“Names”

After almost 20 years of sports broadcasting surely I have heard and pronounced, or mispronounced, just about every name imaginable. I still remember my first broadcast with my buddy Russell Register back in December 1990. It was a basketball game between Marianna and Walton County. The Braves had a pair of twins on the team that were obviously of Polish ancestry. I was already nervous enough, but trying to pronounce their names was more than I could handle. By the end of the game I was simply calling the pair by their first names.
Over the years I have continually been surprised to see, and then have to learn, names that I have never seen before. I’d like to think that I have gotten better at pronouncing the names but I will tell you that some sports, like girl’s basketball, still routinely present a challenge.
As our broadcast crew (myself, Russell, Sandy Westmoreland and Mike Miller) drove down last week to Auburndale for the FCCAA State Softball tournament numerous topics were discussed. During a discussion about major league baseball I jokingly professed my disdain for Japanese baseball players. I told them my disdain is not about their playing ability, but rather about the difficulty in trying to pronounce their names. We all had a good laugh and drove on.
Upon arrival at the state tournament, the Executive Director of Deep South Sports Broadcasting (Russell Register) assigned me to do all the Miami Dade broadcast. He figured that with my marriage to a lady of Hispanic decent and my travels last summer in Nicaragua, I was the best suited to handle all the Hispanic names of the Miami-Dade roster. No problem I said.
A quick glance at the Miami Dade roster had me shaking my head in disbelief. Who would ever figure four Japanese Brazilians were on the team. There last names were spelled Miyahira, Suetsugu, Fukunishi and Morimoto. I went to their coach for help with the names. He barely spoke English, so he sent me to the assistant coach. She spoke English but with a Spanish accent as thick as a brick. She did the best she could and so did I. I then wrote their names as much as I could like they were pronounced. They came out something like this: Me–yah-hair-uh, Sweat-sue-goo, Fu-ka-knee-chee and More-e-moto.
With the fast paced game of softball, just imagine my North Florida drawl trying to spit out “ground ball to Sweat-sue-goo, she throws over to Fu-ku-knee-chee and she comes home to More-e-moto”. The folks from Miami Dade that watched on the internet are probably still trying to figure out which mountain I came down from. I know one thing, no more joking about Japanese names. Simply Put, I can always count on a few names just around the corner to keep me humble.
From the Front Porch: Uncle Bob said if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.