Stereotyping Ballplayers

[MFS62]

I forget where I first read it. It was either in Bouton's Ball Four or Brosnan;s The Long Season.

"Latin American ballplayers are all first ball, fastball hitters". Once I read that, I began to take notice.

We;ve read the quotes:
Ralph Kiner "The toughest thing to do in baseball is walk Tony Pena".
"You can't walk off the island"

Have you seen anything so far in the WBC, or just in watching ball games over the years, that would challenge that stereotype? Do you think the OBP skills of Latin American players improved since GMs and fans have started to take notice of that stat? Or was it a false impression in the first place?

Later

[Guest sharpie]

I remember Tommy Lasorda saying something about how all Latin American hitters like to swing away.

Probably had to do with the baseball culture in Latin America in the '60's and '70's. I don't think it is true anymore.

[seawolf17]

I guess there are still guys who fit the stereotype: look at Vlad Guerrero and Soriano, who will swing at anything. I'm sure there are plenty of non-Latin ballplayers who fit that description, though.

[Willets Point]

Seawolf, time to swap out Bono and put in Mother Torresa..

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, in fairness, Kiner didn't say, "The toughest thing to do in baseball is walk a Latino." So he's not really sterotyping.

"You can't walk off the island" is a saying ascribed to Dominican baseballers themselves and it says as much if not more aboout US scouts --- that they're looking for players who hit, not walk --- than about about the players themselves.

[Frayed Knot]

I think it (Latin=free swinging) was initially true as a generalization.
Figure that the majority of "early" Latin ballplayers learned the game under much less structured circumstances than did American kids. It's not a league/school sport in the Caribbean it's a street/pickup game which likely had the same sort of ump/ref-less free-lancing as street hoops does here; 'no blood, no foul' simply gets replaced by 'swing the effin bat'. Tony Olvia once talked about learning from his father that 'if you can reach it you can hit it'. I think that sort of mentality prevailed, maybe even enhanced by throwing in a bit of 'walking is for sissies' Latin machismo on the side.

Now, I suspect that team-run Latin academies and extensive scouting have probably changed that until it more closely resembles American ball today.