大略翻一下
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https://goo.gl/Zp2NCC
Before he could develop, Steven Souza Jr. had to grow up
By Zach Buchanan Mar 5, 2018
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – For most people, it would have been good news.
The email was from the football program at the University of Washington, just
half an hour from where Steven Souza Jr. grew up. The Huskies had received his
inquiry, it said. Yes, they were interested in bringing him in for a tryout.
华盛顿大学美式足球哈士奇队寄信给Steven Souza说他们有兴趣给他机会测试。
(华盛顿州的)
It was late 2011. Souza stared at it, contemplating a response. Instead of
elation, he felt uncertain. Earlier that year, he’d walked away from baseball,
quitting on his teammates and the Nationals organization that had drafted him
four years earlier. He was 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, and football seemed like an
enticing new chapter.
当时是2011年底，
Souza正在徬徨是否要回信，
那年稍早他放弃棒球，离开队友跟华盛顿国民农场，
6呎4吋、255磅的他可能很适合打美足
For all he knew, baseball might have been done with him, anyway. On his way
out, Souza had set fire to enough bridges to make a return trip difficult. But
as the idea of a football career became less and less abstract, so did his
doubt about it. A question kept nagging at him.
他在离开棒球之前，破坏了很多关系，让他的回归困难重重
他的脑中一直思考着一个问题
Am I really done with baseball?
我真的不打棒球了吗？
The email sat there. He never did respond.
那封邮件一直躺在那，Souza不曾回应。
***
A return to baseball was going to require an admission of guilt and an apology,
and Souza now freely admits he had much for which to atone.
Souza知道他需要忏悔，要赎罪
He was selfish. If he was playing poorly, he took his frustration out on his
teammates—and to that point, there’d been plenty of poor play. The Nats took
him in the third round out of high school, but he was now 22 and hadn’t
advanced beyond A ball. He’d topped out with a .738 OPS in 2010, a season that
ended early when Souza tested positive for an amphetamine and was banned 50
games.
他是那么的自私
打得差就找队友出气，在场上打得很烂
国民用三轮选他，但22岁的他仍然在A
他在10年打出OPS.738，但他因为安非他命阳性被禁赛50场
It was Ritalin, and he’d taken a pill or two out of a bottle in a teammate’s
locker. He felt embarrassed for his parents when his name scrolled across the
bottom of the screen on ESPN, but even that experience didn’t shock him back
into line.
那是他从队友那边拿来的利他能，他吃了一两颗
(一种中枢神经系统兴奋剂，被广泛应用于注意力缺陷多动障碍和嗜睡症的治疗)
他觉得很丢脸，自己的名字出现在ESPN节目的最下面一排
但这次禁赛并没有让他退缩
“I needed to get to the big leagues, and that’s all that mattered in my life,
” Souza said from his locker in the Diamondbacks' spring training clubhouse.
“If you got in my way, then I was going to let you know you were in my way. I
broke a lot of relationships with that.”
“我需要打到大联盟”Souza说“如果你挡我的路，我会让你知道”
“我因此破坏了许多关系”
He wasn’t irredeemable, according to those who were around him. Plenty of
people called him to the carpet, and some even sporadically managed to
penetrate the wall that he’d built around himself. One was then-Nationals
shortstop Ian Desmond, who reproached Souza not with fiery bluster but with
calm questioning.
他并非无可救药
有许多人试着念他
有的人试着打破他筑起来的那道墙
Ian Desmond就曾经用温和质询的口气找Souza谈话
Why do you think people dislike you? Desmond would ask. Why do you think you’
re always butting heads with your teammates? Instead of chastising the jerk in
front of him, Desmond talked to the good person whom he sensed was inside.
为何觉得其他人讨厌你？
为何要跟人家发生冲突
Desmond不是在责骂这个垃圾咖，他感觉到Souza内心是个好人
Souza remembers those conversations, but he also remembers feeling a nauseating
paranoia. Everyone was out to get him, he’d decided. They were backstabbers,
the bunch of them. He’d accept no one’s help.
但Souza是个偏执狂
他觉得大家都要对他不利
他不接受任何帮忙
Late in the season, he had a sickening realization that only confirmed his
feeling of isolation. His girlfriend had cheated on him with a teammate, an
actual betrayal to add to all the others that Souza had been imagining for
himself. Yet he found no sympathy.
当时他孤立无援
他女朋友戴他绿帽，跟队友乱搞
但没人替他感到同情
“This is really crazy to say, but when that happened, nobody felt sorry for me
because I was such a jerk,” Souza said. “It was almost like, ‘He deserves
that.’ ”
“因为我很垃圾”Souza说
A month later, Souza had it out with his manager in the batting cage, decided
he’d had enough and left the team. Doug Harris, then Washington’s farm
director, told him to not bother coming to instructional league in Florida
after the season.
一个月后他跟教练吵架
他决定离队
农场总监Doug Harris说他不用回来打IL了
Souza instead headed home to Everett, Wash. Neither he nor Harris knew if he’d
be returning.
Souza回去西北的老家，没人知道他是否会回来。
***
Even those who love Souza can tell you how he left a bad first impression.
Harris first saw him when he was scouting for the Indians. He was mesmerized
by Souza's physical gifts in batting practice. Then, he struck out in his first
at-bat.
Souza常给人不好的第一印象
Harris还在印地安人的时候看过Souza打球
他很喜欢Souza的tool
但当Souza第一打席被三振之后...
“And he lost it on the umpire,” Harris said. “I mean, lost it. He quickly
was excused from that night’s ballgame. So he goes back in the dugout, and he
blows the dugout up.”
