PHOENIX, AZ — I met Freddy Peralta in the Milwaukee Brewers’ locker room during Spring Training this week as his locker was close to Joey Ortiz’ locker who I had just interviewed a few minutes earlier. He had heard some of my presentation on the history and the prestigious nature of this LatinoMVP award that is now celebrating its 35th anniversary. Thus, I just had to review a few items in Spanish with him as he is Spanish dominant and my interview with Joey was English aa Joey was English dominant.
The following is a brief overview of that interview.
LS – Freddy as perhaps you heard me say to Joey, I came from New York to interview you guys for being on the prestigious LatinoMVP ballot that is celebrating its 35th anniversary. So now that you know the history of these awards what do you think about that history?
FP – I believe they (the awards) are important because you know many times, we Latinos bring a certain game that sometimes is not recognized. You know we come to this country to play and as some might say, we come here to take away the job (position) of another player, also sometimes the people who vote for the major awards are not really that responsible. They perhaps vote for the name and popularity of the player, where I believe that these awards take all Latino players into account.
LS – Now follow-up to that question, what do you think of having an award exclusively for Latino players?
FP – I think that’s very important, good. It an added prestige. It’s a beautiful thing when you see your name next to other Latino players that have been dedicating themselves as well to the game doing their job, so I see it to be quite well.
LS – If you were to win this award it would be given to you in September during Hispanic Heritage Month in your home stadium in front of your fans and family. What would be your thoughts on that.
FP – That would be a moment of pride. Number one, I would feel good winning the award. I would be very proud of the Latino community as I know many of them would also feel pride as they would know that we are representing for all. It sounds like something that would be beautiful, I wish that it could happen.
LS – We congratulate you on this honor of being on the ballot. Because as we have heard from so many players in the past, they believed that if not for this award they would have not been recognized.
FP – Thank you.
After the interview we gave Freddy a commemorative T-shirt that was specifically designed just or the players that appeared on the ballot. When he saw the shirt, his eyes opened wide, and he said that is a very nice shirt and immediately hung it up in his locker with his street clothes.
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