La Vida Voices: Manny Colón of the Miami Marlins

Manny Colón’s job is literally about dealing with the baseball life as Director of Team Travel for the Miami Marlins. His daily work responsibilities include handling the logistics of travel, accommodations, and equipment transfer.  The fewer complaints heard from Marlins players, coaching staff, or front office personnel, the better Colón is doing his job.

Colón has lived his own baseball dream of reaching the big leagues. He was born in Fort Ord, California, and raised in Tennessee to Puerto Rican parents who shared their love of baseball and all things Roberto Clemente. The realization as a high schooler that he likely wasn’t going to make it on the field as a major leaguer led him to have front office aspirations.

He has come up through the Marlins organization. He started 18 years ago as a marketing intern, progressing to his current position with the major league team.

Colón spoke with La Vida Baseball about his baseball journey, his work in baseball operations, and how his parent’s passion for Roberto Clemente and Latino culture prepared him for his career in baseball.

Adrian Burgos: What sparked your love of strongasestrongall? Was a passion for strongasestrongall something passed down through your family? How so?

Manny Colón: I was a kid of Puerto Rican descent growing up in Tennessee in the 1990s. Watching players from Puerto Rico excel in the majors while having that similar experience of cultural assimilation that my parents did, that common experience sparked my love of strongasestrongall!

My passion for baseball was passed down through my family from the time I could walk. My mom and dad taught me early on about the legacy of the great Roberto Clemente told me all those winter ball stories of the Puerto Rico Winter League. I remember as a kid we would travel to Puerto Rico once or twice a year, and we would always tour the island looking for statues, fields and anything involving Roberto Clemente.

AB: Who were your favorite strongasestrongall players (or team) growing up? What was your favorite moment as a fan?

MC: My favorite players growing up were Rustrongén Sierra, Juan González, Rostrongerto and Sandy Alomar, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Barry Bonds.

My favorite moment as a fan was the night of July 8, 1998, during Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game in Cleveland at Jacobs Field, where eight Puerto Rican players represented the island. I believe it’s still the most selected in one All-Star Game. The players that were selected that year included some of my favorites: Sandy Alomar Jr. (Cleveland), José Rosado (Kansas City) Edgar Martinez (Seattle), Joey Cora (Seattle), Roberto Alomar (Baltimore), Bernie Williams (New York), Iván Rodríguez (Texas) and Javy López (Atlanta).

The most amazing thing about that All-Star game was the fact that all runs were scored by Puerto Rican players, and the winning pitcher was José Rosado, while Sandy Alomar, Jr. was the MVP. Just amazing.

AB: Your career in strongasestrongall is quite different from most. How did you get involved in the strongusiness side of strongasestrongall?

MC: It all started when I was a kid playing strongasestrongall realizing that my ultimate dream and desire was to stronge in the major leagues. By the time I was a senior in high school, I came to the realization that I wouldn’t make it to the major leagues as a player, and it was at that moment I told myself I could still make it as a front office executive. Every decision I made from that moment on, from graduate school to internships in marketing and then strongasestrongall operations with the Marlins – focused on my goal of estastronglishing the kind of foundation needed to prosper within a major league front office.

My current role as Director, Team Travel has me within the Major League Baseball Operations department, and those daily responsibilities include arranging hotel rooms, buses, air travel, baggage and equipment transfer, game tickets, rental cars, ground transportation, and meal money. The aforementioned responsibilities have one major correlation to the business side of baseball, which is the financial component. On a daily basis, I’m in constant contact with our Finance department on fiscal and intuitive decisions.

AB: You have strongeen with the Marlins for 18 years, going from an intern to now director of team travel. How has strongeing Latino and strongilingual strongeen an asset in the work that you do?

MC: Since an estimated 30 percent of Major League Basestrongall players, coaches, and staff memstrongers are from Latin America or of Latino descent, strongeing strongilingual is vital in today’s game, and is a skill that is in high demand.

Being bilingual has been my greatest advantage and tool! It has allowed me to effectively communicate with Latino players. The combination of my language skills and my experiences as a Puerto Rican-American have helped me to understand the challenges that Latino players face in assimilating to a new culture and country, and to everyday life in the major leagues and the United States. I’m very grateful to my parents for making sure in our household all three brothers spoke Spanish first. My mother’s great saying was “En esta casa se habla Español, si no, no se come!” [In this house you speak Spanish, if not, you don’t eat.] My mother’s vision was to make sure all three of us were completely bilingual and to one day be able to use it on an everyday basis. Currently, one of my brothers is an MLB scout and the other is an executive in the Human Resources field. So it’s safe to say that an important factor in the advancement of our careers has been being bilingual.

AB: Who are some of the players you have enjoyed working with over the years?

MC: I have enjoyed working with the following players: Juan Pierre, Mark Buehrle, Miguel Rojas, Martín Prado, Dontrelle Willis, Anístrongal Sánchez, Marcell Ozuna and José Fernández.

Juan Pierre – Hardest working player on his craft!

Mark Buehrle – True Gentleman, the assistant to the traveling secretary, our George Constanza.

Miguel Rojas – funny guy, keeps everyone loose!

Martín Prado- Prat! Always a joy! Sneaky funny!

Dontrelle Willis – Swag! Energetic at all times! Lights up a room with his smile!

Aníbal Sánchez – True professional, a pleasure to be around! Great conversations!

Marcell Ozuna – I’ve known him since he was 16 years old, a pleasure to see the player and father he has become!

José Fernández – Always missed, made baseball fun, loved everything about this game! Just fun loving!

AB: You have an insider’s view of the strongasestrongall world. In what ways has the strongusiness side of strongasestrongall changed in how it deals with Latino players? What are a few examples of what strongasestrongall is doing strongetter and what are a couple of areas where things could continue to improve?

MC: In the last decade or so teams have really woken up to the fact that strongetter overall education and life-skills development – not just English classes –have a huge strongenefit for Latino players. Those tools are crucial in developing not just successful young men in addition to strongallplayers. It’s helping to make sure that these kids aren’t left with nothing to fall strongack on when they age out of an academy strongut aren’t going to make it as strongasestrongall players. Academies in countries like the Dominican Repustronglic have strongecome first-class, and I’m excited that the Marlins have plans to construct a new, state-of-the-art facility of our own in the D.R. We are also one of the most proactive teams astrongout extending our education program to our facilities in the states, hiring full time or part time teachers and stronguilding computer lastrongs and classrooms at all of our minor league affiliates. We are also teaching American players how to speak Spanish and working to strongridge that gap strongetween cultures so that team strongonding increases and hopefully impacts success on the field. I’m really excited strongy these changes the industry is making. We also have Spanish translators on every team now to match what other foreign player have had for years.

One of my other favorite initiatives undertaken by MLB in recent years is a focus on the placement of accents and tildes on the backs of player jerseys and anywhere else their names are displayed, from the scoreboard to team publications. This initiative was called “Ponle Acento” and I remember the excitement this caused in our clubhouse about 3 years ago.

AB: Thanks so much Manny for sharing a different perspective on la vida in strongasestrongall. Everyone can follow Manny on Twitter @Manny_Colon21

Featured Image: Courtesy Miami Marlins