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PC twitter is up in arms because of what former Phillies' 3rd basemen Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt said about the prospect of the Phillies building around outfielder Odubel Herrera. Herrera is from Venezuela and does not speak English.
“My honest answer to that would be no because of a couple of things. First of all, it’s a language barrier. Because of that, I think he can’t be a guy that would sort of sit in a circle with four, five American players and talk about the game. Or try and learn about the game or discuss the inner workings of the game. Or come over to a guy and say, ‘Man, you gotta run that ball out.’ Just can’t be—because of the language barrier—that kind of a player.”
Shockingly, twitter did not love what he had to say.
Snowflake twitter is acting like Mike Schmidt is Al Campanis over here. Twitter today is a place where everybody just wants a pat on the back from their like-thinking peers instead of being real. In fears of the mob coming after you. Everybody is bashing the 67 year old for saying that team leaders need to speak English to be able to communicate with their teammates. For the record I'm not even a big Mike Schmidt guy. Obviously he's an all time great, but I never saw him play. I don't agree with everything he thinks. Like he was bashing Herrera for being a "flashy" player earlier, which is something I hate. I love when guys play with a little flare, it's way better for the game. I don't agree with the old man takes about playing the game "the right way". While I agree, saying that you can't build around foreign players is an idiotic statement. Just look at World Series champs of recent years. The Red Sox have won three World Series thanks to David Ortiz and guys like Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, and Koji Uehera. The Cardinals won two World Series thanks to the bat of Albert Pujols. The Royals rotation in 2015 featured Johnny Cueto, and Yordano Ventura. He didn't entirely say that you can't be foreign, he just thinks speaking English is important for a leadership role in the clubhouse. To say you have to be English speaking is simply not entirely true. But you know what, it sure does help. David Ortiz has said that he learned English because his father said it was a good idea for the sake of his career. Now in Major League Baseball there is a large group of Spanish speaking players so of course speaking Spanish is an asset at times. It helps to speak Spanish so you can communicate with them. But guess what it also helps to speak English so you can communicate with the majority of the team. I don't care if you think I'm wrong in what I'm about to say: you should speak English if you are playing baseball professionally in the United States of America. I don't understand why thinking that somehow makes you a bigot. Are the Montreal Canadiens bigots because they prefer a French speaking coach? If I moved to Germany, guess what, I'd probably have to learn German to get by. Same goes for pretty much any country that doesn't have English as it's major language. If I lived in Russia (lol I'll never step foot in that Godforsaken land, but just go with me) I'd probably need to learn Russian to get around. I don't understand why this concept is so tough to grasp. Sure, guys have been able to speak in the clubhouse via translators for years, but it isn't the same as a face to face conversation. If you don't know the language of the translator your words could be changed without you knowing. That was basically the entire plot of an episode of the Netflix series "Love". It's just a whole lot easier if everybody is on the same page. Now I guess you're a bigot if you believe that. That kinda sucks. I think that's what Mike Schmidt was trying to say. It's a lot easier when the leader of a team can speak English so he can communicate with the majority of the team about everyday stuff. Maybe he is a racist, but I really don't think that quote shows that. Sure he could've been more eloquent in what he said, but I'd like to think people with brains could read between the lines a little. If I go into your house, I have to follow your rules. If you have a job in a foreign country, you should probably learn the language.
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