The Red Sox color commentator for their Spanish radio broadcast J.P. Villaman died in a car accident earlier this week. I never heard of him until this week, but it sounds like he was a great ambassador for the game of baseball. Tragedies like these put things in perspective. Maybe I shouldn't get to upset when the Sox leave too many people on base.
On a side note, what makes this story interesting to me is it demonstrates the Hispanic influence on baseball. I work with children, and most English speaking children do not care about baseball. However, because of players like Pedro, Sosa, and Ortiz and broadcasters like Villaman, baseball is tremendously popular in the Hispanic population. Smart teams are taking advantage of this fact, and working to market the game to these fans. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that selling baseball to the Hispanic population is vital to baseball's future because of the drop of interest in English speaking youth towards the game, and the growing Hispanic population.
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