Posted on 02/08/2018 9:58:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
Days before catcher Elias Diaz was to report to spring training with the other Pirates pitchers and catchers, the Venezuelan native learned his mother was kidnapped in their home country.
The incident was first reported by a Venezuelan local news organization, which said Diazs mother went missing Thursday afternoon. MLB players who hail from Venezuela, and make up the third-most represented nationality in the league, have grappled with how to handle the danger facing their family members back home, as kidnappings of the relatives of athletes and celebrities have increased amid the political turmoil there.
The Pirates said in a statement Thursday they were pursuing all methods of support for Diazs mother and the rest of his family, including providing assistance to the authorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Because when you win the World Series - they call you WORLD CHAMPIONS...not US Champions.
You’re asking for some sort of affirmative action league?
Baseball is an American sport and was once seen and used as a way to export AMERICAN values and traditions to other countries. Let’s hope all the Venezuelan kids that see him play want to become home run hitting capitalists!
Also worth noting there is no shortage of American players playing pro ball abroad and have been for decades.
Japan Series Most Valuable Player - not very Japanese sounding names...?
1964 Joe Stanka, Nankai Hawks.
1980 Jim Lyttle, Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
1985 Randy Bass, Hanshin Tigers.
1990 Orestes Destrade, Seibu Lions.
1995 Tom O’Malley, Yakult Swallows.
1996 Troy Neel, Orix BlueWave.
2016 Brandon Laird, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Same situation basketball - lots of Americans playing abroad...arent you happy LaVon Balls kids are playing abroad and not in the US!?
Nice. /s Everybody’s got an excuse when the foreign worker benefits them. And “world” is a nice marketing label but reality is there are not non-US or Canadian teams.
Why did we let Teller, Fermi, Szilárd, Bohr, and those hundred of other foreign scientists work on the Manhattan Project? Why did Einstein have a job at Princeton? There were plenty of Americans who wanted those jobs.
Because we wanted the best.
My object is to welfare migration which pure national suicide.
Toronto Cardinals/Montreal Expos
They had UNIQUE skills. A good baseball player is a dime a dozen and there are plenty of American players that likely can step up and do the same. As earlier commenter noted, the Venezuelan is lots cheaper. Poor excuse.
Both of the Pirates’ catchers are from Venezuela.
Last season Francisco Cervelli made a TV spot about the troubles plaguing his country. He was literally about to cry as he was talking about them.
Diaz is a young kid just up from the minors. We all need to pray that his mom is retrieved safely.
It is like capitalism. The best guy gets the job. I prefer Americans too but baseball is big business and they hire those that pay the most dividends.
I don’t know why the Venezuelan players don’t move their families to Panama or somewhere safe.
Most of the US Olympic Hockey Team members play professionally in Russia, Sweden, or elsewhere in Europe.
Toronto BLUE JAYS. The Cardinals are still in St. Louis (at least for baseball.)
The Expos moved to DC and became the Washington Nationals in 2005.
Reno did say "there are not non-US or Canadian teams." US and Canada is not the whole world.
At the entry level they used to be more expensive, since they weren't subjected to the draft process and could sign with the highest bidder. The two most recent CBAs set limits on how much teams could spend on overseas players, but they can divide up their allocations as they see fit.
MLB has almost all of the world's best players and roster spots are pretty ruthlessly merit-based. Allowing the best in a given field into the country has never been a problem.
That's because the NHL didn't take a break and release its players for the Olympics like it had in the past.
Prayers for Diazs mother safety.
5.56mm
I am not sure that those individuals had skills that were any more unique than a great a baseball player’s, but the matter of the atom bomb was of graver consequence than the outcome of a baseball game. Regardless, if we do not admit the best qualified players, we will not have the best baseball teams in the world. We will become mediocre.
Where I live, the Department of Labor used to (and may still) issue temporary work permits for Jamaican apple pickers. The program goes back to World War II. The Jamaicans made about $10/HR in 1987, and a few weeks work would go along way back home. The workers were clean, workmanlike and rarely caused trouble. (None that I am aware of.) The farmers preferred the Jamaicans because they were better workmen, they did not damage the trees or tools, and were very productive and reliable. People on workfare of college students could not match them. (I have heard similar stories from a guy who worked in a vineyard in California one summer with Mexicans.)
Bringing people in for the sake of diversity really just means recruiting clients for the welfare state, and reliable Democratic voters. Seasonal agricultural workers, don’t leave children, don’t burden the public. A little diversity as a by-product is fine, but it should not be the purpose.
Actual story: MLB player whose mother went missing.
The injustice to the H1B situation isn’t that they are smarter and more qualified for lesser money, it’s that they suck and are ruining quality.
Were they highly intelligent and contributing to American culture and society we’d never hear a word about it.
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