What about that cop just standing around, watching while doing nothing?

The offending “incident” is nearly a month old, yet people are continuing to get p-o’ed about it for various reasons. I’m referring to that woman at a Chicago-area forest preserve who had to put up with a drunken jerk who took offense to her t-shirt depicting the Puerto Rican flag and its colors.

The idea that there’s a nitwit out there who felt compelled to start shouting and screaming because someone of Puerto Rican ethnic origins wouldn’t feel shame about her background isn’t the least bit surprising to me.

THERE LIKELY WILL always be nitwits out there who think they can shout down the existence of anything that isn’t exactly like themselves.

But this incident, which the woman used a video camera to capture for all of us to see, sticks out in my mind because of the presence in the background of that officer with the Cook County Forest Preserve District police.

He’s the guy in uniform (and body armor, in case a gun-wielding nutcase hiding out in the woods tries to attack him) who can be seen watching the incident and doing nothing about it.

Not even after the woman, who actually obtained the proper permit to use the picnic area at the Caldwell Woods forest preserve, pointed out to him that the drunken jerk was trying to harass her. Personally, I always thought more highly of the Forest Preserve cops (I have an uncle who is a retired officer) than that!

PRECKWINKLE: Pushing for investigation

I SUPPOSE SOME people will say this is evidence of how times have changed for the better. Because there probably would have been a time when the police officer would have seen the incident, heard the woman complain, and would have chosen to arrest HER on the grounds that she was offending the sensibilities of the man and had the nerve to claim offense for herself.

For what it’s worth, more Forest Preserve District police officers arrived at the scene later, and the man with the boorish behavior ultimately got arrested. He now has charges of assault and disorderly conduct pending against him – charges for which he likely will get hit with some sort of fine.

But it means that the split of our society seems to also exist within our law enforcement – and we have to hope that if confronted by such an incident, the cop who winds up coming to our “aid” is one with a proper sensibility.

GARCIA; Wants 'hate' crimes charges added

And not somebody who thinks he exists to protect the rights of the troublemakers.

WHICH IS WHY I’m pleased to learn that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle herself has taken in interest in the on-the-job behavior of the law enforcement types on the county payroll.

Although I also don’t doubt that the officer in question (who submitted his resignation Wednesday before police disciplinary hearings could be held) probably thinks he’s being harassed and that if we had REAL government officials in charge, they’d be backing him up!

There may even be people out there in total agreement with that train of thought. Wondering why our society has gone so loony as to be backing this woman with her Puerto Rico-motif t-shirt. Even though I suspect many of those are also the types who think there’s some legitimacy to that “heritage” argument people make when defending Confederate battle flag wearers.

Personally, I’d say her “heritage” is a part of the United States (Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth) while the other pays tribute to a movement to split away from this nation’s ideals.

I AM INCLINED to think that focusing too much attention on this loud-mouthed guy misses the point. I’m not inclined to get worked up like Congressional candidate Jesus Garcia, currently a Cook County Board member, who says he wants the charges against him upgraded to include a “hate” crime.

ROSSELLO: Demanded an apology

Or Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, who has been vocal in his disgust that someone would face harassment because of her ethnic origins.

The guy is a nitwit who probably has read too many Donald Trump-written Twitter tweets and ultimately will have to live with his contemptable self. Punishment enough. But that officer. He, and other officers like him, are the ones we’re going to have to rely on for protection.

Not all cops are alike – there are those who do act nobly with the best intentions of protecting society. We just have to hope they’re the ones who respond when called to our incidents; which amounts to a real crapshoot along the lines of a Las Vegas slot machine.

  -30-

Harvey vs Maria? Natural disaster spread thruout southwest, Caribbean

One reason I’ve heard given as to why everybody is supposed to be rooting for the Houston Astros to win the World Series this week is because of the devastation caused this summer by Hurricane Harvey.

The Clemente Award for charitable works

After all, the people of Houston need a moral victory of sorts to boost their spirits following the devastation spread across the Texas city.

NOT THAT I’M badmouthing Houston in any way. I’m sure there might be a few people who would think in such terms – as though seeing the Astros finally win a World Series for the first time in their 55^th year of existence might make up for any losses they suffered due to the storm’s devastation.

But I can’t help but think that such logic trivializes what happened with Harvey (the hurricane, not the one-time All Star Harvey Kuenn). As though Houston is now fully recovered just because they got a World Series victory – and will be able to stage a massive parade through the city as a result.

All of this may well be the reason why the most intriguing moment of the World Series activity that took place last week and this has to do with Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs receiving the Clemente Award from Major League Baseball.

The award named for the late Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is presented every year during the World Series to the ballplayer who engages in charitable work aside from his ballplaying activities.

