CLEVELAND — We see the hustle and the homers, the smooth play, the steals, the helmet flying off his head as he rounds the bases. We see José Ramírez piling up some of the greatest offensive numbers in Cleveland franchise history and leading the small-market Guardians to the postseason, yet again.
But until recently, about the only thing those who don’t speak Spanish have heard directly from the man himself has come when Guardians on-field reporter Andre Knott asks him what pitch he hit for a home run.
Ramírez, a native of the Dominican Republic, has, for the length of his elite career, only felt comfortable doing his interviews with the help of a translator — typically team interpreter Agustin Rivero.
In September, however, in the midst of his Guardians pulling off the greatest standings comeback in MLB history, this dynamic-but-guarded great began to lessen that language divide.
As the Guardians head into the American League Wild Card Series against the rival Tigers on Tuesday afternoon at Progressive Field, the MVP-caliber player who serves as their heart and soul is beginning to make good on his own personal goal of improving his English and communicating with his many fans.
On Sept. 10, Ramírez did an interview with Knott in which he discussed, in English, his approach to leadership and his love of being a father to three young children.
“Maybe with more experience,” he said in that interview, “I try to be more relaxed and not put a lot of pressure on [myself].”
And when the Guardians clinched a postseason spot in a game broadcast nationally by FOX Sports on Saturday night, Ramírez was interviewed in English on the field by reporter Ken Rosenthal.
“We never quit,” he said of the squad that set a new record by overcoming a 15 1/2-game deficit to win its division. “That’s how we play.”
To be clear, Ramírez, who broke into the big leagues in 2013, has long spoken enough English with teammates and other personnel behind the scenes to get his points — and his quick wit — across.
But becoming fluent in his second language is just another objective for a player who already overcame his poor upbringing and his undersized build to become a potentially Cooperstown-worthy big leaguer.
When asked this week, with Rivero present, why mastering English is so important to him, Ramírez gave a really interesting answer.
“Because,” he said through Rivero, “in the future, who knows? I can be a GM or a manager or a hitting coach.”
This was the first time Ramírez has publicly stated any kind of ambition of staying in the sport, post-playing career. So he was asked if he is serious about that.
At this, he put his hands next to his face, as if he were sleeping. Then he shook his head.
All right, so if José were to become a GM, what sort of team would he build? What sort of baseball values would he hold dear? What sort of players would he prefer?
“I cannot tell you that story now,” he said, smiling, with Rivero’s help, “because the other GMs might take it away from me.”
Fair enough. Ramírez might be reducing the divide between himself and a wider audience, but some things are remaining close to the vest for now.
Still, this magnetic star, who has oozed confidence with his strut and his playing style from the moment he arrived, is clearly growing more comfortable in maybe the only area where he has dealt with some sort of limitation.
Look, Ramírez doesn’t have to speak a lick of English — a language full of contradictions and exceptionally difficult for non-native speakers to nail down — to put up the 30-homer, 30-double, 30-steal seasons that are now his standard.
Nor does he have to speak a lick of English to make an impact on the Cleveland community, as he’s done with his contributions toward José Ramírez Field at Clark Field, an all-turf facility within the state’s largest Hispanic neighborhood that serves as the home park for the local Nike Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program and the Lincoln-West High School Baseball team.
How beloved is José Ramírez around here? He’s still playing, and he already has a street named after him!