Chen Is Learning Language of Success : Baseball: Dodgers’ Class-A outfielder is hoping to become the first player from Taiwan to reach the major leagues.

Chin-Feng Chen of Taiwan signed a contract with the Dodgers last January and almost immediately was assigned an interpreter to live with and rely on, virtually everywhere he went.

The decision appears to have been a sound one.

Chen not only has become a top outfield prospect while playing for Class-A San Bernardino, he also is picking up English and joking easily with teammates.

In Spanish.

“And he’s teaching me Chinese,” pitcher Pedro Flores said.

Welcome to the multicultural world of minor league baseball, where Chen’s performance has spoken volumes during an all-star season in the California League.

Chen, before a game Tuesday night, was batting .312 with 28 home runs and a league-leading 116 runs batted in. He also has 30 stolen bases for the Stampede, which features players from the United States, Australia, Venezuela, South Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Taiwan and Puerto Rico.

“The biggest adjustment I had to make was to the number of games we’re playing and playing every day,” Chen said through interpreter Vince Liao during a dugout interview before a game against Visalia. “I’m here working and here to play, but there is a lot of fun too.”

The good times began when the Dodgers signed Chen, 21, to a bonus package worth $680,000 after he’d completed his compulsory two-year military commitment. The organization that opened the door to the Orient through the major league success of Japan’s Hideo Nomo and South Korea’s Chan Ho Park is hoping the 6-foot-1, 189-pound Chen will become the first Taiwanese player to play in the big leagues. Tan Hsin-Min of Taiwan played in the San Francisco Giants’ minor league system in 1975.

“I’ve always wanted to play baseball at the highest level possible,” said Chen, whose older brother, Lien-Hong Chen, plays in the Taiwan Professional Baseball League. “The Dodgers were the first club that contacted me and negotiated signing with me. That’s why I went with them.”

During a season of unfulfilled expectations at the major league level, the Dodgers are thrilled with Chen’s development, though they are quietly gnashing their teeth over an agreement that allows Chen to leave the team after Friday’s game to play for Taiwan in an Olympic qualifying tournament. Barring early elimination of Taiwan, Chen will miss the California League playoffs that begin next Tuesday.

Chen, however, does not have much left to prove in Class A. He made the California League all-star team, played in the first “Futures” game for top minor league prospects during major league baseball’s All-Star weekend at Fenway Park and led the Stampede to the playoffs.

His defense needs some work, but he has the talent to become a major league player.

“The biggest thing is his bat speed,” San Bernardino Manager Rick Burleson said. “He gets it through the zone and the ball jumps off his bat. That’s what makes him special.

“Every time he comes up, I feel like he has a chance to do something big.”

Chen has a history of performing his best when it matters most.

He was the right fielder for the Taiwanese team that won the 1990 Little League World Series by beating Shippensburg, Pa., in the championship game. Chen, the leadoff hitter, batted .417 and scored seven runs in the series.

Chen said he has no recollection of the hoopla that surrounds the event at Williamsport, Pa.

“I didn’t really care about the other things,” he said. “The coaches told us to play the baseball game and we played.”

Chen was a starting outfielder for the Taiwanese national team for two years before he signed with the Dodgers. In eight international tournaments, he batted better than .400 and hit 40 home runs. In the 1998 World Championships in Italy, he homered in four consecutive games. In the 1998 Asian Games in Thailand, he homered against Dodger right-hander Park.

“He got a lot of publicity because of the home run he hit off Chan Ho, but that’s not what caught our eye,” said Jack Zduriencik, the Dodgers’ director of international operations. “He also was right on every ball he fouled off against Chan Ho.

“He saw a lot of different kinds of pitching and he displayed an ability to hit the baseball. And to hit it a long way.”

Chen’s adjustment to the American game has been eased by Liao, 25, an affable 1997 USC graduate who grew up in Taiwan and South Africa. When Liao heard the Dodgers had signed Chen, he attended a news conference at Dodger Stadium out of curiosity. He left with a 24-hour-a-day job.

In spring training, Liao roomed with Chen and shadowed him during drills--translating instructions, encouragement and criticisms from the Dodger staff.

“I barely knew this guy and he barely knew me,” Liao said. “The coaches were looking at us as just one person. They would scream at me and yell at me, and also yell at him knowing he didn’t understand.

“That’s why we had to throw away the formalities. I had to talk to him like a friend I’ve known forever.”

Liao is in the clubhouse and dugout for all of the Stampede’s games, relaying information from Burleson and hitting coach Steve Yeager.

“I’m sure there are some things that get lost in the translation, but Chen and Vince work hard and I try to keep it as simple as I can,” Yeager said. “You don’t need to use eighty-dollar words. This is baseball. It’s a simple game.”

Projecting players into the major leagues is not quite as easy, especially those with little or no support group. The Dodgers are paying Liao for this season, but Chen will probably be on his own next year, when he is expected to start the season at double-A San Antonio.

“If he continues to improve like he has, I don’t think there’s anything that will hold him back [from reaching the major leagues],” Burleson said.

Chen’s progress is being monitored closely not only by the Dodgers but by all of baseball. Taiwan is regarded as a gateway to the talent that might one day be procured from mainland China.

“There are a lot of guys [in Taiwan] that are capable of playing here, but they have to decide if they want to make the change to American baseball,” Chen said. “For me, I look at this as a great opportunity and I’m going to take advantage of it.”