Magglio Ordonez says those who don't adore brutal dictator Hugo Chavez are misinformed-Newsday

Newsday, Ken Davidoff: Miami: "The World Baseball Classic organizers - Bud Selig, Don Fehr and their respective deputies - like to boast about this tournament's

• intensity, excitement and star power.

What they prefer not to acknowledge is that many of those qualities come at a price that

• causes damage to the game's primary product, Major League Baseball's championship season."...

Mr. Davidoff continues: "Yesterday at Dolphin Stadium, however, we saw a fascinating feature that carried no side effects. An attribute that you couldn't imagine witnessing in a plain old ballgame in which countries and loyalties are not involved:"

• (I would put the Carlos Delgado political demonstration very much in that category of countries and loyalties, ie his refusal to stand for our national anthem due to
• his political beliefs). sm

(Continuing, Newsday): "Magglio Ordonez, one of Team Venezuela's best players, received a verbal hammering from the Venezuelan fans in attendance - and pretty much everyone in attendance was there to cheer on Venezuela - from the pregame introductions to the last out in Venezuela's 3-1 victory over Team Netherlands.

• Why? Because Ordonez aggressively supports Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is not exactly popular, particularly among the group of Venezuelan natives who live in the Miami area.

• The outfielder recently appeared in a television ad supporting a Venezuela referendum to eliminate term limits for the president and other elected officials.

"That's why they boo me, they heckle me, they criticize me," Ordonez said after the game, "because I made a personal decision. "I am not really hurting anyone; I'm just here to help my team win and take that championship banner to Venezuela. But that's not the reality in my country. There are lots of people in my country who love me. "I don't have any grudge against [the Venezuelans in Miami].

• I think they're not very well informed.

• I was ready for all of that, so actually, it didn't affect me at all.""...

*I appreciate hearing about this and am glad I will never meet Magglio Ordonez. But I think Carlos Delgado's was a 'divided loyalty' spectacle here on US soil and more personal for Americans not to mention incredibly rude.

• He declined due to his political views, using baseball to express his 'divided loyalty'. The rudeness of it is almost worse than what he did.

Newsday article, "Magglio booed for Political Beliefs."

• Addendum: Commenter to the AP's report about Ordonez on SportingNews.com:

"Good...

• *Havinspw2007 on Sun Mar 15, 2009 08:11 am

Politics and sports should not mix.

• However, if a player supports or promotes a political figure,

• fans or even other players should react in a similar fashion...

boo the idiot who is using his/her status as a platform for promotion off the field!

• Ordonez got a taste of life and should know never to advertise politically again."

(Curt Schilling took a lot of flak for his support of a past president, to the point he apologized. But it was fine for Red Sox owners such as Tom Werner to campaign for John Kerry). sm

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