Clemente made ultimate contribution

IN RIZZO’S CASE, he operates a foundation meant to support groups that address the issue of children who suffer from cancer. Last year, his group helped provide some $4 million to fund the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

A nice cause. But what does any of that have to do with the World Series or Houston?

It’s that Rizzo received a $25,000 prize for receiving the Clemente Award, and Rizzo immediately donated that money to relief efforts meant to help the people of Puerto Rico – who suffered devastation also this summer from Hurricane Maria.

Which has caused so much devastation and has such a messed-up relief effort that there are large swaths of the island commonwealth remaining without electricity or running water – even though the hurricane struck a couple of months ago.

Clemente replacement a star in own right

I’M NOT SAYING I expect Puerto Rico to be back up and running at full efficiency this quickly. No more than it shouldn’t be surprising there are still signs of Harvey damage in Houston.

But for all the people who try to diminish the significance of what is occurring in Puerto Rico these days for their own cheap political advantage (I’m looking directly at President Donald J. Trump when I make this statement), it’s nice to see someone bring up the relief effort at a time when certain elements would rather focus attention on Houston.

Particularly in a way that really doesn’t do a thing to benefit that city or its people. Like the cliché goes, talk is cheap. These people don’t want to kick in with cash that could help the efforts to rebuild the damage caused by so many storms that struck this summer – Mother Nature really was in a foul mood during 2017!

And yes, Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth – giving our federal government just as much responsibility for overseeing a rebuild there as it has for any rebuild done on the U.S. mainland.

Would you really rather think of Yuli and Yu ...

THE FACT THAT Rizzo would bring up the Puerto Rico relief effort as part of an official World Series-related activity is a plus – particularly since it reminds us all of Clemente – the ballplayer who in his final game of 1972 got his 3,000^th base hit. Only to be killed in a crash months later when he tried to try an overloaded airplane with supplies as part of the relief of an earthquake that struck Nicaragua.

An event that I’m sure would be long-forgotten amongst many of us if it hadn’t have cost the Pirates a star ballplayer – got to get our “priorities” right. Is Puerto Rico worth less to many of us because San Juan (the capital) hasn’t been deemed worthy of a U.S. major league ball club?

... when remembering the 2017 World Series?

Thinking of Rizzo is certainly more interesting than much of the World Series activity – unless you’re the type who wants to use the taint of controversy over Yuli Gurriel’s “slant-eyed” mocking gesture to pitcher Yu Darvish to somehow downplay slurs expressed in this country.

I have heard some say that since Gurriel is Cuban and Darvish is from Japan, we should realize that such attitudes are universal, and that the five-game suspension Gurriel will get next season is unfair. Just like they probably think it unfair that Rizzo’s gesture drew attention away from Houston hurricane devastation and toward Puerto Rico.

  -30-

JFK assassination docs do provide a nice distraction (for Trump) from flaws

Perhaps President Donald J. Trump has spent too much time watching Oliver Stone’s film “JFK,” particularly the scenes where actor Kevin Costner’s “Jim Garrison” character tells of how his children in a long-in-the-future year will be able to go to the National Archives and find the answers to the questions he tried to resolve with his 1967 criminal trial in New Orleans.

Trump spent too much time watching JFK?

Or (more likely), Trump wants us to quit paying attention to issues that reflect poorly upon himself. The Kennedy assassination of 54 years ago is far enough in the past he figures he can’t be made to look ridiculous.

THAT’S ABOUT THE only reason I can fathom for Trump’s interest in recent weeks in claiming he’s going to get to the bottom of all this by forcing the public disclosure of any remaining documents related to the investigations of that dreary day in Dallas when Jack Kennedy was killed.

The fact that Trump actually has no authority to disclose the documents in question (federal law already dictates the schedule for those papers to become public) means there’s really nothing for Trump to do.

In fact, I wonder if when he’s unable to do anything he’s talking about, he’ll turn around and blame it on government bureaucracy. As though the key to our national success is for Trump to be let loose to do whatever he wants.

Bo Derek IS the real 10!

But really, it is just the “flavor of the month” when it comes to issues that actually capture the presidential attention span.

A MONTH AGO, he got worked up over slacker football players who don’t show appropriate (in his mindset) respect. Now, it’s the Kennedy assassination. Maybe next month, Trump will think it time that he become a “wartime” president and start up a scuffle with North Korea?

Or he may decide it’s time to take on Barack Obama again; trying to place blame on the nation’s 44^th president for something (anything) that pops up in his mind.

There are real issues that Trump could try addressing – except that I suspect he thinks real issues are “boring!” Let someone else bother with the details of operating government. He’s a “big issue” kind of guy! Or so he thinks.

