It's been a while since I named anyone and shamed 'em, but 3 baseball players from the NY Mets made the list due to a recent no show when the team went to Walter Reed Hospital to visit some wounded warriors. Only 3 players of the 33 man squad couldn't find it in themselves to show up, Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez.
Luis Castillo said he was too squeamish."You see people with no legs and with no arms, being in a hospital like that, I don't like to see that". Really? How about donning some body armor and join these troops that are in harms way serving this country? 162 games in a season that starts in April and ends in September, or October, if you are lucky, doesn't compare in any way to multiple deployments, daily combat and time away from their loved ones. Squeamish? People like Castillo make me sick! Castillo also said. "We didn't go because we didn't like to see that." Castillo needs to grow up.
Perez declined to discuss the matter at all, only stating "I don't answer anything about outside the stadium."
We are paying these jerks, who play a game for a living, a combined $36.5 million for next season and they don't have the common courtesy to pay respect to those men and women who have been injured while serving their country? They are part of the 99% of this country that never have to think about the ongoing, endless wars. 1% of the people, the military and their families carry the heavy burden of these wars every day; they cannot walk away, they cannot put the war out of their mind.
Castillo, Perez and Beltran give baseball a bad name, and it's a good thing these 3 don't represent all of baseball or even all Met's players. Met's right-hander R.A. Dickey said when asked about the no-shows. "In our own way, it's a way we can pay personal tribute to people who we take so for granted every day. "To have the empathy and to be in the moment enough to know that there are people in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting for the freedom that I'm able to enjoy ... To be able to look a guy in the eye who doesn't have arms or legs and say, 'Thank you,' that's a big deal. I take it personally."
Congratulations to this year's nominee's for the Baseball Hall of Shame- Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo, and Oliver Perez.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
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In all fairness, these guys come from countries that have been devastated by US imperial aggression as well as colonialism and neocolonialism. Under those circumstances, it isn't shocking that they don't have the same sense of gratitude that we have towards the US military.
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