PHOENIX — Trudge up to a Camelback Ranch backfield in triple-digit heat to get a look at White Sox first round pick Billy Carlson, and you might hear him before you see him.
Four instance, a loud and excited “whoop!” from the infield when White Sox pitcher Marcelo Valladares lands a backdoor breaking ball, too enthusiastic to wait for the reveal that the home plate umpire didn’t actually call it a strike. As covering a White Sox clubhouse with team interpreter Billy Russo has revealed, native Spanish speakers tend to go softer on the first syllable of the name than their counterparts and harder on the second, and exhortations of “bi-LLEE!” mark Carlson’s trips to the plate. With Carlson and the softer-spoken Matthew Boughton being the only US-born players in the Sox bridge league lineup on Thursday, there are only so many viable suspects for the steady stream of English-language cheering that is distinct from the bulk of the in-game chatter.
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