An adventure Trump doesn't want to take

Of course, his idea of “big issues” truly is questionable.

TAKE, FOR INSTANCE, the notion of Puerto Rico, who along with Cuba, Mexico and parts of the southern United States, all got hit with severe hurricanes or earthquakes. Natural devastation and the need for massive rebuild is the issue of this era.

Now I know Mexico and Cuba are separate nations in charge of their own rebuild. But Trump really seems to think Puerto Rico is also separate and that he has no obligation to give the Commonwealth one little bit of thought.

And that the thoughts he has paid to it are some gracious favor he’s doing – wasting time and attention on Puerto Ricans when he probably wants to have a mass deportation the way he always implies with regards to Mexicans living in this country.

Trump is the guy who has rated his performance with Puerto Rico rebuild as a “10,” even though much of the Caribbean island remains without electricity or fresh water all these months later. Bo Derek, the woman who gave us the image of a “10” being perfection, probably thinks Trump ought to be sued for defaming her character (since she was the real “10”).

Is Trump the 21st Century's Wizard of Oz?

OR THERE’S EVEN the issue of healthcare reform – the fact that Trump and his political allies have failed thus far in their efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act that is the major part of the Obama-era legacy.

We’re coming up in about one week on the time period in which people who have health insurance through the program (in the interest of disclosure, I should admit to being one of them) will have to renew their policies – even though it would seem the Trump administration will have few qualms about enough confusion existing that many people won’t be able to renew.

Death by political confusion – is that the ultimate legacy of this Age of Trump?

It might be, although I’m sure that Trump wants us to think about “JFK.” Or perhaps the “Wizard of Oz” and think of issues such as Puerto Rico or health insurance as being that “man behind the curtain” that we’re supposed to pay no attention to.

  -30-

So what are you calling Monday? For me, it’s primarily a mail holiday

Are you amongst the individuals who are persisting in thinking of Monday as Columbus Day, even though it is one you probably haven’t had off since you were back in elementary school?

Hero? Or Scoundrel?

Or are you going out of your way to think of this as Indigenous Peoples Day – out of some line of thought that you’re making a political statement in favor of the people who supposedly were “discovered” by the Italian (but Spanish-funded) explorer Christopher Columbus.

WHICH MEANS THAT for a day, we get to become entangled in a dispute over which ethnic group deserves to have a “holiday” recognizing it – and which one ought to be hanging its head in shame at the actions of its ethnic brethren.

Personally, the significance for me is in the fact that Monday is one of the federal holidays for which the U.S. Postal Service halts delivery for the day. Which matters to me because I receive paychecks in the mail that usually are mailed at such a time that I receive them on Monday.

But this being a mail holiday, it means I won’t get paid this week until Tuesday – or later, if it turns out that the Postal Service experiences other delays. But the ineptitude of the Postal Service is a separate issue – and perhaps one that I will choose to write about another time.

But for now, we’re going to have to contemplate just how much of a load of bull we were fed during those elementary school history lessons – which were filled with information that was usually vague or undetailed to the point where most of us have a pathetic sense of what really happened in our nation’s past.

A THOUGHT WE ought to keep in mind whenever the ideologues in this Age of Trump claim they’re “Making America Great Again.” Most of them have a twisted sense of what this country was!

But as for Columbus, many of us are going to rant and rage at the thought of any significance being paid to the four voyages he made across the Atlantic Ocean that were among the first contact Europeans had with the continents now known as the Americas.

Can we really erase Columbus?

Others will whine and scream about the fact that anybody would want to downplay those voyages. Personally, I’ve always found some sense of humor in the fact that Columbus’ purpose in making the voyages was to find a new route to India for trade purposes.

Columbus, in search of Indians, instead discovered Puerto Ricans (and Dominicans, although no one knew them as such at the time).

ALTHOUGH AS FAR as I know, Columbus himself wouldn’t have been ridiculous enough as to use the mocking pronunciations of Puerto Rico that Donald Trump used last week. Particularly since those indigenous people thought of themselves as being from Boricua – and called themselves Boricuans.

As one who is of Mexican ethnic origin, I can comprehend the sense of disgust some feel at the notion of European types wanting to have their cultural background dominate the story of this portion of the world – as though those who were already here had no significance until they were exposed to the Euro ways of doing things.

But then again, I also comprehend how much the Spaniards – who were Columbus’ financial sponsors – spread their ways. It’s not like the 23 nations of Latin America would have anything in common; if NOT for the Spanish language and Catholic religion that was imposed upon them. And the reality of history is that it wasn’t American explorers headed east to Europe – it was the European influence that caused the two to interact.

