Odds and Ends: Dominican Education, Montreal Baseball and the National Post.



Jose Bautista had a piece published on a website called The Players' Tribune (which is Derek Jeter's project) talking about the issues surrounding education and Dominican prospects.

But here’s the difference between you and them: Most of those kids are released back into the world with a sixth grade education — something that is not just unthinkable but illegal in America. What are they supposed to do, go back to sixth grade at age 20? They don’t have any technical skills. They can’t be an electrician or a mechanic. They’ve spent 10 years of their life being only one thing: a baseball player.

Many times, I overheard managers saying that a player was lazy or stubborn, and I was blown away because I knew that baseball was everything to the guy. He just had no idea what he was being asked to do. He didn’t know the manager was telling him to take extra batting practice or do a drill a certain way, and then I’d step in and explain in Spanish and the player would be like, “Oh! Sorry, sorry. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! Better tomorrow.” 
It should be just as important to teams that a 16-year-old Dominican kid can read a book as it is that he can read a sign from the third base coach. 


Crackpot post on Stoeten's site:

The Jose Bautista piece is a must read. Too bad the Player's Tribune makes it seem the subject is the author. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Player's Tribune is Jeter's brainchild, no? Bautista is a very smart person, but I have a hard time believing he wrote and edited the latest issue. Note to the Jetes: No better way to lose credibility than by bull-shitting your audience. Anyone with any knowledge of doping in sport knew the Ortiz was a total puff-piece. Don't cloud real issues addressed in the Bautista piece by making it seem they actually wrote the story.
And later, same dude:
Re Ortiz Bautista: If you actually believe they sat behind a laptop to write the original piece, then you are a far better person than I am. 

I read this and got rather annoyed.  I could see Ortiz maybe dictating his piece about doping. English is Ortiz's second language and he didn't go to college in the States (he was signed out of high school in the Dominican.)  I have no issue with the idea that Ortiz might've dictated his piece. Writing is the trickiest part of learning a language. You understand, you speak and then you write. It certainly sounds like him so I have no doubt that Ortiz was very involved in the process of creating that piece.

I do take issue with the implication that Bautista didn't write his. The thing that people always forget about when it comes to Bautista is that he doesn't have the "straight from the cane fields" story that we associate with most Dominican players. Bautista was upper middle class, from a highly educated family (his mother has a Master's degree) and has been bilingual since he was a kid. Bautista, unlike a lot of Latin players, went to college in the States. He had to write in English to go to college. He probably took the SATs.

Also, Bautista's charity, the Jose Bautista Family Education Fund, addresses some of the issues he brings up in his piece. Bautista knows of what he writes. I actually think Bautista could be a major player in raising the education levels of Latin players and getting the MLB to buy in to better education for the kids they sign.

Bautista takes this issue seriously and I have trouble with the idea that he blew this off and let someone else write it for him. I realise the idiocy on my part of taking umbrage about something some idiot wrote in Stoeten's comment section, but it just stuck in my craw.

I'll also say that the dude who wrote that comment doesn't know what a contributing editor is. A contributing editor is a writer who is freelance, but often has a big following, but isn't a staff writer. It's kind of like a guest star in a tv show. It doesn't mean that the person edited the issue.

More on the subject of education in the Dominican, here is a piece from The Guardian that talks about an art/design school where the rich and the poor study together in La Romana, Dominican Republic (home of Edwin Encarnacion, fyi.)

More Montreal baseball:

Michael Grange writes about the Big O 

Then the suddenly-former head groundskeeper at Olympic Stadium and his team gathered in their locker room and drank, holding their beer the way men do when they know something good is gone. “We did our thing. We tore everything down and we said bye-bye to the stadium and the job,” he says. “We weren’t like the players. We couldn’t leave. We didn’t have a baseball team to go to. I was with the same guys for 24 years. We were a team, but you turn the page and go on with life.”

Look at this tweet from Dave Kaufman. Jonah Keri's face!!!!





Also, I was honoured to be asked to contribute once again to the annual Blogger's Panel the National Post does every year. We all answered all the questions, but they selected what they thought were the best.  I decided to post my answers that weren't included for the sake of completion.

3. Which player will be a pleasant surprise?

It should never be a surprise, but with all the new names floating around, we might forget about José Bautista. He quietly put together a really nice season last year and has looked pretty great this spring. José Bautista will remind us all just who runs this town.

6. Which was a better deal for the Jays: the Josh Donaldson trade or the Russell Martin signing?

This is a nice problem to have. Donaldson is an MVP quality player and with Martin handling the pitching, both deals look promising. They bring different but very necessary traits to the team. Slightly better, just cost-wise, is Donaldson’s deal.

9. If the Jays aren’t in the race in July, what would you do as general manager at the trade deadline?

Start destroying documents and packing that Honda. But don’t trade either Bautista or Encarnación.