No Habla Espanol

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There’s something happening here… what it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s never been any official statement from the organization, but the Mets- under the new management of Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson- have purged the team of Latinos almost completely. And that’s a fantastic thing.

Let’s get something straight here- I have nothing against Latinos. I love the people, I envy them their warm climate and ability to enjoy baseball year-round, and two of my three favorite Mets- Johan Santana and Angel “Butter” Pagan- are Latin. And in case you’re wondering, the other is a Jew.

It’s not Latino players that are the problem- it’s the way in which they were brought here. Former General Manager and racist huckster Omar Minaya was so insecure he decided to exploit his Latino heritage by signing Latin free agents in order to create an ethnically homogenized, culturally-polarized baseball club, a group of players divided in the clubhouse and disjointed on the ball field. And the result was that we stopped playing as a team.

It’s a well-publicized fact that when Omar first approached Carlos Delgado he used as his selling point not the heritage and tradition of the Mets organization, but the prospect of Carlos “joining his Latin brothers in playing on my team.” How do we know this? Delgado- disgusted- broke the story to the media. If a white man- assembling an all-white team- had ever been exposed for using race as a bargaining tactic he would be fired immediately and probably shot moments later. This was one of many mysterious free passes that Omar received from the media… hey, they couldn’t blow the whistle on league-wide steroid use, so you really can’t expect them to stand up to Omar Minaya and foil “Operation: Salsa.”

Delgado would eventually sign with the Mets, after re-thinking Omar’s offer, and why wouldn’t he? He was getting a ton of money to come to Queens and die. That’s what Castillo did. That’s what Beltran was doing before he came alive in ’11. This wasn’t a team- it was a Latin sports hero retirement home, a museum… a zoo. At one point in 2009 we had three different men named Fernando on the active roster. The clubhouse was a nightmare- a virtual wall was built between the Spanish-speaking players and the English-speaking players. Certainly Latinos were accused of “forgetting English” for post-game press conferences- especially losses- and of simply disappearing from the media entirely when they didn’t feel like speaking. Omar not only created this communication breakdown- he fostered it by refusing to draw the line and demand accountability or results from ANY of his players. In fact, Omar took the unprecedented tact of playing his team against ownership, against fans, and against itself. Raise your hand if you think this is going to end badly.

Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins are consciously bringing balance back into the Mets clubhouse- one carefully-chosen roster move at a time. It’s not healthy for a club to be too Latin. And it’s also not healthy for a club to be too white, or too black, or too Italian, or too Irish. Diversity is the name of the game, just like in everyday life. Omar is a memory, and his racist ways are gone at last. ¡Es maravilloso!

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