������Ƶ

Add another name to the baseball pipeline that runs from UTampa to the major leagues.

That’s Daniel Park ’22. Although Park never played baseball for the Spartans, who have sent nine players to the majors, he already is with his fourth big-league team. Park currently works as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Korean-language interpreter, primarily translating for fellow South Korea native Ji Hwan Bae, a promising young outfielder.

“It’s a dream job,” said Park, who earned a sport management degree at UTampa. “I’m there every day from the start of spring training through the end of the season. I get to watch baseball games pretty much every day.”

Like players who frequently jump from team to team, so do interpreters. Park’s first stint in the major leagues came while he still was a student. Park, who learned English while attending an international school in South Korea, did a spring-training internship with the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater.

Soon after graduation, Park landed his first full-time job with the Tampa Bay Rays. There, he worked as the interpreter for South Korean first baseman Ji Man Choi. When Choi was traded to the Pirates after the 2022 season, Park packed his bags and headed to Pittsburgh. A few months later, Choi was traded to the San Diego Padres, and Park went along. But that was only temporary. The Pirates offered Park a chance to come back to Pittsburgh to work with Bae at the start of the 2024 season.

It didn’t take long for Park to grow close to Bae, helping break down language barriers as Bae got settled into Pittsburgh. The two even lived in the same apartment building and traveled to and from the ballpark together.

To the outside world, the primary role of an interpreter may seem like that of a media translator. But Park said the job is more than that.

“I'm with Ji Hwan all the time,” Park said. “I’m there in the training room to translate medical terms between him and the trainers. I’m at the batting cage during batting practice helping him communicate with the coaches. I’m there in the dugout with him in case the manager or the coaches want to say something to him. I sit in on the hitters’ advance meetings and translate the scouting reports on the opposing pitchers. I travel with the team and Ji Hwan, and I try to find authentic Korean restaurants in every city for us to eat. 

“My job is to make the language barrier easier for him on the field. But I feel like my obligation is more than that, and I help him off the field when he needs it. He’s a friend, and I want to see him do well.”

For now, Park is content in his role. But his birds-eye view of the baseball world has allowed him to see possibilities for the future.

“There are lots of jobs within a baseball organization,” Park said. “With the connections I’ve made and what I’ve learned about pro baseball, I’d like to move into a front-office job someday.”