Carlos Delgado�s political grandstanding
July 23, 2004 ~ 1:13 p.m.
Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado has caused a sensation that has nothing to do with baseball. You�d think any guy who can hit a ball so well�even if his strikeout numbers almost match his slugging percentage�would simply do the job he�s paid tens of millions of dollars to do: play defensibly sound first base and bring the runners home.
But Delgado doesn�t see it that way. He has seen fit to disgrace the country whose national pastime has earned him such a cushy lifestyle.
While claiming that he�s �not trying to make anyone mad,� Delgado has refused to stand up for seventh-inning stretch renditions of �God Bless America.� He gave an interview to The Toronto Star in which he blasted the Iraq War as �the stupidest war ever.�
Ah, I see�the liberation of a brutalized people from a mad tyrant, even if it was done under faulty pretenses, means nothing to the likes of Delgado, who can�t spare a thought for the soldiers or the Iraqis, but refuses to waive the no-trade clause on his $64 million contract with the Blue Jays. Have a cigar, Carlos.
An article on Canada.com asks why Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods don�t speak out, why they�ve maintained such an apolitical high-profile. Maybe it�s because it�s not their job to speak out on anything other than the professions they�re in, and they know it. To me, Jordan and Woods are the heroes, guys who understand their professional limits and are willing to abide by them.
Delgado, by contrast, mouths off about Iraq, but when questioned recently by reporters after a loss to the New York Yankees, he snapped at them, �No, I will not talk about it. Is that OK? Thank you.� Funny, sounds like something he�d also say if they asked if he beat his wife.
Pro-war players like Delgado�s team-mate Greg Zaun and Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling haven�t made a big deal of their position in the way that Delgado has. They have concentrated on what they should be concentrating on instead: their game.
As you might expect, Delgado has more than his fair share of defenders, interpreting him�never our soldiers, mind you�as the true American patriot. The Boston Globe's Ron Borges, The New York Times�s William Rhoden, and the Associated Press� Steve Wilstein have all chimed in with thoughts that Michael Moore would be proud of.
Borges and Rhoden did not publish their e-mails along with their articles, but Wilstein did. Here is my response to his piece:
Mr Wilstein:It is with great regret that I read your �Patriotism and Protest� column. I would just like to ask one thing of you:
If you�re so certain that it�s not being disrespectful to the soldiers�the ones putting their lives on the line while fighting on our behalf�for a rich, pampered baseball player to refuse to stand during the national anthem or to pay homage to their efforts in Iraq, then why don�t you air these views to those military personnel in the stands at Yankee Stadium? Put your money where your mouth is, or don�t you have the guts?
You have the nerve to write cynically about �buy a flag, be American, jingoism sells.� And then you think you�re being a wholesome American in so doing. What a hero you are, and so much braver and more deserving of respect than our hillbilly, redneck soldiers!
�For [Delgado] it's a personal matter, a way of expressing what he feels about an issue he believes is important. That�s more than most athletes are willing to do.� Mr Wilstein, athletes get paid outrageous sums of money to train hard in their selected sport and try to win, not to engage in political grandstanding. I don�t pay money for a ticket to help support some egotistical, steroid-enhnced goon to disrespect my country�s national anthem and give speeches to newspapers that sound more like interviews with John Kerry.
As a journalist, you may decide to give up your cushy job as a sports columnist and help to cover the war in Iraq instead. But, on second thought, that may expose you to all the good that we never hear about going on over there and would force you to come into contact with legions of Iraqis grateful to us for toppling Saddam Hussein and helping to rebuild their nation, so forget it. You wouldn�t want to know about that, would you? You�d rather spout platitudes and chide patriotic Americans instead.
You do have the right to free speech, Mr Wilstein, but when you pass your particular speech off as pro-American and then proceed to act as though your rights to free speech are in danger whenever somebody dares to challenge your perceived �wisdom,� then you only show yourself for the jackass that you are.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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