LPGA could learn from baseball, basketball

Technically, it is not a "Latino" issue.

The fact that the Ladies Professional Golf Association wants to pressure its members into speaking English has more of an effect on the many Asian women (particularly from Korea) who try to play golf professionally in this country.

BUT THE NOTION that, somehow, English is a demand to swing a golf club at a quality level is just a bit ridiculous.

LPGA officials defend their actions by saying that they have many business deals to promote the financial well being of the sport, and that includes having the ladies who golf be made available for promotional events and possible endorsements.

If their English is not fluent, association officials say, then they cannot fully participate.

Uh Uh. It doesn’t work that way.

PERHAPS IT IS because I am such a fan of professional baseball in the United States, which in the past decade has adopted such a Latin American flavor that Spanish is virtually a Second Language in ballparks across the country. And now, the languages of Asia (particularly Japanese) are becoming a part of the mix.

The example set by baseball is that the American and National leagues, the U.S.-based professional leagues that like to think of themselves as the elite level of the sport, are accepting of the many languages as an example of the game’s universal nature (even if those funky Europeans don’t quite “get it”).

While Spanish-speaking ballplayers who are signed by U.S. teams at a young age and developed at the established minor league levels of play are encouraged to learn English as a second language in order to make their daily lives easier, no one seriously thinks they have to give up their old tongue in order to play. Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels certainly hasn’t.

Let’s just say that any baseball person who does seriously believe the game should be “English Only” would get written off as a crackpot whose actions affect the athletic bottom line – winning on the playing field.

WHY CAN’T WOMEN’S professional golf in this country realize that instead of viewing these non-U.S. citizen golfers as an obstacle to be overcome in reaching U.S. markets, they are an opportunity to take the U.S. golf game on a global scale?

The LPGA ought to be trying to figure out how to market themselves in a way to get the attention of the growing non-Anglo population of this country (many of whom are Asian and might feel some attraction and need to pay attention to such ethnic golfers).

There’s also the chance of using these athletes to try to appeal to consumers back in their home countries. It’s not a ridiculous concept.

Professional baseball in this country markets itself in various Latin American countries so that many fans of the game there tend to think of the U.S.-based Major League Baseball as being more significant than the professional leagues of their home countries.

IN JAPAN, THE U.S. leagues have their partnerships with some of the teams in the Japan-based professional leagues, and baseball’s focus these days is trying to move into China – hoping to find more quality ballplayers and fans to pay attention to the games played back in the U.S. (thereby increasing international television attention, purchases of ball caps and other souvenirs, etc.)

If anything, baseball lags behind the National Basketball Association when it comes to promoting itself in Asia. The existence of Yao Ming makes China a fertile market for the NBA. Top U.S. teams take on an international flavor, and figure out how to make money in the process.

Because in the end, that is what many of the people who often tout talk of the “American Way of Life” think it is supposed to be about. Capitalism. Making money.

Coming up with policies that would discourage top quality golfers from wanting to come and compete in the United States is only going to lower the quality of play, which in the long run will reduce the amount of interest that the business community pays to the women’s professional game. That reduces its potential for profitability.

THINK OF IT this way. U.S. baseball has maintained its status as the elite level of the game in large part because it is accepting its developing international character.

If it seriously tried to maintain some sort of English-only mentality amongst its ball clubs, it would become something akin to the Cuban League and the Cuban national team – which touts its nationalism above all else and thinks of itself as being legendary in the game’s history.

But while the Cubans win many international tournaments, it is usually against lesser competition. Who’s to say how those ball clubs would hold up over the length of a full season against international-influenced U.S. competition? Despite Cuba’s near victory in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, nobody seriously believes they are the game’s best.

Does women’s professional golf in this country really want to reduce itself to the level of Team Cuba?

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Mixed views are expressed by fans of women’s professional golf (http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/63551/) in the United States.

One hundred twenty one international players (45 of whom are from South Korea) are potentially affected (http://www.golfweek.com/print/lpga-english-news-082508/) by the Ladies Professional Golf Association attempt to require all its members to be fluent in the English language.