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張伯倫-近距離接觸The book on Joba 2007-8-30 11:55:24 | 
資料來源：經建民風 luca兄同意轉貼翻譯文章
原文出處: Daily News - New York
原文網址: http://www.nydailynews.com/sport ... e_book_on_joba.html
The book on Joba 近距離接觸 - 張伯倫
Father and son write pitcher's next chapter
BY ANTHONY MCcARRON
Two fields stood across the street from Joba Chamberlain's house in Lincoln, Neb., one grass, one gravel, and on summer evenings, kids from across the whole neighborhood in the northeast part of town would gather outside to play baseball. The Chamberlains kept enough gloves and bats for everyone and Joba's father, Harlan, would umpire games from his wheelchair, offering coaching tips between calls.
兩片野地橫跨Joba Chamberlain家前的街道，一是綠草地，另一個是砂地。夏天的傍晚，來自城鎮東北方整個街坊的孩子們全聚在一起打棒球。Chamberlain家為每個人收集足夠的手套及球棒，而Joba的父親Harlan則坐在輪椅上充當裁判，及在比賽間提供指導意見。
When there wasn't a game, Chamberlain and his father still played catch in the yard, even during the winter. "If it wasn't blowin' or a million degrees below zero, we were out there," Harlan Chamberlain says.
在沒有比賽的時候，Chamberlain及父親仍會在後院傳球接捕，即使在冬季期間，「只要不是刮風或那種零下冷到不行的天氣，我們還是會出去。」Harlan Chamberlain說。
The aluminum siding on the house had hundreds of dents. The father would urge the boy to dive for grounders. The boy would get dirty. The father never yelled.
房屋的鋁製牆板上有幾百個凹痕，父親鼓勵男孩撲接滾地球，這個男孩老是全身髒兮兮，但他從不大聲斥責。
Harlan couldn't use his left hand, so he would catch the ball with his right, take off the worn Wilson glove he'd bought back in 1972, and throw the ball back to his son. The boy threw his hardest until he was 8 years old. That's when the father said his hand couldn't take the sting anymore.
Harlan不能使用他的左手，因此他用右手接球，再把從1972年使用至今早已磨損的手套脫掉，然後把球丟回給他的兒子。男孩使盡全力丟球，直到他八歲時他的父親說他的手再也無法忍受那種疼痛。
"It was always all about baseball," Joba Chamberlain says now, smiling. Both men say those memories are among the fondest of their lives.
「生活除了棒球…還是棒球，」Joba微笑表示，那些回憶是他們生活中最美好的一面。
Now the boy plays at Yankee Stadium, the thunderous roar of fans who have taken to him like a son of Nebraska takes to Cornhusker red pounding in his ears. A blistering, 99-mile-per-hour fastball and a biting breaking pitch have made him a cult hero in the Bronx. The 55-year-old father, back in Lincoln, watches the games on a computer, his nurse nearby, a Yankee cap on his head, his heart swelling.
現在這個男孩就在洋基球場打球，球迷把這位內布拉斯加之子當作自己人，歡呼聲如雷貫耳地迎接他出場。99mph的強力速球及破壞力十足的球路使他成為Bronx的英雄。他那55歲的父親回到林肯市，在護士陪伴下透過電腦觀賞這些比賽，他的頭上戴著洋基球帽，他的心隨之起舞。
It is seemingly all about baseball, still. But there is so much more to the Chamberlains' story than fastballs, fist pumps and cheering fans.
這一切以乎仍都攸關棒球，但比那些火球、握拳慶賀及歡呼的球迷，Joba的背後有更多故事值得說。
It is the life of Harlan Chamberlain, a strong man who never let a body ravaged by polio or a childhood spent in a hospital and in foster care destroy him. It includes a broken marriage and Harlan raising his two kids himself in a two-bedroom house, one room for his daughter, Tasha. For 11 years, Harlan and Joba slept in the same bed. Money was sometimes so tight that Harlan pawned his valuables to provide for his children.