I won't be buying anything for $14.92

I also recently stumbled across a commentary saying that people should lighten up in their criticism of Columbus – based on the logic that the English settlers were actually far worse when it came to their mistreatment of native peoples to the American continents.

IT MAKES ME think that the reason some are so eager to dump on Columbus Day is because perhaps they perceive Italian culture and traditions in this country as being of lesser value – and therefore more open to criticism.

Perhaps we ought to think a little less of those history lessons about 1620 and Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims. Of course, our real history is the intermixing of peoples – and perhaps we ought to realize we can’t really “take sides” – we have to acknowledge both.

Unless we’re prepared to do away with Thanksgiving. Which is something I think many of us would dismiss as crazy talk.

One other drawback; for me at least. Because it’s a mail holiday, I’ll be paid late. Which means I can’t even think of taking advantage of all those Columbus Day holiday sales – no new mattress for me!

  -30-

World Series champs would like to challenge World Classic champs

I don’t often find anything to praise about the Chicago Cubs, but I have to confess to thinking that Cubs manager Joe Maddon has come up with a wonderful idea – the national team that wins the World Baseball Classic tourney come Wednesday ought to then take on the defending World Series champions.
 

Maddon offers a worthy proposal

Which, if it were to happen this spring, would be the Cubs!

NOT THAT I would think the Chicago Cubs need to beat anyone else to legitimize their accomplishments of 2016. Or that the WBC champion would gain any more legitimacy by beating up on the Cubbies.

But it could very well be the perfect way to end spring training, where the camps are scheduled to shut down toward the end of next week before U.S. major league ballclubs leave Arizona and Florida to begin the regular season in their home cities.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I don’t expect this idea to be acted upon this year. These things take time to prepare, and this idea would have about a week to become reality – what with we won’t know until Wednesday who even wins the World Baseball Classic.

So I don’t expect any team to leave Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium (where the championship games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday) to head for the Cubs’ training camp in Mesa, Ariz.

ALTHOUGH THE IDEA of the national teams put together for the World Baseball Classic playing U.S. major league teams isn’t absurd. Heck, there already have been such matchups during spring training.

If  Puerto Rico team wins, who would Javy pick?

Even the Cubs got to play Team Japan Saturday (the Cubs won 6-4) as part of that ball club’s efforts to cope with jet lag and adjust their body clocks (the games they have played thus far were in Seoul and Toyko) to playing in Pacific Daylight Time.

Pitting the two winners, whether in a two wins out of three games series like Maddon suggests or perhaps just one ballgame before breaking training could become a new tradition for the 21^st Century.

If this idea had been in place previously, then the defending WBC champion Dominican Republic team would have played the San Francisco Giants, while the Japan national teams that won the World Baseball Classic in 2009 and 2006 would have played the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox respectively.

Easier rooting decision if Netherlands wins?

THE LATTER WOULD have provided a particularly intriguing scenario, and not just because we can’t help but wonder how much then-Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s feisty spirit and loud mouth would have intrigued (or offended) the Japanese.

But that Sox team had Tadahito Iguchi as its second baseman. How much grief would he have got playing against his home nation?

Actually, that same scenario could occur this year, if it turns out that Puerto Rico keeps its undefeated ways going and wins the World Baseball Classic. We’d get the chance to see the Boricuans versus los Cachorros.

There's already been a Javy controversy

Except that the second baseman for team Puerto Rico is Javy Baez – who also happens to be an infielder for the defending champion Cubs. Somebody would have to make a judgment call on which team would get him, and it would be a decision guaranteed to offend a segment of baseball fans.

AS IT IS, Puerto Rican fans already are upset at the MLB-TV channel that has been broadcasting the games (Channel 233 on my cable TV system), a graphic of Baez depicted him in front of a Dominican flag!

It’s almost enough to make some people hope desperately that the Netherlands’ national team prevails. No conflict, and considering that their big star is New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, it’s likely the Yankees-hating world of baseball will unite in rooting against them.

How would Ozzie have 'played' in Japan?

All I know is that this spring already has had some intriguing baseball moments due to the World Baseball Classic, such as Team United States of America having the tying run on third base when they lost Friday to Puerto Rico, the fact that Team Israel briefly was unbeatable as they even knocked out Equipo Cuba. And the outrage I personally feel at watching Team Mexico blow a four-run lead to Italy, then getting knocked out of the tourney altogether even after they beat Venezuela because of a screwy tie-breaking system.

Maddon’s idea is one that could help further cement the idea that the tourney is a part of the professional game – rather than something to be conducted in isolation. Even more important, it would be fun – and that’s what baseball is supposed to be about.

