BRONX, NY – The Yankees held their third annual Hispanic Heritage Media Day ahead of Wednesday’s game versus the Tigers, where they honored and celebrated the many outlets and various media that cover the Yankees in some fashion. I was privileged to have been a part of this on behalf of “Con Las Bases Llenas”, who produces Spanish language content for yankeesbeisbol.com.
The day began with being greeted with an exclusive Yankees hat, emblazoned with an embroidered logo, as we entered the building.
The media then had a press conference with Max Fried. Kudos to Yankees translator, Marlon Abreu, for the incredibly hard work put in today to run a lot of the events on Wednesday, in addition to having to translate questions and answers to both the media and those involved in the press conferences.
Max Fried noted the following about playing with Hispanic players, “Baseball has opened me up to a whole different culture and just a whole different type of way and living. Being able to get to know a lot of different Latin players from different parts of the world. It’s a very eye-opening experience. Just the respect that I have for the Latin players of coming to a new country, not understanding the language, and then also having to perform and work all while being comfortable not being away from your family in a new environment, so from that, I have the utmost respect for all of these guys for being able to do that. Giving themselves and their families, hopefully, a much better life. On top of that, I grew up in Los Angeles in California, so, Mexican food was something that was very… a big staple for me, but, to be, to have a lot more different types of Latin food, whether some food from Dominican, Venezuela, Cuba, I can eat it every day (the crowd chuckled). I love chicken, rice and beans, I love sweet plantains. Everywhere we go, there’s definitely Latin food around, so for me, I eat it a lot more than the typical American food.”
On a more light-hearted note, Fried was asked if he’d like to be the cover athlete for the next MLB: The Show, “I do love video games. I think it would be… it’s not something I would ever expect or want. I think it would be cool, but, I think there’s a lot of really great players that definitely are deserving of those honors, too.” Fried was asked about fantasy football, where he stated that he chose Falcons RB Bijan Robinson. When asked how he’s doing, he said, “Week 1 – it’s early.”
Aaron Boone was shortly then made available, where he was asked the typical questions you’d ask a manager with a team that has been struggling of late.
The group was then guided out to the field where the Yankees briefly held a few group interviews with INF Amed Rosario, INF/OF Jose Caballero and Luis Rojas, the latter of which was only briefly made available.
The Yankees then held a roundtable with some recognizable names in Spanish language media, which was hosted by the Spanish voice of the Yankees, Rickie Ricardo. The roundtable also included ESPN Deportes reporter Enrique Rojas, MLB Network Analyst Yonder Alonso, MLB Network Reporter Jon Morosi and Telemundo Reporter Verónica Contreras.
The roundtable was fascinating to be in attendance for, as one of the things discussed was the disappearance of not only Spanish language sports media, but sports media as a whole in the United States. Considering the disappearance of various newspapers and various mergers over the years, a lot of content has been pushed to app-only. Rickie Ricardo in fact noted that Audacy, his employer for Yankees in Spanish, doesn’t broadcast over-the-air anymore, and much of the Spanish language calls and commentary are disappearing. Enrique Rojas noted how things have been changing for the better, then for the worse, with ESPN, saying that despite the size of ESPN (via their owner, Disney), ESPN Deportes Radio doesn’t exist anymore. In fact, a lot of his content (interviews, etc.) has been filmed on an iPad or iPhone that’s mounted to a tripod.
The Hispanic media was then treated to a catered menu with a Latin flair, curated by Dominican native chef Carlos Monegro: rabo encendido (ox-tail), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas; it tasted like the Puerto Rican-style), paella (saffron rice with mussels, squid and octopus), some kind of chicken (I didn’t eat it), tostones (plantain “cookies” is the best way to describe it), yuca fries, and a variety of desserts. I chose an incredible flan de parcha (passion fruit flan). I’m not a fan of flans, typically, but this one was out of this world.
Overall, the Yankees treated the Spanish language media with grace and did a spectacular job with everything. The roundtable was indeed the highlight of the day, as head of Yankees PR, Jason Zillo, noted ahead of the event starting.
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