La Vida Voices: Ozzie Albies’s Game

As Chipper Jones prepares to join former Atlanta teammates John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine in Cooperstown this summer, the Braves are in the midst of a rebuilding project, and stand hopeful that a new wave of stars will lift the team to its former glory.

Vital to that goal is Ozzie Albies, who, like Chipper’s former teammate Andruw Jones, is a native of Curaçao. The second baseman recently sat with La Vida Baseball for a wide-ranging conversation about adjusting to professional life as a teenager, using his multilingual abilities to bridge language barriers among teammates, and pride in following a path blazed by Andruw Jones.

Ozzie Albies

You’re from Curaçao. To make the jump as a 17-year-old coming to the States, what was the adjustment like?

It was hard the first time leaving my family. My dad had passed away, so I left only my mom, my brother and my grandmother home. But I told them, ‘I have one goal to go for and this is the one chance that I have, so I have to go for it.’

In Curaçao, people speak English, Spanish, Papiamento and Dutch. How does that help you out as a ballplayer in the major leagues now?

It helps me a lot because, everywhere I go, I can communicate. And people always talk to you. They want to know how I learned to speak four languages and I tell them it’s from school. I mean, it’s hard to learn but every day you work on it a little and eventually you’re doing well.

You came from one of the biggest cities in Curaçao, Willemstad, only to end up playing in some of the smallest cities here in the United States in the minor leagues. What was that like? How hard was it to adjust to the U.S.?

One of the first differences I noticed was how cold it gets. Once it got into the 60s, I didn’t like it; at home, it’s always in the 80s! The guys were like, ‘No. This is perfect weather.’ I had to trust cold weather. I can play in the cold now that I’m used to it. I don’t like it, but I’ve got to do it. [laughter]

Curaçao didn’t have many players make it to the major leagues. But one player of note also played for the Atlanta Braves, Andruw Jones. What does Jones mean to you?

It’s awesome for me. He inspired me whenever I saw him on TV, before I signed. I always told my family, I want to be there to represent my island. And it meant a lot seeing him win all of his Gold Gloves. Seeing him from home and how he represented our island was inspiring.

Now there’s a whole group of players from Curaçao in the major leagues. Do you guys talk to each other? Is there any friendly competition?

No, no competition. A lot of us play for different teams, so we just have to keep in contact. If we keep doing a great job, then hopefully we’ll get more people from Curaçao to come play in the major leagues.

What was it like going to the Braves’ farm system as a highly touted prospect? And what advice would you give to the next wave of top prospects?

Yeah. I was considered a top prospect. I tried not to pay attention to it or to let it get to me. All the time, people would talk to me about it and all I could say is, ‘Yeah, I know.’ I don’t want to constantly be thinking, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m a top prospect.’ I just want to play, do my job. Play the game right. The goal was always to be in the majors, so I worked on it and I didn’t care about anything else. To me, if I help the team win and then my dream comes true, I’m just going to keep going and, hopefully, play here for a lot of years.

If you were going to give advice to a young kid in Curaçao about being a ballplayer, what would you tell them?

I would tell them to first finish their school. If you end up getting signed, it’s a really good opportunity for you. You need to have one mind-set and one goal and just go for it. Never look back — keep going. Trust yourself and work hard.

Featured Image: Mitchell Layton / Getty Images Sport