這是Harlan Chamberlain的人生，一個堅強的男人，從未被小兒麻痺或因在醫院及療養院度過童年時光的困境擊倒他。這還包括一次失敗的婚姻，Harlan獨立撫養兩個小孩，在僅有兩間臥室的房子裡，其中一個房間給了他的女兒Tasha，11年以來，Harlan 和 Joba睡在同一張床。經濟狀況有時如此拮據，Harlan於是典當自己的財物以供給他的小孩。
Joba knows his dad's history, how he was apart from his family, which lived on the Winnebago Indian Reservation, 107 miles north of Lincoln. How his father agonized through the disease that left him with a limp and, later, a motorized scooter. Harlan can still recite the total time he spent in the hospital - "six years, five months and 11 days."
Joba知道父親的過去，他如何與他的親生家庭分離，就在距離林肯市北方107里遠的印地安保留區。他如何遭逢病痛而造成身障，而後以電動輪椅代步。Harlan仍可以清楚算出他待在醫院的時間－6年5個月又11天。
"It's been rough, but it gave me the strength to be the person I am today," Harlan says. "In raising my children, I wanted them to have the nurturing and the love and respect that I didn't get a whole lot of growing up."
「這真的很艱辛，但那賦予我今日堅強的性格。」Harlan說，「我希望扶養小孩的方式，能讓他們獲得培育及關愛、尊敬…那些我成長過程無法得到的」
Says Joba: "He's been given limitations, but we all have limitations in life. Not once in my life did he ever ask why. He's taken it and run with it. People tend to make a bigger deal of it than it is."
Joba說:：「他受困於命運的限制，但誰不是呢！他從不怨天尤人，他接受老天的安排努力過活。人們往往將自身不幸看得比實際嚴重。」
While his father's struggle has helped him gain perspective, so has Joba's own life. His parents were divorced when he was a toddler. Joba is circumspect about his current relationship with his mother, saying only, "I talk to her every once in a great while. She's a mom, I'll always love her. It's never too late. That's about all I can say about that."
他父親對命運的抗爭幫助自己走出一條路，Joba自己的人生也是。他的父母在他蹣跚學步的年紀分開，Joba細心呵護與母親現今的關係，「她是我媽，我將永遠愛她，愛從不嫌太遲，那是所有我能說的。」
When he was 12, his best friend, Nate Raun, died of brain cancer on Thanksgiving Day. Joba still wears a uniform number that adds up to eight - he's got No. 62 with the Yankees - because Raun's number in youth baseball was 8. He still keeps in touch with Raun's family and says, "I know he's still part of my life."
在他12歲時，他最好的朋友Nate Raun在感恩節因腦癌去世。Joba仍然穿著加起來等於8的球衣號碼－他在洋基穿62號(意指6+2=8)，因為Raun小時候的球號是8號。他與Raun的家人還保持聯繫，「我知道他仍是我生命的一部份」。
Joba has helped care for his father for years, doing things around the house his dad couldn't. When Harlan has been sick, Joba and his sister have been there. A year ago, Harlan's appendix burst and his temperature soared to 104.8 degrees. Joba recalls that doctors told him that if Harlan had gotten to the hospital "20 or 30 minutes later," his body would have started shutting down. Harlan spent 13 days in intensive care and is still recuperating - it's why he hasn't yet seen Joba pitch for the Yankees in person.
Joba多年來一直幫忙照顧他的父親，處理他父親無法負荷的事。當Harlan生病時，Joba和他的姐(妹)陪伴在側。一年前，Harlan的盲腸破裂且體溫飇升到104.8度，Joba回想當時醫生告訴他，如果Harlan再晚個二、三十分鐘送醫，將會面臨死亡。Harlan在加護病房待了13天，且仍在養病中－這也是為什麼他至今還沒有親臨球場看Joba為洋基投球。
His father's attitude has helped, too. Joba knows how hard it was for Harlan to admit in 1991 that he needed a scooter to get around. When he got one, it opened up his whole life again and Harlan hasn't stopped since, working as an usher at Nebraska sporting events after retiring from his job as a prison counselor for 27 years. He's still a fixture at area high school games, too, and the other day was calling a bingo game for senior citizens.
