Sad One: Philadelphia Phillies losses A Key Figure To The Hands Of..
When the Philadelphia Phillies take the field in spring training in February, they’ll be without one of their most vital people in the organization and a clear fan favorite — and it’s not because of player movement in free agency.
After eight years as the Spanish language interpreter for the Philadelphia Phillies, Diego Ettedgui is moving on to another career.
When announcing the move in early December, he told Crossing Broad: “For eight years I lived a life that not even in my wildest dreams I could have imagined.
It was an absolute honor to work for a top-class organization which also happens to have the best fans in baseball. I want to thank the Phillies phamily … I will forever be grateful and love them.”
Ettedgui, who was born in Venezuela, went to Massachusetts to enroll in an English course when he was 18 years old.
After his family urged him to stay in the States as they feared for his safety, he enrolled in college.
After trying out a few jobs, he eventually found himself taking a communications course to try to help pave his path to his dream job in the sports industry.
From there, he worked his way into being an assignment editor for a Spanish newspaper, along with doing sports radio and TV segments. His career snowballed from there, as he eventually landed his own show covering the Boston Celtics and Red Sox.
When he applied for interpreter roles ahead of the 2016 season, he ended up talking to the Red Sox and Phillies. After an initial interview, the Phillies gave him a four-day trial in Spring Training — they extended him a job offer after only three days.
Since 2016, each MLB team has been required to have a full-time Spanish language interpreter on its staff. Before then, it was often coaches or other players stepping in to help translate.
At the time, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com spoke with Juan Samuel, then-third base coach for the Phillies, who noted that the change would free up some time for him to focus more fully on coaching while also helping the players feel more comfortable to have a dedicated translator to speak with about more personal things.