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 Wednesday, June 19, 2013
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The Major Antilles Give A Real and Extreme World Series |
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RAFAEL MERINO CORTÉS
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006 |
THE “AMATEUR” VS. THE PROFESSIONALS
Omari
Romero of Cuba's "amateur" baseball team pitched 71 for 45 strikes
against 16 of Puerto Rico's best paid players in the March 15 game.
Photo: BaseballdeCuba.com |
 a vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid.
Too bad the French don’t play baseball; they would probably have great commentators or at least more interesting than some of the folk rambling about these last few days. In all likelihood Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderios de LaClos (and you thought Latinos had long names!) was not thinking of sports when he coined that phrase, “Revenge is a dish best served cold,” back in the 18th century. But how else could one concisely sum up Wednesday's Cuba-Puerto Rico game of the World Baseball Classic?
Oh sure, it’s just a friendly game of baseball; Cuba and Puerto Rico are brothers -- two wings of a bird and so on and so forth. So why did every Puerto Rican, who just days ago couldn’t imagine more ways to celebrate and be happy, feel like their hearts were ripped out and thrown into the cold depths of the Caribbean Sea?
After Friday’s 12-2 hammering by Puerto Rico, many people were already saluting and signing off the young and brave Cuban team from the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The 7-3 loss to the Dominican Republic just days later was the second-to-last nail in the proverbial coffin. However, the tenacity of Martí, Ché and Fidel (call Castro what you want -- tenacious has to be in there!) must have trickled into the heart and spirit of the Cuban team Wednesday night, possibly wired through the cosmic link of the Major Antilles.
In a stunning upset, the Cuban team not only won the game but also gave the inaugural World Baseball Classic its first stamp of credibility. This was no longer a stunt, no longer an alternative to baseball in the Olympics -- this was a real “world series.”
This last Cuba-Puerto Rico bout in the WBC may not have delivered the extreme scores of some of the other games but it supplied an oil-tanker-full of emotions and finger nail fragments. And that’s what it’s all about and how it should be every year in a real "world series."
Indeed, the Semi-Finals and Finals are days away but the extreme finishes and emotional oscillations have already branded this inaugural World Baseball Classic as real as you can get in sports entertainment. When
it’s not an abominable loss, it’s a colossal triumph and when it’s not
a nerve-wrecking win, it’s a gut-wrenching, howl-at-the-moon and
fall-on-floor-like-a-prom-queen-with-a-zit-on-her-nose indignation. The exciting rollercoaster has thus far left even the most jaded it's-not-baseball-unless-it's-American-baseball fan wide-eyed, shocked and awed.
I was sold earlier on with Venezuela’s fall to the Dominicans on Tuesday (March 14). As I looked around for a bottle of Ocumare to toast the efforts of Hugo Chavez’s team, I realized, ‘Wow, this is good stuff!’ (The games -- the rum is good as well, if you can find it.) But the “Weekend of the Major Antilles,” where Dominicans overcame Australia and Puerto Rico beat Cuba on Friday, and Cuba won over Venezuela and Puerto Rico defeated the Dominicans on Sunday, left many clues that this thing was going from novelty fun to serious fun really quick.
Unfortunately, like the games, reporters and announcers had their share of extreme moments as well -- from extreme bias and ineptitude to extreme oversight.
Here’s an image US mainstream media turned a blind eye to as they searched the stands for anti-Castro placards: Puerto Ricans welcoming the World Baseball Classic, and the Cuban team, as they protested against the FBI’s recent wave of aggression on the island. Photo: Alvin R. Couto/Indymedia Puerto Rico (pr.indymedia.org)
Jack Curry’s articles, “Crowd Control at Classic Is a Sign of the Times” (03/11/2006) and later, “Politics Intrude, and Cubans Don't Respond” (03/14/2006), were displays of Curry’s investigative abilities in finding the few and isolated instances of anti-Fidel Castro demonstrations or a part of a larger agenda to drag the WBC back into the Washington-powered political spotlight. Whichever the case, it would have been appreciated if a semblance of balance reporting, like the type The New York Times swears by, could have been observed. Of course, judging by the Times’ Latino representation in its editorial and executive ranks, along with its scant and biased “Third-world” reviews of Latin America, what else could we expect.
While Curry scanned for his Miami machine friends inside Hiram Bithorn stadium, thousands of demonstrators outside protesting against the FBI situation in Puerto Rico, as well as the continued colonial situation of that island under US territorial rule, somehow escaped his reporting capacity -- as it is typical for the rest of The New York Times. Never mind that New York has over a million Puerto Ricans, three (that’s tres for the ESPN folks) representatives in the US Congress and about half a dozen State and local legislators.
Cuba in Puerto Rico gave the gifted ESPN announcers a political and world history challenge they evidently were not equipped for. Unfortunately, the power of television overcame their senses and the perplexity of the situation inspired them to spew drivel in between their lackluster game coverage. The announcers were puzzled over the Cuban support in Puerto Rico, oblivious to the cultural and historical ties the two islands share, starting with their flags and the struggle for independence. I too remember those history textbooks in high school, where civilization begins somewhere between Christopher Columbus and George Washington. What could we expect? Hopefully next year (please, not three years from now!) TeleSUR can broadcast the games as well and maybe then we can have balanced and intelligent reporting and commentary on the games.
In all fairness, I hear the Spanish-speaking counterparts at ESPN Deportes may have been better composed. I’m not sure since I didn’t have the privilege of that channel. In a better world, there are around 80 channels of junk (out of 99) I’d gladly exchange for it, if you don’t mind, Mr. Parsons.
I will leave my media politics for another scribble.
In many ways, I can understand the announcer’s yearning to dabble in politics during the Cuban games. No matter what, politics have always surrounded baseball in some shape or form in Cuba.
But uninspiring announcers and marketing aside (although the logo is neat, even if it borrows from the Caribbean Series mark), the World Baseball Classic games have surprised many baseball fans so far. And as the series narrows, many sports writers are changing their perspectives on the whole WBC effort.
My only concern is that if Team USA falls to Mexico tomorrow, the powers that be may downplay the potential of the whole WBC idea. And surely, the race to the Finals will all but disappear in the US media mainstream if Cuba continues to dominate and Team USA is knocked out of the competition.
What was it that President Bush said about accepting world competition and the US not falling to isolationism?
RAFAEL MERINO CORTÉS
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