Elly De La Cruz Teaches Francona

 

Elly De La Cruz is still learning in the Major Leagues but now he has a teaching assignment. 

Terry Francona sat with De La Cruz for 20 minutes on Thursday and the skipper gave him an assignment. Teach me one Spanish word or phrase each day.  

The first phrase is Nunca te rindas or never give up.

Francona had to look it up on his cell phone but nailed it in his Pennsylvania accent.

Now it's Francona’s turn to further De La Cruz baseball education.

“I talked to him yesterday and it was fun,” Francona said. “I went home thinking it was a good day because of that.”

So what does De La Cruz need to do to take steps forward?

“With young players as they accumulate at bats, they get to that 1,200 (1,123 for De La Cruz), you see them grow. The game slows down for good players. The messaging is that the game slows down but you don’t play at a slower pace. It makes it easier for them to make better decisions. That’s what you want to let them do. We’ve got a lot of guys who can run. We don’t want to take that away. We want them running like their pants on fire but also being intelligent. Sometimes that’s kind of a challenge but that’s what they want them to do.”

The talent of De La Cruz is off the charts but he is still learning as his talent brought him to a higher level than most players, earlier.

“It’s not just here. It’s everywhere the good players are brought up quickly and that’s o.k. You just have to be a little because there’s going to be some mistakes. They are going to see stuff at the major league level that they’ve never seen before. That’s part of it. When you’re that ultra talented you can out run some of your mistakes in the minor leagues that you can’t necessarily do here.”

The good thing about De La Cruz is that he wants to be good. He works hard to be good. Now coaching takes effect to allow him to fine tune his skills.

“I told him I want you to be the best player in baseball on the best team in baseball. He got a big smile on his face.”

“Then I told him I want you to teach me one Spanish word or phrase every day.  I don’t think it’s fair (for the young Spanish players). He does a great job in English which is to be commended because it’s not easy. If he can teach me something every day, he’s a star.”

Francona copped to not having a command of spanish after being around latin players, all these years.

“I know the word but I don’t know how to put them in sentences,” Francona said with a colorful modifier. “And with my western Pennsylvania accent some of the things I say don’t sound right to them.”

He played in Venezuela one winter after he made it to the big leagues.

“I would nod my head but I had no idea what they were saying. So now you think about a 19-year old kid coming here. That’s got to be hard. That’s not their fault. I try to tell those guys that. I don’t want that to be an impediment. I tell them if they don’t know, ask somebody.”

De La Cruz was eager to learn. Last spring he told the team translator that he wanted to talk on his own.

“I give him credit for that,” Francona said. “He’s not afraid. He wanted to learn. He said his girlfriend has helped him a ton. I think the guy who learns helps him not only in life but it slows the game down for them.”

“I told Jose Ramirez, I feel bad Josy but I can’t help you. I want to help you but I can’t. Fortunately for him, he kind of figured things out in more than one language.”