The World Series this year is not only going to see a long-suffering city (San Francisco or the Dallas-Ft. Worth area) win a championship, it’s going to give us a “record” for the most “Latino” ballplayers taking part in such an event.
For it seems that when one reviews the 25-man rosters of the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers, we find 17 ballplayers who come from Latin American nations. Of course, that doesn’t include U.S.-born ballplayers of Latino ethnic backgrounds (Giants pitcher Sergio Romo, just to name one).
THAT “17” FIGURE seems to be the most ever – more than the 16 Latin American natives who played in the 2003 World Series when the Florida Marlins managed to slip their way past the New York Yankees.
Yet I have to admit this so-called record doesn’t do a thing to excite me.
Primarily, it is because I know there’s a very good chance that next year’s World Series will have 18 or more Latin American-born ballplayers on its two teams. It merely reflects the reality that the reason the U.S.-based professional baseball leagues remain the world’s elite is because they draw so heavily from the world.
I honestly believe that if the American and National leagues tried imposing policies similar to the Central and Pacific leagues in Japan to try to make them a place primarily forAsians,, then the U.S. leagues would slip enough that we’d be whining about how the Japanese had surpassed this country in baseball.
MY POINT IS that at a time when Latin Americans and Latinos provide a significant chunk of rosters during the regular season, it only makes sense that the championship teams also are going to have a significant share of the talent.
It also shouldn’t be any surprise that those Latin peloteros will be significant players in the outcome of the Series. To me, the surprise would be if the Latin American athletes weren’t significant contributors on the playing field.
Giants infielder Juan Uribe (of the Dominican Republic, which accounts for eight of the 17) had his own “big hit” in Game Two, while Edgar Renteria of Colombia is laying the groundwork in the first two games to be the Series MVP.
That is, assuming the Giants manage to win two more games to take the World Series title and that there isn’t some heroic moment in a future game by someone else.
CONSIDERING THAT THE Giants have managed to find a way to lose every single World Series they have ever played in since moving from Manhattan to the San Francisco Bay, maybe we should be looking at the Rangers’ ranks (the team whose name translated en Español is “los Vigilantes de Tejas”) for a World Series Most Valuable Player.
In fact, to me, one of the interesting stories of this year’s World Series will be the performance of Rangers designated hitter/spare outfielder Vladimir Guerrero.
The Dominican Republic native has played the bulk of his 15-year career as the big star on weak ballclubs. It is only now that he gets a chance to play on a pennant-winning ballclub that wants to upgrade its legacy as a World Series winner as well.
Will Guerrero, who thus far has one hit and two runs driven in (along with one strikeout) during four at-bats, give us a performance late in his career that is reminiscent of Roberto Clemente in 1971, when his play single-handedly led the Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series win over the Baltimore Orioles?
WILL IT BE the moment that cements a legacy of a star player who didn’t get the attention he would have warranted on more significant ballclubs than the Montreal Expos or the suburban Los Angeles Angels?
Or will he kick in a moment reminiscent of his 2005 playoff appearance for the Angels against the Chicago White Sox (one single in 20 at-bats (both batting average and on-base percentages of .050) that caused people to compare him to Dave Winfield’s awful appearance in the 1981 World Series for the Yankees that warranted the derisive “Mr. May” nickname?
Perhaps the “big story” will wind up coming from Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, who has managed to continue a “streak” of hitting (12 games) in playoff and World Series rounds of baseball. A big series for him, and people quit thinking of him as someone with a funky first name.
Although my guess is that he’ll never get as much grief over his name as does Evan Longoria, the Tampa Bay Rays third baseman whose family originates from Colombia (he was born in California).
WHAT MAKES ALL of this interesting is that the issue will be resolved on the playing field, and it will be done soon (even if the World Series goes all seven games, baseball will be finished for the 2010 season by this time next week).
So I’ll be looking forward to seeing what these ballplayers manage to accomplish during the next few days. For those of you who’d rather not have to pay attention, just keep in mind that anything they do will be more significant than what was supposed to be the BIG STORY of this year’s Series.
The so-called pitching “matchup” of Game One between Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee stunk. So excuse me for looking elsewhere to find intriguing story lines.
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