Tag Archives: MLB

Cuba, Cubazuela, Society

Does Cuba Get an MLB Team Now?

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The Cuban players never gave up and fought to the end. Team Cuba ...So, there have been 181 Major League Baseball players from Cuba [population 11 million], 230 from Puerto Rico [population 3.5 million] [which is kind of like America, despite its second class political status], and 557 from the Dominican Republic [population 9.5 million].

My friend, who cares not about baseball, asked me last week what normalized American relations with Cuba would mean for the MLB.

And my skin tingled.

Some facts to ponder:

  1. The MLB has been in Canada. Still is. So foreign countries aren’t a problem.
  2. Washington, DC has a team, and it’s not even a state.
  3. Cuba is closer to continental USA than Montreal was.
  4. Cuba has a large and INCREDIBLY COMMITTED fan base, and their players had to leap over the defection hurdle to get to play, so there are likely more professional calibre players than that 181.
  5. If Cuba gets a team, the DR and PR would have a pretty strong case of “us too.” Then maybe Mexico and Venezuela.

So, I’ll be pondering this for 2015.

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A Better World is Needed, Activism, Class War, Colonialism, Corporations, First Nations, Hockey Politics, Identity, Idle No More, Imperialism, International Relations, Psychology, Racism, Society

Jesse Ventura Is On Our Side On Racist Team Names

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More support for changing the name of the NFL team in Washington comes from Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Yesterday, I wrote about how incredibly easy it would be to change the racist name of any kind of team. It’s really not that hard. Imagine the reverse, though. Imagine changing the Vancouver “Canucks” to the Vancouver “Insert racist slur here.” Somewhat inconceivable, so it should be easy to do the reverse, and fix the Washington NFL team name, as well as the other racist team names.

Now, hear how Jesse Ventura puts it:

Continue reading Jesse Ventura Is On Our Side On Racist Team Names →

A Better World is Needed, Activism, Class War, Colonialism, Corporations, First Nations, Hockey Politics, Identity, Idle No More, Imperialism, International Relations, Psychology, Racism, Society

How To Fix Racist Team Names Like the Washington “Redskins”

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“The Redskins Should Change Their Racist Name”

There’s actually a list of racist team names. A few of them even.

If you think the oh-so-rich professional sports leagues are the pure avenues of Everyman in pursuit of recreation in a troubled world, get over yourself. They are brand-obsessed, like all corporations. Some brands stink with their racist team names, logos, mascots and symbols, even though there are those that attempt to reflect positive elements of race [Atlanta Braves?]. A variety of people are saying this: #ChangeTheName and #ChangeTheMascot and that they are #NotYourMascot. Sounds like common sense to me.

But the only “good” reason I’ve ever heard about why some teams need to keep their racist names is…tradition. Maybe I’ve missed a few, but this one is so very sad. Tradition. Slavery was traditional as well. As well as keeping women from voting.

But let’s not only “pick on” Washington [the seat of the government that fought for the emancipation of a race from this slavery thing]. Let’s focus on the rest of the teams that have a rich tradition of sporting a racist team name!

Continue reading How To Fix Racist Team Names Like the Washington “Redskins” →