  -30-

Chgo baseball on view for world to see

It will be intriguing to see how Chicago White Sox fans cope with the "big game" their ball club's star pitcher will be starting Friday night.

Who do Sox fans root for?

Jose Quintana will take to the mound at Marlins' Park in Miami, where his "home" Colombia national team will begin to play in the World Baseball Classic, the international tourney that began earlier this week in Asian parts of the world and now comes to the western hemisphere.

YET THE CONFLICT will be for those White Sox fans who just can't get with the baseball program and want to let their nationalistic sentiments prevail.

Because the Colombia national squad plays its first game Friday against team United States of America! Which, by the way, includes amongst its ranks White Sox relief pitchers Nate Jones and Dave Robertson.

Who do you root for? Do you stick by your favorite local team? Or do you root for your home country?

Do White Sox fans want Quintana to go out and get trashed, preferably early, so he doesn't throw too many pitches? Or would they rather see him do well on the grounds that a solid performance in a prominent ballgame will reflect well on Quintana, and boost his trade value?

BECAUSE QUINTANA WAS one of the pitchers whom the White Sox were looking to trade last winter, hoping to get lots of young quality (and cheap) prospects in return that could help bolster the quality of the ball club quickly.

Former White Sox star nicknamed 'el Charro Negro'

But this is just one of the many baseball scenarios that will play out in the next couple of weeks, which is why I feel sorry for those individuals who want to denigrate the World Baseball Classic. It's real-live baseball back (and not just a spring training game like the one played Wednesday in which overhyped former football star Tim Tebow got applause for hitting into a double play that managed to drive in a run for the New York Mets) after the winter chill.

Personally, I'm following the play of Mexico's national team, which began Thursday night with a 10-9 loss against team Italy (following losses this week to the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks at their spring training camps). I find it intriguing that their first round of games is being played in a stadium near Guadalajara, which happens to be where my maternal grandfather came from.

Pitching for Mexico, then White Sox

And also is the home stadium of the Jalisco Charros -- a team that includes amongst its athletic and managerial alumni the late Minnie Minoso of the White Sox.

THE MEXICAN NATIONAL team also happens to include Miguel Gonzalez, who pitched last year for the White Sox following several seasons with the Baltimore Orioles and himself is Guadalajara-born (but a Southern California native). Which means he expects to have family sitting in the stands for the games against Italy, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

For those of you who feel this commentary is getting too Sox-centric, relax. There are some Chicago Cubs ballplayers who qualify as being amongst the world's elite. Cubs infielder Javy Baez will be playing second base for the Puerto Rico national team, while White Sox pitcher Giovani Soto will be pitching for that Boricuan squad.

Making the most of an Israeli 'first'

Not that there hasn't been local angles to the play thus far. The big story of the World Baseball Classic has been the surprise play of the Israel national team, which was figured to be a token squad that would get its butt kicked out in the first round. Instead, they went undefeated -- including crushing the Taiwan team and beating Korea in a game played in a ballpark in Seoul.

One of the Israeli ballplayers in that game was Alex Katz, a White Sox minor leaguer who pitched an inning in relief. While another White Sox minor leaguer is Brad Goldberg, who is being added to the Israel national squad that resumes play Sunday in Tokyo (Saturday at 9 p.m., Chicago time). Yes, it's one of the tournament's quirks that they can add more ballplayers so as to reduce the chance of anyone suffering a severe injury that hurts the professional team they play for during the summer months.

SO FOR THOSE of you who are letting your nativist thoughts get the best of you and claiming the World Baseball Classic is a sham (because nothing beats the appeal of a late-season Tampa Bay Rays/Minnesota Twins matchup, right!), keep in mind that I'm also aware that the be-all and end-all of baseball will not be the championship game to be played March 22 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Puerto Rico infielder once defended Des Moines honor

I'm just as intrigued as how all of this impacts the American and National league activity in upcoming summers. So as for that Quintana start Friday night against Team U.S.A., I'll be the first to admit I won't be disappointed if the Colombian kid manages to shut our national team down.

A good game could help boost his trade value, which could result in the White Sox getting some talent back in return that could make the Summer of '17 a little more pleasant while enduring the scene now at Guaranteed Rate Field.

While also putting the White Sox a step closer to fulfilling their end of achieving the ultimate fantasy of true Chicago baseball fans -- an all-Chicago World Series, one in which the White Sox show their superiority over a certain other ball club that wants to believe they're all that matter in the world of baseball.

  -30-

How warped is Trump on immigration? Even goofiest of rumors seem true

It doesn’t shock me in the least whenever Republican presidential dreamer Donald Trump opens his mouth about immigration-related issues.

