Roberto Campos had a lot on his shoulders as a teenage baseball phenom — including learning English.
Campos — who spoke without the help of an interpreter — revealed to the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday, March 5 that he used some American pop music to really hone his English skills.
“Thank you, Taylor Swift,” Campos said with a smile while at the Tigers’ spring training in Lakeland, Florida.
Campos, now 21, was only 13 years old when he moved to the United States from his native Cuba to pursue his dream of becoming a professional baseball player.
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When he was 16 years old, he signed a minor league contract with the Detroit Tigers that included a $2.85 million bonus. At the time, it was the largest bonus ever awarded to an international free agent by the franchise.
After signing with the Tigers, Campos was eventually assigned to play minor league baseball for the organization’s High-A West Michigan Whitecaps. The Whitecaps play in suburban Grand Rapids, Michigan, roughly 160 miles northwest of Detroit.
Suffice to say, it was quite the culture shock for Campos.
“My Latino friends said, ‘Hey, bro, you need to learn English because it’s hard when somebody’s talking to you and you don’t understand nothing,’” Campos told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday, March 5 from the Tigers’ spring training in Lakeland, Florida.
So, Campos decided to take matters into his own hands.
The outfielder told the Free Press he watched action movies and comedies on Netflix with the subtitles turned on, set his phone to English and watched videos in an attempt to learn new words.
He added, “It’s awesome. Sometimes I am in my room, and I say, ‘Man, I did it. Because when I get here, I said, ‘I’m never gonna learn English because it’s so hard for me. But now, every time that I can answer a question, I feel great. Man, inside me, I feel like, yeah!”
Campos expressed that his improved ability to communicate with his coaches and teammates has made things much easier and enjoyable for the young athlete.
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“They treat me like I’m one of them,” Campos said. “I feel good every day I come here.”
All of Campos’ hard work away from the field hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Tigers organization — just ask manager A.J. Hinch.
“It’s a good lesson for all of us on patience,” Hinch, 50, told the Free Press. “The acclimation process is not just about learning about baseball. He’s had to learn about living in a different country, in a different language, and interacting with a lot of different people.”
Hinch added, “It only feels like it’s taken a long time because of our lack of patience as an industry, not anything that he has or hasn’t done.”
