Showing posts with label Los Angeles Dodgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles Dodgers. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
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| Yasiel Puig |
MIAMI (AP) — The smugglers who helped Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig leave Cuba on a speedboat have made death threats against him and against a Cuban boxer who says he defected with Puig, according to court documents.
The documents are part of a federal lawsuit in Miami and describe a dangerous odyssey of shady characters, unpaid smuggling debts and threats of violence that have followed Puig since he left Cuba by boat in June 2012.
DODGERS: Puig mum on chronicled journey to U.S.
The tale is based almost entirely on the account of the boxer, Yunior Despaigne, who says he is afraid he will be hurt by the smugglers or their associates if Puig hasn't paid them money he owes. In a 10-page affidavit, Despaigne said a smuggler he knew as "Leo" sent someone to see him in Miami to deliver a message.
"The man pushed me up against my car and pressed a pistol to my liver and told me to tell Puig if he didn't pay them, that they would kill him," Despaigne said. The documents didn't say when the threat occurred.
Puig's smuggling venture, first reported by Los Angeles Magazine, is a common way for Cuban baseball players to make it to U.S. professional leagues. Puig went to Mexico first. If Puig had come directly to the U.S., he would have been subjected to the Major League Baseball draft. By establishing residency in a country such as Mexico, he could negotiate a far more lucrative contract as a free agent.
Puig, a 23-year-old outfielder, signed a $42 million, seven-year contract with the Dodgers in June 2012, a record for a Cuban defector. He received a $12 million signing bonus and made $2 million in his rookie year, when he hit .319 in 104 games with 19 home runs and 42 RBI. He finished second in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year.
Puig's agent, Adam Katz, issued a statement Wednesday saying Puig was aware of the news articles and understood people had questions, but he was not going to comment.
Read the full story: www.usatoday.com
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Friday, April 11, 2014
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| Hank Aaron |
By Larry Elder, Apr. 11, 2014
Michael Sam appears to be a fine young man. But, no, he
isn’t the first openly gay male U.S. athlete to play in a major sport. And
“brave”? Can we please dispense with the absurd Jackie Robinson comparisons?
Wake me when a black collegiate pro prospect “comes out” as a Republican.
A starting senior on the University of Missouri football
team, Sam looks like a mid-round draft pick in the NFL. He recently “came out”
to his teammates, many of whom said they already knew or suspected. Neither
teammates nor coaches had an issue. Most normal people ask, “Who cares?” or
“Can he play?”
Some, however, liken Sam’s “pioneering status” to that of
Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in the modern baseball major
leagues. “Michael Sam has the opportunity to be the Jackie Robinson of the
NFL,” said professor Orin Starn, chairman of Duke University’s cultural
anthropology department. “Michael Sam is a Jackie Robinson Moment For NFL,”
according to the editorial headline in the Boston Globe. And then there’s Fox
Sports analyst Brendon Ayanbadejo who said, “We were there to celebrate his
groundbreaking voyage that in many ways is similar to those of Jackie Robinson
and Rosa Parks.”
Where to begin?
First, Sam isn’t even the first openly gay male athlete to
play in a major American pro sport. That distinction goes to Glenn Burke, who
played with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics from 1976-1979.
He might well have played longer and been more successful had he not clashed
with management – not his teammates – over his sexual orientation.
Burke was “out” to teammates, management and sportswriters.
It is not Burke’s fault that both media and management preferred to say
nothing. Dodger management reportedly offered him money to go through a sham
marriage. Burke refused.
Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda, whose son died of AIDS in
1991, allegedly helped engineer a trade of Burke to Oakland because of a
friendship between Lasorda’s son and Burke. The trade of the popular, outgoing
player stunned many Dodgers. Team captain Davey Lopes said, “No one cared about
his lifestyle.”
Traded during the 1978 season to the Oakland A’s, Burke
ended up managed by the openly homophobic Billy Martin. The volatile manager,
according to a documentary about Burke, “baited” him with gay slurs.
Frustrated, and never realizing his potential, Burke left baseball in 1980 and
became a drug addict. A former Oakland teammate, Shooty Babitt, said, “They ran
him straight out of the game.” Burke died of AIDS in 1995. He was 42.
Sam will encounter no Billy Martins. He enters an NFL with a
written policy against discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity and
sexual orientation.
Second, let’s discuss Jackie Robinson. Many of his own
teammates signed a petition stating they would not play with him. At least one
petitioner was traded.
Viciously taunted, and sometimes threatened by players, fans
and others, Robinson faced enormous pressure to not only play well, but to do
so while restraining the desire to punch somebody in the face. Had Robinson not
“succeeded,” the path for other black players would have become even more
difficult, about which the former UCLA student was quite aware.
The attention and pressure on Robinson makes Sam’s future
career look like a coronation. Robinson’s was a pre-television, pre-Internet,
Jim Crow America, where sports fans really paid keen attention to only three
sports – boxing, horse racing and America’s pastime, baseball. Most everybody
was watching, many hoping and expecting him to fail. Robinson played Major
League Baseball for 10 years and died early. His death certificate described
the official cause as a heart attack. But it might as well have said pressure
and stress killed him. He was 53.
Yes, Sam will have some challenges. But tell that to Hank
Aaron.
In his autobiography, “I Had A Hammer,” Aaron writes about
when he and others were the first black players to play the South Atlantic
League – a minor league affiliated with the majors – five years after Robinson
entered the major league. Southern newspapers, covering the “Sally League,”
refused to print pictures of the black players. Taxi drivers in places like
Florida refused to pick them up. Players, Aaron said, could be arrested simply
for being on the street at night.
Robin Roberts, the Hall of Fame Philadelphia Phillies
pitcher, broke into the major leagues the year after Robinson. Roberts recalled
a double-header in Philadelphia when Robinson tore the cover off the ball while
playing dazzling defense. The next day, Roberts’ manager, Ben Chapman,
approached Robinson. “Robinson,” he said, “you’re one hell of a ballplayer, but
you’re still a n–ger.” Robinson, according to Roberts, just smiled and walked
by. Chapman was fired not long after. Robinson is in the Hall of Fame.
To forget Burke wastes an opportunity to remind us of how
far we have come. To liken Sam’s challenges – and there will be some – to those
faced by Robinson diminishes the legacy of number 42.
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