他对裁判发飙
然后被赶出去
之后在休息室大闹
Brent Lillibridge got his bad impression second-hand. It was after the 2008
season, and Lillibridge and Travis Snider were starting a workout group for
ballplayers in Everett. Souza had played high school ball against Lillibridge's
younger brothers.
Souza的贵人Brent Lillibridge也曾经听过他不好的传闻
Lillibridge跟Travis Snider在Everett发起训练营
而Souza曾在高中跟Lillibridge的弟弟对阵过
They did not offer good reviews.
“They were like, ‘Nah, nah. He’s horrible,’ ” Lillibridge said.
“他们对Souza的印象很糟糕”Lillibridge说
Still, something prompted Lillibridge to invite Souza along, and they worked
out together four times a week over the next several offseasons. And though he
could see Souza’s immaturity, he could see a decent person as well.
Occasionally, he’d try to playfully redirect Souza’s bad behavior.
不过他还是找了Souza
Souza在后来几个休赛季都有来练习
他看到过Souza的不成熟，但他也能看Souza是个不错的人
But something was different about the winter after the 2011 season. In his
aimlessness away from baseball, Souza says, he’d entered a depression and also
picked up a drug habit. Lillibridge could tell his workout partner needed
something to anchor his life.
2011年
当时Souza充满绝望，染上药瘾
Lillibridge觉得Souza需要某个东西来引领他的生命
Lillibridge was a regular churchgoer, but in four years never had asked Souza
to join him. It wasn’t in his nature to be pushy about his faith, but that
winter something told him it was the right time. Still, Lillibridge agonized
over it, as if he was asking a crush on a date.
Lillibridge很常去教堂，但他不会一直跟别人传教
但他认为这是个正确的时间
不过他还是有点困扰，就跟约妹子约会一样难以启齿
To both of their surprises, Souza accepted.
出乎意料的，Souza接受了。
“I never knew it was going to be a thing that started moving him toward
something totally different,” Lillibridge said.
“我不知道这会是让他重新向前的事物。”
***
Souza can’t remember anything the pastor said that day. He just stared at the
church bulletin. Among the list of hymns and scripture lessons was a message
asking congregants if they wanted to be baptized. Something stirred Souza to
check the box next to it and turn it in.
Souza不记得那天听了什么讲道
他只记得自己在看受洗的资讯
他填了
His baptism came a month later, and he began to shed the hard exterior he’d
carried with him for so long. He’d once believed that apologies are for the
weak, but Souza felt compelled to call Harris and ask for forgiveness and
permission to return to the organization. Harris’ response has stuck with him
since.
一个月后他受洗
然后开始改变
他打电话给Harris请求原谅跟同意回归球团
“You’re not a bad kid. You just made some really bad choices,” Harris told
him. “We’d love to have you back.”
“你不是个坏孩子，你只是做了些错误的决定”Harris说
With a caveat, of course. In 2012, going into his age-23 season, Souza was
demoted back to Low-A. He remembers a teammate there expressing concern about
adding Souza’s volatility to the clubhouse. Souza had a lot of minds to
change.
作为惩罚，他在低阶1A开季
他记得队友担心他反复无常的个性
但他改变了
Steadily, he put in the work to change them. He let himself relax with
Hagerstown and earned a promotion to High-A by the end of the season. He
finally began to realize his potential, recording a .938 OPS and 23 homers
between the two levels. Even now, Souza calls that year his most enjoyable in
baseball.
他以行动改变了这些看法
然后在季末升到高阶1A
在两个阶级打出OPS.938、23轰的成绩
Souza依然认为12年是他打棒球以来最有趣的一年
Souza has been telling his tale of personal redemption ever since, before and
after he was traded to the Rays as part of a three-team deal in 2015. He got
married that year — Lillibridge was the best man — and a year later became a
father. But it was only in 2017 that his professional development caught up
with his personal growth.
2015年他被交易到光芒
他在那年结了婚，Lillibridge是他的伴郎
隔年他成为父亲
而2017年，当他长大成人之后，他的职业生涯也逐渐成熟
His first two years with the Rays were disappointing, with injuries limiting
him to a combined 230 games. When healthy, he hit just .237/.310/.405, a line
that marked him just below the major-league average. He’d conventionalized his
swing, but it didn’t seem to be working.
他在光芒的前两季受限于伤势只出赛230场
打击三围略低于联盟平均
他试着让自己的挥棒变得跟一般人差不多，但没用
Before last season, he worked to un-tweak things with hitting guru Robert Van
Scoyoc, now the hitting coordinator with the Diamondbacks. He raised his hands
back over his head and bent his knees more. He wound up posting a .351 on-base
percentage and smacking 30 home runs, a performance strong enough for the
Diamondbacks to acquire him last month as their replacement for J.D. Martinez.
去年球季前，他跟打击大师Robert Van Scoyoc一起调整
(RVS这季被挖来响尾蛇担任打击策略)
他将他的手高举过头
然后膝盖弯得更多
结果他打出.351上垒率、30轰
然后他在上个月被交易到响尾蛇
The 28-year-old is as close as he has ever been to a finished product, as a
ballplayer and as a man, even if he took the long route.
尽管他绕了远路
但28岁的他已经逐渐成为一个成熟的棒球员跟男人
“We had a lot of growing pains,” Harris said, “but I couldn’t be prouder
of who he is as a person and what he’s accomplished.”
“成长伴随着很多痛苦”
Harris说
“但我对于他的成熟跟成就感到骄傲。”
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