World Treason Classic
When examing various rosters for the World Baseball Classic I stumbled upon a troubling fact. Apparently several of our nation's own major leaguers have pulled a Benedict Arnold and jumped ship to a foreign nation!
Now I'm not talking about the Omar Vizquel's and Johan Santana's of the world. Those guys are simply playing for the country in which they were born. They only came here because of the opportunity baseball afforded them. Their situation is completely understandable.
What I am talking about are a select group of American-born players that have inexplicably chosen to shame themselves, their families and their homeland by taking up arms, or bats rather, for a foreign power.
After examing Team Netherlands roster, curiously there was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and Illinois native Mark Mulder's name, HUH?!
Mulder was born in a city called "South Holland," so maybe it was some strange confusion, he actually thought he was born in the country of Holland?
But that doesn't explain teammates Kirk Saarloos, born in Long Beach, Calif. and David Aardsma, from the very non-Netherlands city of Denver, Colo.
It gets more disturbing when you scope the Italian roster. Mike Piazza obviously has Italian heritage, but his birthplace of Norristown, Penn. is hardly a stone's throw from Sicily. Other "Italian" players include Philadelphia native Mike DeFelice; Passaic, New Jersey's Mark DeRosa; Baton Rouge, La. native David Dellucci; and Miami, Fla. native Lenny DiNardo.
I mean, shouldn't the requirement for being added to the Italian roster be something more than having eaten at the Olive Garden? Tampa, Fla. native Matt Mantei is also on the squad. Is Mantei even an Italian name?
The big question is, why is this not a larger issue? Aren't we supposed to be a more patriotic nation since 9/11? Yet everybody is cool with American ballplayers representing foreign countries in a world tournament? Can you imagine Mark Mulder taking the hill against the U.S. in a tournament finale?
Thank goodness the military is not like this! Imagine scores of soldiers, sailors and airmen deciding the competition in the U.S. military was too great and simply fled to Canada to join their military instead. Seriously, what person not named Bill Clinton would ever considered such a thing. Yet in the World Baseball Classic, its not just accepted, its encouraged.
I guess the biggest shock is seeing Roger Clemens in an American uniform and not a Canadian. Weren't his two years with the Toronto Blue Jays enough to make him "Canadian?"
Now I'm not talking about the Omar Vizquel's and Johan Santana's of the world. Those guys are simply playing for the country in which they were born. They only came here because of the opportunity baseball afforded them. Their situation is completely understandable.
What I am talking about are a select group of American-born players that have inexplicably chosen to shame themselves, their families and their homeland by taking up arms, or bats rather, for a foreign power.
After examing Team Netherlands roster, curiously there was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and Illinois native Mark Mulder's name, HUH?!
Mulder was born in a city called "South Holland," so maybe it was some strange confusion, he actually thought he was born in the country of Holland?
But that doesn't explain teammates Kirk Saarloos, born in Long Beach, Calif. and David Aardsma, from the very non-Netherlands city of Denver, Colo.
It gets more disturbing when you scope the Italian roster. Mike Piazza obviously has Italian heritage, but his birthplace of Norristown, Penn. is hardly a stone's throw from Sicily. Other "Italian" players include Philadelphia native Mike DeFelice; Passaic, New Jersey's Mark DeRosa; Baton Rouge, La. native David Dellucci; and Miami, Fla. native Lenny DiNardo.
I mean, shouldn't the requirement for being added to the Italian roster be something more than having eaten at the Olive Garden? Tampa, Fla. native Matt Mantei is also on the squad. Is Mantei even an Italian name?
The big question is, why is this not a larger issue? Aren't we supposed to be a more patriotic nation since 9/11? Yet everybody is cool with American ballplayers representing foreign countries in a world tournament? Can you imagine Mark Mulder taking the hill against the U.S. in a tournament finale?
Thank goodness the military is not like this! Imagine scores of soldiers, sailors and airmen deciding the competition in the U.S. military was too great and simply fled to Canada to join their military instead. Seriously, what person not named Bill Clinton would ever considered such a thing. Yet in the World Baseball Classic, its not just accepted, its encouraged.
I guess the biggest shock is seeing Roger Clemens in an American uniform and not a Canadian. Weren't his two years with the Toronto Blue Jays enough to make him "Canadian?"
posted by Jon Sladek at 10:10 PM
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