The Herald's Steve Buckley notes that after Cuba's 3-1 win over the Dominican Republic in the WBC semifinals, left fielder Frederich Cepeda's comment -- "Baseball is not judged by the price of the athletes, but the hearts of the people" -- was censored for the media by MLB translator Francisco Campo.
Why? Campo: "I was told by Major League Baseball that when the guys got political, not to talk about it." ... MLB spokesman Patrick Courtney disagreed: "That was never the case. At no time did we state that players could not answer political questions."
How is that sentence even vaguely political?
Keith Foulke threw a 21-pitch batting practice session on Saturday and is convinced he'll start the season on time "unless something unforeseen happens". Jason Varitek: "He threw a couple great changeups. He threw some good cutters. He threw a couple fastballs that really bit, that really got there. He looked very good."
Curt Schilling has worked a changeup into his pitching repertoire. "I'm throwing my changeup to the point where I'm going to be able to use it now to get people out. It's something I've wanted to have and never been comfortable with until now."
3 comments:
The comment is explicitly political, in light of the Cuban player's standing as a communist, i.e. one whose government does not run on capitalistic concerns. Cepeda is taking a veiled shot at mercenary players who toil for the $$, and equating success with emotion which, while not necessarily implying a comparison between himself and his opponents, could be interpreted as an assertion of nationalistic and ideological superiority over the rival, heartless capitalists. But hey, good for him.
The statement has political overtones, as it's anti-capitalist. Are the capitalists so insecure about the value of their own system that they must censor anything that questions it?
I'm not sure it's insecurity over capitalism as a system so much as America exhibiting its continued desire to a. not be part of the world, and b. dictate its terms unto others. Censorship in this case isn't just idiotic, it's taking away from the Cubans' achievement, and their valid self-expression of beliefs. That strikes me as pretty sad.
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