How important is it for a reporter covering Major League Baseball to be able to speak Spanish?

Is it important?

I’ve spent some time in baseball clubhouses. It is a place where about one in four players comes from somewhere outside of the United States. They are from Latin America, Asia and even places like Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.

There are guys who are difficult for English-speaking Americans to communicate with. That’s the reality. Many of them learn English pretty well — Francisco Liriano was tough to communicate with as a rookie, but his English is pretty good now.

So here’s the interesting story: Jerry Brewer from The Seattle Times is going to try to learn Spanish. His goal is to be able to conduct an interview by the end of this season in Spanish.

It’s kind of a cool story. We’ll see if he can learn the language and if it helps him as a journalist.