Despite playing with many Latin American players and speaking a modicum of Spanish, Piazza felt there was a “weird kind of Hispanic conspiracy” against him by some players. He admits that this sounds paranoid, but he cites negative comments made against him and the times he was hit by Latino pitchers as evidence of a clash of cultures leading to bad vibes on both sides.
Piazza says some Latin players seem to hold the view that their lower socio-economic backgrounds exempts them from having to adopt American culture. He strongly believes that it’s up to the Latin players to learn English and not on the American players to learn Spanish. The difference with Asian players, who sometimes have translators in tow, is that there are so few of them relatively speaking that without interpreters, they would be virtually isolated. The Latin players, on the other hand, are surrounded by many other Spanish speakers. Plus, Piazza argues, no other players are more catered to than the Latin Americans. Major League Baseball, he argues, goes to “great lengths” to prepare them for successful careers in the US.
