[News] Blue Jays Slugger Carlos Delgado Stands Up to War

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Blue Jays Slugger Carlos Delgado Stands Up to War
by Dave Zirin
Published on Friday, July 9, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
<http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views04/0709-02.htm>http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views04/0709-02.htm

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado is known throughout the 
baseball world as one of the most feared sluggers in the game. Last year 
the 32 year old All-Star hit 42 homers and drove in 145 runs. He has 
averaged almost 40 home runs a year over the last six seasons. With his 
imposing physical frame, baldhead and gold earring he is one of the most 
recognizable faces in the game. Lately he has put the baseball world on 
notice that he will use his fame to fight the US’s war on the world.

In a very sympathetic story on the pages of the Toronto Star, Delgado came 
public with the fact he won’t stand on the dug out steps for God Bless 
America. "I never stay outside for `God Bless America,'" Delgado said. "I 
actually don't think people have noticed it. I don't (stand) because I 
don't believe it's right, I don't believe in the war."

Delgado also made clear that we won’t stand for the priorities of the US 
military machine "It's a very terrible thing that happened on September 
11,” he said. “It's (also) a terrible thing that happened in Afghanistan 
and Iraq. I just feel so sad for the families that lost relatives and loved 
ones in the war. But I think it's the stupidest war ever. Who are you 
fighting against? You're just getting ambushed now. We have more people 
dead now, after the war, than during the war. You've been looking for 
weapons of mass destruction. Where are they at? You've been looking for 
over a year. Can't find them. I don't support that. I don't support what 
they do. I think it's just stupid."

Athletes have historically paid a steep price for standing up to the way 
sports is used to package patriotism and war. In the 1960s, Muhammad Ali 
was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to go to Viet Nam. In 
1991 Bulls guard Craig Hodges found himself black balled from the NBA after 
protesting the Gulf War at a visit to George Bush’s White House with the 
champion Chicago Bulls. A similar fate befell shooting guard Mahmoud 
Abdul-Rauf in 1998 when he refused to stand for the National Anthem.

Delgado doesn’t care.

“Sometimes, you've just got to break the mold. You've got to push it a 
little bit or else you can't get anything done." .

Delgado fortunately is aided by both his superstar status and the fact he 
plays in Canada where the media is less likely to take orders from the 
Pentagon and slam the slugger.

But his resolve comes from a deeply personal place. You might say the issue 
of the US military’s human toll hits home. Delgado is from Puerto Rico and 
has campaigned for years to end the U.S. Navy's presence in Vieques, an 
island that had been a weapons testing ground for sixty years. The Navy 
recently left Vieques, but it has also left behind an area with 50% 
unemployment, abnormally high cancer rates, and deep poverty. Delgado is 
now part of a movement to get the US government to clean up their mess. He 
sees the people of Vieques as another casualty in the war on Iraq, the 
guinea pigs for the weapons that have wreaked havoc throughout the Persian 
Gulf.

"You're dealing with health, with poverty, with the roots of an entire 
community, both economically and environmentally," Delgado has said. "This 
is way bigger than just a political or military issue. Because the military 
left last year and they haven't cleaned the place up yet.

The catalytic event for his activism was when a Vieques man, David Sanes, 
was the casualty of an errant bomb on April 19, 1999. Delgado wanted to act 
so his father hooked him up with ‘an old Socialist Party pal’ named Ismael 
Guadalupe.

The high school teacher, “a leading figure in the island's protest 
movement”, had spent six months in prison in 1979 for protesting on “Navy 
property” in Vieques.

"He wanted to help out with more than just the situation with the Navy," 
Guadalupe, 59, said of Delgado. "He wanted to help the people there. He 
wanted to help the children."

Delgado has done more than talk a good game. Together with singer Ricky 
Martin and boxer Felix Trinidad, took out full-page advertisements about 
Vieques in The New York Times and Washington Post. The full page ad 
included the names of fellow major league all stars Roberto Alomar, Juan 
González, and Iván ‘Pudge’ Rodríguez. Boxers John Ruiz and Félix 'Tito' 
Trinidad and golfer Chichi Rodríguez also signed on.

Delgado didn't fear reprisals for his newspaper ads critical of the Navy in 
April of 2001. "What are they going to do, kick me out of the game? Take 
away my endorsements?"

Delgado has put his money where his mouth is, donating $100,000 to youth 
sports, schools and activists on the island.

He also travels to Vieques every January to run clinics, and bear gifts for 
the children.

"You'll need millions and millions of dollars to clean Vieques up. So, we 
try to make (the money) as effective as we can. We make it work for kids. I 
can't clean up Vieques by myself. It's going to take a lot of people."

You get the feeling Carlos Delgado wants to see a clean up far beyond the 
borders of Puerto Rico.

Dave Zirin is the Editor of the Prince George's Post in Prince George's 
County Maryland. He can be reached at editor at pgpost.com.
His sports writing can be read at 
<http://www.edgeofsports.com>http://www.edgeofsports.com.

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