On Wednesday, April 10, a mix of students from Spanish III and AP Spanish Language & Culture and all Liberty Spanish teachers attended a special educational event and a noon Cardinals game.

Béisbol in the Classroom is an event hosted by the Cardinals’ Spanish broadcasters, Bengie Molina and Polo Ascencio. This is geared towards Spanish students of all ages to learn about the Spanish language, culture, and the importance of being bilingual. 

Both broadcasters discussed how their fluency in Spanish and English opened many doors career wise and led them to becoming the Spanish broadcasters in 2016. The Spanish coverage itself helped open doors for Spanish speaking baseball fans as well. According to Ascencio, the Cardinals are the third most popular baseball team in Mexico and are incredibly popular in Puerto Rico, which is Molina’s home country. 

Molina and Ascencio were also joined by two other guest speakers who recounted their experiences with being bilingual. One of the speakers, Daniel Guerrero, shared how learning Spanish as a second language helps him in his professional career as a Cardinals reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

“For me, the happiest place on Earth is to be in the booth with my headphones on,” Ascensio said. He used to work at a school and as a janitor before being a broadcaster.

Overall, this experience allowed students to understand how their pursuit of Spanish can yield many future benefits and ignite potential passions.

 You can listen to Polo Ascencio and Bengie Molina on the Cardinals Spanish Broadcast by pressing the SAP on Bally Sports Midwest, the La Tremenda 880 app, the Cardinals.com website, or the MLB app.