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Can You Hear Me Now? Foreign Players Try to Keep in Touch
By Steve Argeris
As the New Haven pitching staff played catch in the outfield before yesterday's game at Prince George's Stadium, Bowie Baysox third baseman Ivanon Coffie strolled up, ostensibly to warm up, but actually just to chat.
Dominican-born Juan Pena tried to keep up with Coffie and Diego Markwell's conversation, but an impromptu switch from Spanish to Papiamentu, the language of Coffie and Markwell's native Curacao, left him behind.
"Yeah, we're pretty much the translators for a lot of the guys," said the Ravens' Markwell, who, like Coffie, and most baseball players from the Dutch Antilles, is a walking Rosetta Stone. "We grow up speaking Papiamentu, school is taught in Dutch, and they start teaching you English and Spanish in the fourth grade. You don't really have a choice to drop them until you get to college."
For both, the Ravens-Baysox three-game series this week was a rare treat, a chance to play against each other for the first time since Little League.
"It was a big rivalry, the north side of the island against the south," said Markwell, who is three years younger than the 26-year-old Coffie. "I played for the south side, he played for the north. Then he got signed, which was a big deal."
Markwell estimates there are around a dozen Curacao-born players in the American ranks, including Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones, and he keeps a close tab on most of them. "We exchange cell phone calls all the time. It's great to get a chance to play against him, great to get a chance to speak your language and have someone else understand you."
The teams first played in early June, just after Coffie rejoined the Baltimore Orioles organization after a two-year absence.
"The last time I played against him, I must have been 15," Coffie said.
Coffie singled in his first at-bat against his old friend. After both called home that night, Markwell felt like the whole island knew by midnight.
"Aw, yeah, he got me, but I got him out too, later on," Markwell said. "So we're even."
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By Steve Argeris
As the New Haven pitching staff played catch in the outfield before yesterday's game at Prince George's Stadium, Bowie Baysox third baseman Ivanon Coffie strolled up, ostensibly to warm up, but actually just to chat.
Dominican-born Juan Pena tried to keep up with Coffie and Diego Markwell's conversation, but an impromptu switch from Spanish to Papiamentu, the language of Coffie and Markwell's native Curacao, left him behind.
"Yeah, we're pretty much the translators for a lot of the guys," said the Ravens' Markwell, who, like Coffie, and most baseball players from the Dutch Antilles, is a walking Rosetta Stone. "We grow up speaking Papiamentu, school is taught in Dutch, and they start teaching you English and Spanish in the fourth grade. You don't really have a choice to drop them until you get to college."
For both, the Ravens-Baysox three-game series this week was a rare treat, a chance to play against each other for the first time since Little League.
"It was a big rivalry, the north side of the island against the south," said Markwell, who is three years younger than the 26-year-old Coffie. "I played for the south side, he played for the north. Then he got signed, which was a big deal."
Markwell estimates there are around a dozen Curacao-born players in the American ranks, including Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones, and he keeps a close tab on most of them. "We exchange cell phone calls all the time. It's great to get a chance to play against him, great to get a chance to speak your language and have someone else understand you."
The teams first played in early June, just after Coffie rejoined the Baltimore Orioles organization after a two-year absence.
"The last time I played against him, I must have been 15," Coffie said.
Coffie singled in his first at-bat against his old friend. After both called home that night, Markwell felt like the whole island knew by midnight.
"Aw, yeah, he got me, but I got him out too, later on," Markwell said. "So we're even."
Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A33812-2003Jun25&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle
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