他父親的態度也帶來影響，Joba知道對Harlan來說在1991年承認他需要以電動輪椅代步有多難。當他拿到代步工具時，重新為他的世界打開一扇窗，自此Harlan從未停下腳步，從27年監獄輔導員生涯退休後，他開始在內布斯拉加運動賽事擔任引導員。他也依舊固定參與地區中學比賽，其他天則陪伴老人玩賓果遊戲。
Harlan has always believed in himself, and his children. "What parent worth his salt doesn't?" Harlan asks. Perhaps that is where Joba got the confidence to reach the majors so quickly and even to playfully tweak Derek Jeter, the Yanks' master needler, in the clubhouse.
Harlan一向相信自己，也相信他的小孩。「什麼樣的父母就有什麼樣的小孩，不是嗎？」或許那就是Joba擁有如此自信在短時間迅速立足大聯盟，甚至在休息室玩鬧起洋基的毒舌大師Derek Jeter。
"Everything we've been through, it shapes who you are," Joba says. "I wouldn't change anything in the world the way I grew up and all the things I had and didn't have."
「每個人曾經歷過的一切，造就成為你這個人，」Joba表示，「對於這樣的成長歷程，我從不想做任何改變，也不想改變那些我有過或未曾擁有的一切。」
Joba, whose birth name was Justin, became Joba on a visit to the reservation when he was a baby. While the family was there, a young relative couldn't pronounce her own brother's name, calling him "Jah-bah" instead of Joshua. Everyone started calling Harlan's son that, too, and it stuck. He eventually legally changed his name to Joba. Harlan decided on the spelling.
Joba出生的命名是Justin，會變成Joba是來自他還是嬰兒時有次拜訪保留區。當家族聚在那兒時，一位年幼的親戚咬字不清，把自己哥哥的名字Joshua唸成"Jah-bah"。於是所有人也開始這樣叫起Harlan的兒子，這個名字從此就跟著他。最後他正式改名為Joba，Harlan則決定怎麼拼。
Joba, born and raised in Lincoln, has strong feelings about his family and his heritage. He's proud of being the highest-drafted Native American and has long been a star on the reservation, where he is besieged by autograph requests when he visits relatives. Joba was on the front page of the latest edition of the Winnebago Indian News.
Joba出生及成長於林肯市，他對他的家族及傳統具備強烈感情。他以身為美洲原住民為傲，他長久以來也是保留區的明星，當他拜訪親戚時被大家團團圍住索取簽名。Joba是最近幾期的Winnebago Indian News的頭版專題。
But the game wasn't always a possible career. Joba was such an ordinary baseball prospect when he was in high school at Lincoln Northeast that he was sometimes better known for being a ballboy for the school's high-powered basketball teams. Part of the problem was that a pudgy ballboy was cute. A pudgy pitcher, not so much.
但會打球不等同踏上職業之路。當他在高中時，Joba的棒球生涯並不被看好，有時他反而以學校的精英籃球隊球僮身份更為人所知。部份的原因是一個胖嘟嘟的球僮很可愛，但一個胖嘟嘟投手可不然。
At his heaviest, Joba weighed 272 pounds. He says he is around 230 today. Nebraska coach Mike Anderson did not recruit the local boy. "He was way, way, way too big," Anderson says.
Joba最重曾高達272磅，他現在則約230磅。內布拉斯加大學教練Mike Anderson並沒有招收這個本地男孩，「他真的是太..太..太大了」。
Joba did not have a scholarship offer the summer after high school until he got a call in July from Damon Day, the coach at Division II Nebraska-Kearney. One of Day's players knew Chamberlain and the coach was looking to fill out a thin pitching staff. "We liked him, not to the point where I thought he'd be setting up for Mariano Rivera one day, but where I thought he'd throw strikes and get some guys out," Day says.