Only $79, and you can smash it to your heart's content

He has a strategy in mind; he wants to get the support of that segment of our society that is determined to think of immigration as a problem to be eradicated – particularly as it relates to Latin American nations.

IT WILL GAIN him some supporters. Although as far as I’m concerned, it also means he is worthy of any abuse that comes along with it. He made a choice about the kind of people he wants to vote for him.

So it also means he deserves the hostility and suspicion of the people he seems determined to single out for attacks just to try to get himself the votes of some people whose own motivations are questionable.

How else to explain the Trump rally on Friday in Alabama that devolved into racist rants from the followers when Trump once again brought up a pet issue of the xenophobic segment of our society – removing citizenship from certain people who aren’t exactly like them.

The problem with the remarks that Trump has made about Mexico and U.S. relations with the Mexican government is that they are so ridiculous and over-the-top that they make all the other rumors seem so viable.

IT BECOMES HARD to tell just what is absurd, and what is truthful. Because the truth of what comes out of Trump’s mouth is so absurd, in and of itself.

Take the story that emanated out of a Latin American-oriented website about how Trump said he wants to revoke the century-old orders that gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans. As I initially read on the WarAgainstAllPuertoRicans.com website.

Because, as Trump  supposedly put it, they don’t fit the image of what the “American race” ought to be. As stupid as such a thought is, it isn’t any more ridiculous than what Trump has legitimately said about Mexico.

Or the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which was one of the amendments implemented right after the Civil War to address the status of former slaves). Trump on Friday in Alabama called the amendment “stupid.”

I’LL BE THE first to admit that I can’t find back-up accounts of Trump actually discussing Puerto Rico and citizenship. In short, I can’t find an actual news account of what was said. Yet it is so in character that it comes across as believable.

Just as a story on the Mideastbeast.com website came across as truthful – even though it isn’t.

In that report, Trump supposedly said he was prepared to settle the dispute over Jerusalem and the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the Arabs who live in the area claimed by Israel by relocating those Arabs to Puerto Rico.

It was meant to be parody, but a Muslim cleric in Jerusalem on Friday took it literally, and went about denouncing the idea – claiming that, “Palestine is not the same as Puerto Rico, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is not a mere building made of stone.”

IN LIGHT OF everything else he says when Latin American issues come up, it would only make sense that Trump probably thinks Puerto Rico and its people aren’t worth much.

Trump probably thinks that Puerto Rico is nothing more than the place where he once developed a luxury golf course (with appropriate hotels) that has since gone bankrupt. How could it be anything worthwhile if it didn’t add to the Trump financial bottom line?

On the surface, the idea of revoking Puerto Rico citizenship (which would cause so many more problems than resolve the few the ideologues think exist) and turning the island commonwealth into an Islamic land are too ridiculous to take seriously.

Then again, so are Trump’s real comments about Mexican people in this country being “rapists and drug runners.” Whose only real purpose is to appeal to the segment of our society that respectable people realize are THE problem we ought to address.

  -30-

Spring came Monday in form of beisbol, no matter what groundhog said

The nation’s groundhog saw its shadow Monday in Punxsutawney, Pa., while I saw all the snow and slush piled up outside my front door. It’s obvious that winter isn’t quite over with.

Yet I couldn’t help but feel a bit of springtime joy on Groundhog Day, even though the activity I saw took place in Puerto Rico.

FOR THAT IS where the first games were held Monday for the Caribbean Series – the annual championship tourney of Latin American baseball. For the record, the Culiacan Tomateros of Mexico beat the Pinar de Rio Vegueros of Cuba 2-1 to kick off the baseball tournament.

While many of you were recovering from Super Bowl Party hang-over (I didn’t even bother to watch the game Sunday night), I am bracing for a week of baseball fun. The idea that somewhere on Monday it was 80 degrees and sunny, with a touch of humidity in the air and baseball was being played was enough to brighten my day.

Particularly when I saw that first game (which started at 11 a.m., Chicago time) in which the Tomatogrowers came from behind to win their game, with pitcher Terance Marin getting credit for the win against the team named for a locally-produced brand of cigars.

For those not obsessed with the most intense of minor league minutia, Marin is a California native who has pitched the past several seasons for assorted Chicago White Sox minor league affiliates, and who chose to play ball this past winter in Mexico and wound up playing for the team that won the Pacific League championship.

IT WOULD BE nice to think that if he is able to make the big club in Chicago this year, this bit of championship tourney experience might make him fit to boost the White Sox chances of making it to the playoffs this year and succeeding.

That is part of what makes me get a kick out of the Caribbean Series each year – the ballplayers are amongst the best out of Latin American nations and also some U.S. kids who try to boost their own experience and chances at playing in the U.S. major leagues with a stint in winter ball.

