Saturday, June 04, 2005

Spanglish and Beisbol

While in Oaxaca, Brian and I attended my first major league baseball game. In this case, it was major league Mexican baseball. The Oaxaca Warriors (stats) against the Yucatan Lions (stats). We arrived about 30 minutes before the Saturday afternoon game started and bought tickets right behind home plate for $5 each. For a few seconds, there was some uncertainty as I tried to figure out how to say "home plate" to the ticket girl. Luckily, she asked if we wanted tickets "atras del home," or behind home. By the end of the game, the stadium was 15% full.

The Spanglish only got worse. Members of the crowd would yell phrases that began in Spanish but ended in English, usually for the postions: "Dejalo catcher!" or "Quita el pitcher!" Also, the Umpires yelled "Ball" and "Strike," like the flashing sign in English in the outfield. I guess if Spanglish is likely to thrive anywhere, it's in Mexican baseball.

I took some photos of the Oaxaca mascot, who posed for me, after fans yelled at him to tell him I was trying to take his picture. (Specifically, they yelled, "Look, the guera is trying to take your picture" in Spanish.) Actually, he rubbed his fingers together first, pretending to ask for money, then posed for the picture.



They also had a wierd secondary mascot for their Banamex (bank) sponsor, who was dressed as a "businessman" and would appear on the field whenever the cheerleaders came out to dance between some of the innings. He actually ended up seeming more like a wierd, puffy pimp.



You can see my Flickr slideshow with other pics, including a couple of the cheerleaders.

Updated: Brian suggested these links. How could I have not thought of that?
Salon de la Fama
Liga Mexicana de Beisbol
Also updated the post above with links to official and stat sites.

posted by Michelle @ 6:24 PM,

2 Comments:

At 6/05/2005 3:44 AM,  Brian said...

Liga Mexicana de Beisbol
Salon de Fama de Beisbol Mexicana

 

At 6/05/2005 10:01 AM,  La Madre said...

yeah, i hang out with a lot of pro latino baseball players (mostly from the dominican republic) and they always say things like "me voy para el play" (I am going to the stadium) or "mi amigo el catcher" what is funny though is that dominicans refer to baseball as just "pelota"

 

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