在高中畢業後Joba沒有拿到獎學金，直到他接到一通來自內布拉斯加康寧市分校第二級大學教練Damon Day的電話，Day隊中的一位球員認識Joba，而教練正在找人填補薄弱的投手陣容。「我們喜歡他，但並沒有想過他有天可以成為Mariano Rivera，我只是認為他能投好球，並讓一些傢伙出局。」
He pitched well enough at Kearney to transfer to Nebraska, a Division I program. Harlan, working as an usher, would wait for Anderson near an entryway to lobby the coach to take his boy. It was still a risk, Anderson says, but Joba bloomed.
他在康寧市分校投得夠好，於是轉學至內布拉斯加第一級大學。擔任引導員的Harlan則在靠近入口的走道等待Anderson有一天用上他的男孩。那仍是個冒險，但Joba大放異彩。
The Yankees took him 41st in the 2006 draft, using a sandwich pick they got for losing free agent Tom Gordon. He has had a meteoric rise through their system, going from Single-A to the majors this season. Mark Newman, the Yankee executive who oversees the minor leagues, says he can't remember a player in his 19 years with the organization who has ascended four levels in one year. Not even Jeter.
洋基在2006年選秀以第41順位選中他，以三明治選秀權的方式損失自由球員Tom Gordon。Joba在洋基體系快速提升，本季從1A升上大聯盟。負責管理小聯盟的洋基執行長Mark Newman說他在洋基19年以來印象中從未見過一位球員在一年內躍升四級。就算是Jeter也沒有。
Now the whole state of Nebraska is following Joba's journey. Anderson, eating dinner with his wife recently, got goosebumps when he saw Joba's familiar fist-pump on the restaurant's television. Harlan got a call from a foster brother from a small, mid-Nebraska town who said everyone there was buzzing about his son making the Yankees.
現在整個內布拉斯加跟著Joba而沸騰。Anderson最近與他的老婆共進晚餐時，當他在餐廳的電視上看到Joba熟悉的握拳慶祝動作，感動得起了雞皮疙瘩。Harlan接到了一通住在內布拉斯加中部小鎮養父母家的兄弟電話，告訴他那裡每個人都在談論他的兒子在洋基投球。
At Joba's high school, Lincoln Northeast, students were already talking about going to Kansas City - the nearest major-league city - to watch Joba when the Yankees are there Sept.7-9, says Reed Stephenson, the school's assistant athletic director.
在Joba過去就讀的中學，體育主任助理Reed Stephenson表示，學生們已經討論好要去堪薩斯城－離此最近有大聯盟的城市－觀賞Joba為洋基九月七至九日的客場賽事出賽。
"We're right proud of where he's gone," Stephenson says. "I can't go through a whole day without someone talking about him here."
「我們為他的成就感到驕傲，」Stephenson說，「我無法一整天不向其他人提到他。」***
Back in Lincoln, Harlan is getting antsy. He watches Joba's games on the Internet and saw one of them in a sports bar, but he wants to experience Yankee Stadium, touch the pinstripes on his boy's chest. But he's not well enough to travel. "I'm so close I can taste it," Harlan says. "I don't want to be out of my bubble until I'm cleared by my doctor. The long-term picture is great and I want to enjoy it."
回到林肯市，Harlan坐立不安。他透過網路收看Joba出賽，其中一場是在運動酒吧看的，但他希望能親臨洋基球場，親手碰觸兒子身上的條紋衣。但他的狀況還沒好到可以展開旅程。「我如此接近親眼目睹的那一刻，」Harlan「我不想輕舉妄動，除非醫生保證無恙。未來如此美好，我想要好好享受。」
"They are an amazing story of love," Day says. "There is a man who loves his father and a father who loves his son. They have been through a lot together and they've stuck together. It's a special thing."
「他們之間是一個關於愛的美妙故事，」Day說，「這個人深愛他的父親，而父親也同樣愛著兒子。他們一起經歷過許多，將兩人緊緊連結在一起，這真的很特別。」
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