Just like Eric Farris, who made an outfield misplay Monday that cost his Mexico ball club a run, but then helped to set up the run that tied up the game a couple of innings later. Farris, for those who don’t know, once played for the Milwaukee Brewers, but has spent the past few seasons playing for Minnesota Twins minor league affiliates.

It is a chance to get a preview of what could come in future U.S. major league seasons, while also getting a chance to see competitive baseball being played at a time when we otherwise would think we’re in the dreariness of winter.

THE SIGHT OF pitchers trying to overpower and outsmart hitters helped me manage to forget just how ugly a day we experienced on Sunday, and how the residue of that day is piled up nearly two feet deep right outside my front window!

And I also got a kick out of the one Mexico baseball fan sitting behind the dugout who chose to dye his beard in the red, white and green tri-colors of the Mexican flag.

Not as hideous as those White Sox fans who paint their face in blackface (with white “Sox” script logos on their cheeks), but it does show a certain equal sense of sincere support for their favorite team.

So if you want to know what I plan to be doing this week, it will be trying to find spare time to catch as much of the Caribbean Series as I can (two games a day on ESPN Deportes -- channel 609 on my set, I don't know about yours -- with a championship game on Sunday). It will be intriguing to see how teams from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico (this year’s tournament host) do against the Mexico and Cuba squads.

CONSIDERING THAT FUTURE Cuba participation in this tourney will be impacted by the chance of U.S./Cuba relations restoration, this isn’t just fluff and games. There could be some cultural overtones to all of this.

And at the very least, it will help me cope better from the fact that my feet (as I write this commentary) are still damp from the walk I had to take Monday afternoon out in the slop of winter snowfall!

Just another two months before we can have Opening Day in Chicago proper.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This year's tourney is being played at the Estadio Hiram Bithorn, the largest baseball stadium in Puerto Rico. It was named for the ball player who was the first Puerto Rican ever to play in the U.S. major leagues -- Bithorn pitched in 1942, 1943 and 1946 for the Chicago Cubs (interrupted by a 1944-45 stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II). In 1943, he pitched seven shut-out games, which remains a record of sorts for Puerto Rican pitchers.

EXTRA: Serie del Caribe to get Chicago Sout' Side baseball viewpoint

The ballplayers taking part in the Caribbean Series beginning Saturday were from places scattered all over Latin America, while the umpires came from Mexico and Cuba.

The advertisements around the ballpark were for Polar-brand beer (get it?), while the fans danced to merengue music (rather than the heavy metal or rap music riffs we hear in U.S. ballparks).

AND THE WEATHER or Margarita Island in Venezuela, where this year’s Caribbean Series baseball tourney is being played, was so un-Chicago – sunny skies and 88-degree temperatures on Saturday afternoon.

Which is why I was amused to learn of the broadcast crews that way too many baseball fans will ignore because they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that the Super Bowl somehow matters – or that they’re supposed to care about overpriced commercial spots that will air during the game.

It was as Chicago as one could get.

I found it amusing to tune in to the pre-game show and see that the usual ESPN Deportes broadcasters were joined by one-time White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen – who didn’t give us any verbal whoppers, but tried to make himself appear to be quite the baseball expert.

THEN AGAIN, THE Caribbean Series runs through next Saturday. There will be plenty of opportunities for Ozzie to say something that will manage to tick off somebody, while amusing, entertaining or informing the rest of us.

Although if by chance you didn’t watch the ballgame on television (I don’t know your access to the ESPN Deportes channel – station number 609 on my television set), keep in mind that the ESPN Spanish-language radio broadcasts are using one-time baseball pitcher Orlando "El Duque” Hernandez to give player insight to the broadcasts.

Hernandez might well be remembered most as a New York Yankees pitcher. But let’s not forget his stint with the White Sox team that won the 2005 World Series. His relief pitching stint in the final playoff game that year against the Boston Red Sox (where he pitched three perfect innings, prevented the White Sox from blowing a one-run lead AND made Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez in particular look like a total chump) is one of those memorable moments.

And I’m sure that to the mindset of the Red Sox fan, Hernandez’s White Sox road uniform looked remarkably similar to when he wore Yankees road grays and did his part to repeatedly shut them down.


An improvement over Bud?

GUILLEN AND HERNANDEZ – it’s a shame they won’t be a part of the same broadcast at some point. Perhaps we’d get a reminiscence or two of that special season from nine years ago when a Chicago ball club actually wound up being the best.

 

Before they go back to telling us about this year’s versions of the Licey Tigers (the Dominican Republic’s champions) or the Hermosillo Orange Growers (from Mexico), or the fact that Cuba is once again being included in a tourney that purports to give us the championship of all Latin America.

