There were more than 250 internationally-born players on Major League Baseball rosters on Opening Day, representing 19 countries. That’s nearly a third of all MLB players.
The Dominican Republic led the way with 104 players, followed by Venezuela, Cuba and Puerto Rico. That means there are a number of different languages spoken in clubhouses and dugouts — from Spanish to English to Japanese.
Brendan O’Connor explores language in baseball in his book “Multilingual Baseball: Language Learning, Identity and Intercultural Communication in the Transnational Game.”
O’Connor is an associate professor in ASU’s School of Transborder Studies, and is trained as a linguist and anthropologist. The Show spoke with him and discussed what got him interested in looking at the different languages in baseball.
