Pedro: Racist press bashes Sosa

Boston Herald ^ | Friday, June 6, 2003 | Michael Silverman

[presidio9]

Racial bias in the press has blown out of proportion the saga of Sammy Sosa and his corked bat, Pedro Martinez said yesterday in defense of his fellow Dominican.

``We may be Latin, a minority, but we are not dumb. We are not dumb, we see everything that happens,'' said an agitated Martinez during an extended venting session in the visitors' clubhouse at PNC Park before last night's Red Sox-Pirates game. The intense media coverage of the Sosa episode also touched another nerve with Martinez, who said he also has felt the sting of racial bias from the media.

When Martinez walked into the clubhouse, the TV was tuned to ESPN and much of the coverage was devoted to the fallout from the corked bat Sosa used in a game on Tuesday.

Martinez needed no prompting to begin expressing his concern at the vilification of Sosa. Martinez all but agreed with comments uttered by former major leaguer Jose Canseco, a Cuban-born slugger who has been suspected of steroid use. On ESPN Wednesday night, Canseco questioned that if Sosa were white and his bat were found to be corked, there would not be nearly the same level of hysteria.

When Martinez was asked what would have happened if this were to happen to Mark McGwire, he said, ``it would still be a big deal but not like this.''

Martinez said since X-rays of ``a hundred'' of Sosa's bats had turned up no further cork, he wanted to see a reverse smear campaign to repair Sosa's reputation.

``I want to see the same campaign to go on, to put him up, to justify the mistake, I want to see the same campaign,'' said Martinez. Asked about the chances of that happening, Martinez made a circle with his fingers and said, ``Zero, (expletive) zero.''

Martinez said he had watched all of the ESPN and Fox specials regarding Sosa. Those who expressed anti-Sosa comments earned scorn from Martinez.

``Those two (reporters on ESPN), you can read jealous, you can read envy, you can read anger,'' said Martinez. ``Even that guy at Fox, this guy said, `Hey, let's go, smile,' as if that's something that's supposed to be fun. (Expletive), I'm going to go and hunt the guy down.

``One guy turned so red, he looked like a lobster, a steamed lobster.''

When Sosa said on Wednesday that the media had ``got me up there like I'm a criminal,'' Martinez felt that Sosa, whose command of English is not as good as Martinez', could have benefited from speaking in his native Spanish on this issue.

``I know Sammy from my heart and I know Sammy as a person and Sammy does not express himself well and does not know how to communicate well enough,'' said Martinez. ``But I know him and I know he can speak, I know in my heart he wanted to say something else.

``They should have had someone to translate and have Sammy talk from his heart, how he feels. We are in America, I understand, we don't speak the language but we are doing the best we can to express ourselves. I am not defending him because it is illegal (using a corked bat). But I have never cheated but I have been (expletive) robbed.''

Martinez being ``robbed'' was a reference to him being denied the American League Cy Young Award last year - he finished a close second to Oakland's Barry Zito - and also finishing a close second in the 1999 AL Most Valuable Player Award voting.

Martinez said he did not believe that Zito or '99 MVP Ivan Rodriguez were undeserving of winning but he could not understand how he did not place in the top three on some voters' ballots and not appear at all on the ballots of two voters in 1999.

``I was robbed too and no one stood behind me,'' said Martinez. ``The Cy Young could have gone either way but some guys decided not to vote for me. Why did no one make a campaign for me?

``If I were Roger Clemens, would he have won the Cy Young last year?'' asked Martinez. ``I want someone to stand up for me.''

Martinez recalled that ESPN commentator Peter Gammons last fall was supporting Zito for the Cy Young.

Gammons, according to Martinez, said, ``I'm going with Zito because I'm tired of seeing the same face. We need a fresh face. Here's a guy (Zito) who plays guitar, he's cute, he's a white Caucasian. That's why he had his campaign against me for the Cy Young. The same thing for Sammy.''

[hole_n_one]

What you said.

Thanks for the ping, tootz!

[liberalnot]

as the los angeles times said thursday, it's "sexist" that martha stewart was charged.

same thing here, "racism".

actually, sosa's one of the most liked athletes. so i'm surprised someone would even mouth this charge.

[ApesForEvolution]

"...we are not dumb. We are not dumb..."Haha. No, we just think we need corked bats to 'impress' people, and then, we 'accidentally' pick up the Big 'C' bat and...take it up to the plate. Followed by, of course, the mother of all 'I made a mistake..' excuses.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yeah, some white guy forced Sammy at gunpoint to go to the plate with a corked bat.

[pave palestine]

Nobody will move to punish Pedro like they punished Rocker for making racist comments. Accusing someone of being racist without proof should be considered the same as making overtly racist comments.

[per loin]

Any pitcher who suspects that Sosa may have used his corked bat against him in the past, now has ample justification to punish Sammy for his misdeeds. He's a big target, and not very quick at dodgeball.

[Mr. Mojo]

"We may be Latin, a minority, but we are not dumb." - Pedro Martinez

Typical group-think. No racial group taken as a whole is dumb, but individuals within that group certainly can be. ....And Pedro appears to be one of those individuals.

[Mr. Mojo]

What was Gammons' take on the matter?

[Mr. Mojo]

this whole "story", while extremely unimportant, and not newsworthy

That's why there's a sports section in the paper. If one desires only to read important issues of the day, then one simply doesn't read that portion of the paper.

[Free ThinkerNY]

You hit the nail on the head.

[LanPB01]

Gammons obviously denied that race played any factor in his support for Zito over Martinez in the voting. He did say something about Zito being a new face and "new blood", but also denied that played a role either. It was a fairly short response. If you search at ESPN, you might be able to find it.

[666beast]

the 'liberal newsrooms' comment was on-point.

How many times have I seen ESPN portray a white guy as a geek and a black guy as hip? How many times have I seen them openly mock white athletes like Shawn Bradley, etc.?

Sports broadcasters pander and patronize to minorities and are STILL accused of racism.

Hey, Pedro and Jose, how's this for racism? With your crummy attitudes, you 2 aren't fit to mow the damn lawns on a ball field! Go home and chop sugar cane like you should be doing instead of living in absolute splendor in this 'racist' country.

Most people can't even imagine nor dream of the lifestyle either one of these 2 racists lead.

Baseball needs less racists like jose and pedro and then maybe fans would start watching again.

BTW, Jose, we know you did steroids, so you cheated too.