All in all, it has me hoping that there’s some truth to the speculation that Caribbean Series officials are considering a change in the rotation of host nations so that it will come to the United States (most likely at the Miami Marlins’ ballpark near the "Little Havana" neighborhood that has cropped up along Eighth Street) in future years.

Be honest. It will be a more interesting spectacle than anything likely to happen Sunday when football (not futbol) fans freeze their behinds off in the wintry weather of the Jersey-based suburbs of New York City.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: One little tidbit when watching a Spanish-language baseball broadcast. When you hear the announcer say that the batter was "punched out," it means he was struck out by the pitcher. Not that any kind of brawl was about to take place.
 

A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): How many parades do we need?

Better in pictures, than in person?

Call it the controversy amongst Chicago’s Puerto Rican community that is likely to spill over toward all of us – activists are fighting about the Puerto Rican Day parades, which it seems this year will be a singular parade.

For officials reached a decision last week by which the funds that go toward a Puerto Rican parade along Columbus Drive near downtown will instead be put toward supporting a parade in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

PERSONALLY, I THINK this is a smart move, because I have always thought those downtown parades lost something significant in character when they were moved from Dearborn Street (in the actual downtown area) off to the drive where it felt like they were cut off from the city proper.

I’d be for taking all the ethnic-oriented parades that are held in Chicago and converting them into events held out in the neighborhoods – particularly if there is an ethnic character to the specific neighborhood.

Everybody these days knows that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Columbus Drive is generic, compared to the South Side Irish Parade along Western Avenue. If the Puerto Rican activists in Humboldt Park can’t put on a worthy event, then that is to their own discredit.

The same goes for just about any event. Mexican-oriented parades in the Little Village and South Chicago neighborhoods always manage to top the generic feel to a Mexican Independence Day march along Columbus Drive – to name the ethnic events that I would have any personal interest in.

NOW I REALIZE some are going to criticize me for being naïve, or clueless. Although I should say I appreciate the political considerations involved here. For many of the people who want a downtown parade are more opposed to cooperation with the activist-types who put together the neighborhood parade.

A lot of it does tie into the fact that there isn’t a consensus amongst Puerto Ricans as to whether their Caribbean island homeland ought to be the 51^st U.S. state, an independent nation or just keep its commonwealth status.

I’ve actually heard the phrase “Communist” tossed out by the downtown parade proponents to describe the neighborhood activists – which may well be an overstatement to try to lambast anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

What else is of interest as some people contemplate a Puerto Rican pride parade held a few miles further away from the shores of Lake Michigan come June?

 

I doubt any paper I wrote for will give me this sendoff

WORKING TO THE VERY END:  I never actually met Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, but he’s been around for so long that it felt like he was invincible.

Of course, no one is. Ebert himself succumbed last week to cancer – the same condition that took his voice several years ago, but didn’t stop him from being a heck of a communicator in his final years. Funeral services are scheduled for Monday at Holy Name Cathedral.

 

Much of the remembrance we’ve read in recent days tells tales of all those interviews with film business moguls throughout the years and how much influence he and Siskel actually had in terms of whether a film would achieve any commercial success, I must admit that I’m more impressed with his recent years. That, and his animated appearance on The Critic.

But the real significance of the Ebert life story is in the way in which he kept up the quality work, when many people would have decided it was time to pack it in. I’d like to think I could handle myself in a similar manner if I were confronted with his circumstances – although another part of me is honest enough to admit that I (and most of us) probably couldn’t even come close!



How would Lord Jeff of Amherst do...

MICHIGAN/LOUISVILLE WHO??!?:  Amherst College’s Lord Jeffs men’s basketball team beat Mary Hardin-Baylor 87-70 on Sunday, giving the Massachusetts-based college the national title for Division III this year – and their first since they pulled off titles in 2007 and ‘08.



... against Tommy Titan of IWU?

Watching those academically-inclined (but in many cases physically-challenged -- few 7-footers play Division III basketball) student/ballplayers out there on the same court that the Atlanta Hawks play on (and where the nationally-televised Division I game will be played Monday) convinced me all the more that small-school ball isn’t as inferior as some would want to believe.

A part of me was wondering how much nicer it would have been if my alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University, were playing instead. Amherst got to the final by beating North Central College of Naperville, who were the ones that knocked the Titans out in the Sweet Sixteen round of the DIII tournament. Oh well, maybe next year -- which we've been saying every season since 1997!

But it was still an enjoyable experience to watch Sunday’s game (even at the point when the game had to be halted for a bit because some of the arena’s lights went out). I got more of a kick than the masses will get from watching Michigan take on Louisville.

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