soundtrack-to-the-giants-season-is-heard-in-many-different-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/161409\/","title":{"rendered":"The soundtrack to the Giants\u2019 season is heard in many different languages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a> to receive regular email newsletters, including \u201cThe Dime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks after the San Francisco Giants made 17-year-old Heliot Ramos a millionaire in 2017, the baby-faced ballplayer sat inside the dugout at Oracle Park with cameras ready to capture every movement and microphones ready to record every word.<\/p>\n

The Puerto Rican teenager, fresh off of signing a contract that rewarded him with a $3.1 million bonus, couldn\u2019t speak English and nearly froze. \u201cI was scared,\u201d said Ramos, while reminiscing about his trip that day to China Basin. \u201cI was scared that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants outfielder has come a long way since the team selected him out of Leadership Christian Academy in Guaynabo, a city of 4,000. These days, he\u2019s not just a leadoff hitter and starting left fielder, he\u2019s also a fluent English speaker who takes all of his interviews in his second language, and who serves as a translator in the outfield, relaying communications to center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, the Giants\u2019 27-year-old center fielder who speaks Korean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s learning a lot, but it\u2019s just a matter of him not being shy and just talking,\u201d Ramos said of Lee. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard. He\u2019s from [South] Korea, learning a whole different language and pronunciation and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee understands much of the baseball terminology used by English-speaking coaches, but sometimes relies on Ramos to fill in the gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the season, you just kind of naturally catch up with all of these words because you listen to the same words every single day,\u201d Lee said through Korean interpreter Justin Han. \u201cBut everything resets when you go back to Korea in the offseason and you don\u2019t hear English for a couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoLee, standing in front of translator Justin Han, talks with Giants hitting coach Pat Burrell. | Source: Suzanna Mitchell\/San Francisco Giants via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ramos and Lee are two of the nine players on the Giants\u2019 active roster who grew up speaking a language other than English. A few, such as Lee, conduct every interview using the assistance of a translator. Others, such as Rafael Devers, understand English well enough that they often don\u2019t require questions to be translated, but provide answers in Spanish with the help of translator Erwin Higueros. Then there are players such as Ramos and Willy Adames, who are fully bilingual and handle each interview with American reporters in English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Giants haven\u2019t had three foreign-born players appear in at least 100 games since Pablo Sandoval, Gr\u00e9gor Blanco, and Joaqu\u00edn Ar\u00edas in 2014. This year, they\u2019ll have four \u2014 Ramos, Lee, Adames, and Wilmer Flores \u2014 with Devers just missing the cut after being traded from Boston in the middle of the season.<\/p>\n

Adames signed with the Detroit Tigers out of the Dominican Republic at 16 and debuted in the U.S. two years later with the Western Michigan Whitecaps of the Midwest League. The shortstop barely knew any English when he arrived, leaving him lost on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t just go to the field kind of blind without knowing what\u2019s going on,\u201d Adames said. \u201cI needed to learn to know without having to rely on somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoWhen Willy Adames and Ramos celebrate, they\u2019ll sometimes use English. | Source: Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Joel Peguero, a reliever from the Dominican Republic, said it was his everyday experiences away from the field that motivated him to start learning English.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you\u2019re hungry, you want to go eat something, and that\u2019s not easy,\u201d said Peguero, who made his U.S. debut for a Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 minor league affiliate in Princeton, West Virginia. \u201cYou have to ask in English.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Ramos, Adames, and Peguero, Giants ace Logan Webb made his minor-league debut as a teenager. He enjoyed road trips to small towns around the country, but he knew how hard it was on his peers who didn\u2019t speak English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI took Spanish in high school,\u201d Webb said. \u201cI did all the classes and I really couldn\u2019t say a sentence in Spanish. So the fact that these guys can do an interview now, it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Webb recalls his international teammates taking English classes three times per week in the minor leagues; others let American popular culture act as their teacher. Flores, a Venezuela native who is now bilingual, learned English watching \u201cFriends.\u2019<\/p>\n

Studying the TV is also how 23-year-old Luis Matos, who answers some questions in English and some in Spanish, picks up nuances of the language that aren\u2019t often taught in a classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m at home, and I want to watch something in English, my wife wants to watch something in Spanish,\u201d Matos said. \u201cSo for the most part, it\u2019s usually when I\u2019m on the road, on the plane, that\u2019s when I watch my shows in English.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ALuis Matos is one of many young players in the Giants organization who has picked up English by watching American television shows. | Source: Sara Nevis\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

Ramos is also a \u2018Friends,\u2019 fan, and he recently added \u2018The Steve Harvey Show,\u2019 into his rotation of sitcoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shows have helped Ramos master the English language. Now, he and Adames take pride in being able to translate for their teammates at the game\u2019s most critical moments. If a Spanish-speaking pitcher needs assistance, Adames will jog in from shortstop. If Lee or Matos has a question in the outfield, Ramos will answer in terms they understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use a lot of cuss words,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

The Giants\u2019 bilingual players are so accustomed to speaking English on the diamond that sometimes, they celebrate big moments or highlights by shouting, \u201cLet\u2019s fucking go!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for moments they\u2019d rather forget?<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like when I get mad, it\u2019s in Spanish,\u201d Adames said with a smile.<\/p>\n

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