Conservatives should really cover sports
A Montreal journalist was bullied off the Internet after he dared to fatshame the Mexican, Spanish-speaking Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk.
Pro athletes represent the diversity that lefties love and the violence and athleticism that they love to hate.
“Whatcha writing, honey?”
We’re watching the Jays at the Rays right now.
“Typing something now so I don’t forget it.”
The Rays won 10-6, but we missed the ninth to tune in to the Cardinals at Dodgers to witness the Cards’ Albert Pujols join Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds* in the 700 club, hitting the pitch from Phil Bickford into a sea of cheering Angelenos.
From a western perspective, that’ll be the story of the week for decades to come. But it will pass undetected in political circles.
I’m still learning how baseball works. But I live in Toronto, and I’ve decided Alejandro Kirk is my favourite Jay. That we’re both short and stocky adds to the charm. At .295 as of this writing, he’s also got the highest batting average on the team.
On 13 September, the Jays beat the Rays 7-2.
During that game, the 5’8, 245lbs Kirk charged from second to home with a heroic run.
Matthew Ross, a TSN 690 sports radio guy from Montreal, had the audacity to call the run “embarrassing for the sport”.
As Canada does not rely on the death penalty, we held up pitcher Alek Manoah’s beat down as the best possible response.
“What’s actually embarrassing for the sport is people that go by the name of Matthew and have never played a day in the big leagues thinking they can control the narrative and stereotypes. Go ahead and tell that 8 year old kid who is 10lbs over weight that he should quit now. Or just step aside from the keyboard and let KIRK inspire those kids to continue to chase their dreams and chase greatness.”
Ross was successfully bullied off social media and apologized.
This should be the perfect story for politicos.
Kirk is a Mexican citizen from Tijuana who uses a Spanish interpreter.
Manoah is an American with a bad boy attitude.
It’s got fat shaming (left wing), nationalistic support for our remaining baseball team (right wing), foreign players (that’s a toss-up) and social media (all y’all). But you can only drag this into the political sphere if you watch sports.
As a kid I played soccer and rugby and was raised in a Leafs family. We’re also a Catholic family, hence our embrace of suffering. I only latched on to baseball recently and it’s been a joy to learn — mostly from men, who have all imparted to me that talking about sports is a great way to avoid talking about politics. I was seated next to a fella from Edmonton on a plane a few months ago, and we journeyed through the initial hellos on the tarmac by discussing whether Connor McDavid is enough to carry an entire team. (He was not).
Nearly a third of Canadians watch sports almost every day. Mostly men.
A 2015 poll showed 59% of Americans are sports fans. Mostly men.
Let’s go back to Albert Pujols hitting his 700th homerun.
The fan who caught the 699 ball that night agreed to hand it over on condition that he got to meet Pujols.
But the fan who caught the 700 decided to keep it, and he was secreted from the stadium accompanied by a 10-man security team. The Barry Bonds 700 ball generated controversy when the fan similarly decided to keep it before selling it off.
Since Pujols hit his 700 at Dodgers Stadium, it was not a Cardinals fan but a Dodgers fan who caught it and kept it. Alright, we’re halfway to a brouhaha — but the Christ-focused Pujols wasn’t concerned.
“Souvenirs are for the fans. I don't have any problem if they want to keep it. If they want to give it back, that's great. But at the end of the day, I don't focus on material stuff.”
That should be the end of it, but there was some attempt to add feelings and opinions by sports commentators.
“The decision will surely bring about some controversy, but Pujols himself did his best to shut down any further conversation about the fan keeping the ball,” according to Zach Koons in Sports Illustrated.
“Now, maybe you and I share different opinions on this, but while the fan in this case has every right to keep the ball, it just feels wrong,” wrote Clint Pasillas of Dodgers Nation.
The 700 ball doesn’t seem like it can immediately be churned into a left wing or right wing issue, but dumping on beloved, foreign Alejandro Kirk for being fat while still getting the job done? That should be a right wing success story. Mexico sent Canada their best, but not before Canada sent one of our Taiwanese guys to help him out.
The 23-year-old catcher said last year that he didn’t know much about how to eat when he started with Jays nutritionist Jeremy Chiang, who adorably worked with Kirk’s mom before 2021 spring training.
“I love tacos”, said Kirk. Me too. LA’s Mexican food trucks from my last visit are still haunting me as I sweat it out in the gym, so I don’t begrudge the guy for being a bit chunky from taco overload.
Maybe sports aren’t inherently political, but the massive swath of normal people following along are worth communicating with. Political commentary isn’t commentary to an audience, it’s commentary among the audience while you’re in the stands. Keep in mind that beating a TikToker nearly to death in a ring is political now. It’s been six years since Kapernick took a knee with the 49ers.
Sports — including fake sports like WWE and AEW — are consumed and discussed daily by millions and millions of fans. And oftentimes what happens to and with major athletes becomes a political issue, be it steroid use, a national anthem, or bringing your CBD vape to play in Russia. Don’t let it pass by.
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