The Cincinnati Enquirer has an article about how Latin players adjust to baseball life. Pretty interesting stuff. It mentions that Paul Janish can speak Spanish.
Shortstop Paul Janish, like Bruce a Caucasian who grew up in Texas, has more background with Latinos than the average player. Janish grew up in Houston, where the Hispanic population is more than 2.1 million, about the same as the population for the entire Cincinnati metro area (2,155,137 as of 2008).
"I took Spanish in high school, and my mom is fluent in Spanish," Janish said. "I try to talk to them (Latin teammates) as much as I can because it helps me out, too. I'm better at understanding it than I am speaking it."
Janish sometimes falls behind when trying to speak with Latino teammates in Spanish.
"I can usually pick up what they're saying, unless they're speaking amongst themselves and going real fast and there's a lot of slang," Janish said. "That's tough. But I think I get as much out of it as maybe they do. It goes both ways."
Janish is getting a rare start at SS tonight. And the game is airing nationally (on ESPN).
Labels: Paul Janish
