ESPN Sports Cuban Propaganda

One of the reasons why sports is a popular pastime among Americans is because it has tended to be non-partisan. It is news which mentally reconnects aged athletes back to their glory days, while stoking local loyalties and friendly rivalries and forgetting the tumult of news from the "real world".

Unfortunately, the trend in the media has been to politicize everything, including sports news.  More than seeing sports through a lens of political correctness, the sports media has segued into political propaganda. 

A case in point was a ESPN Sportscenter social media sharing in regards to President Barack Obama's visit to Cuba after 55 years of bilateral hostility.

ESPN authorized a Tweet which whitewashed the brutality of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's communist regime by promoting propaganda that Fidel was a sports fan. 

After a couple of hours of consternation, ESPN withdrew the post, but the damage was done by humanizing the despot. One of the reasons that Cubans believe that they won their long standoff with the United States is because of Fidel's romancing the American press. 

It may be true that Fidel is a big sports fan.  Fidel even yearned to play for the Yanquis in his youth. But ESPN featuring such factoids during a controversial trip to Cuba by President Barack Obama amounts to propaganda. 

To give a truer picture of the sporting Castro, it is important to understand how Fidel Castro used sports as a weapon to enforce his communist ideology.



A more accurate picture of Fidel Castro's sporting sense is captured by hitting the links with the bloody revolutionary Che Guevara. 

[L] Che Guevara [R] Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro

It is dubious that Che's favorite sport was golf.  More likely it was coaching firing squads.

R.I.P. Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra, renowned major league baseball player and master of malapropisms, died on September 22, 2015 the age of 90. Notwithstanding his waggish wisdom about funerals, assuredly Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra was not forgotten as his kith and kin marked his departure from the mortal coil.

 

Yogi Berra on Direction

George Steinbrenner on Being the Boss

Since former New York Yankees skipper Joe Torre managed to not mention longtime Yankees owner George Steinbrenner during his 28 minute speech as he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, it is worth recognizing "the boss".

Derek Jeter on Character

Derek Jeter at bat during his 14th and final MLB All Star Game.  #FarewellCaptain 

Michael Pineda on Cheating

The New York Yankees had a couple of early April series against their arch-rivals the Boston Red Sox. Due to the cold weather in the Northeast at the start of the season, pitchers may have some trouble getting a grip on the ball.

On April 10th, Pineda pitched six strong innings for the Yankees in the Bronx.  In the fourth inning of that game, Boston's manager John Farrell became aware that Pineda had pine tar on his hand, but did not protest to the umpires.  When questioned about the incident, Pineda insisted that it was dirt on the palm of his right hand.

Less than a fortnight later, Pineda was again pitching against the Bo-Sox. Pineda claims that he could not feel the ball and he did not want to hit anybody, so he put on pine tar.  Yet instead of hiding the banned substance, Pineda smeared some pine tar on his neck, and was thrown out in the second inning. This time Pineda admitted that it was pine tar. 

MLB rule 8.02 states that a pitcher may not "apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball." Rule 8.02 (b) states a pitcher may not "have on his person, or in his possession, any foreign substance. For such infraction of this section (b) the penalty shall be immediate ejection from the game.

Some Major League Baseball players sounded somewhat sympathetic to using something to get a grip in adverse weather (cold, extreme humidity).  But reactions to Pineda's application of pine tar to his neck were less understanding as it was so obvious.

What do you think?

Is it OK for Major League Pitchers to use Pine Tar to "get a grip"?
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Derek Jeter on Virtue

The day before spring training opens  the 39 year old Derek Jeter posted on his Facebook page that this will be his last season playing Major League Baseball. 

Jeter's pearl of wisdom should hold sway over those playing on the diamond as well as for everyone in life.