"There has been no media word, nor word from manager Eddie Dennis (his cell phone is not taking calls), no word from the Wings' public relations person traveling with the team, nor is there any word on their whereabouts from the league, or Edmonton Capitals brass..." - Jerry DealBy DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
The Paz Files
HARLINGEN, Texas - You'd have to understand baseball fans. They get silly-in-love with their teams, elevating players to the Heavens and never saying never when things go badly. You could be down 11-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning and you'd still be there in your seat, cheering-on the club as if two outs and a 3-and-2 count against the last hometeam batter is nothing.
I'm that kind of a baseball fan, an all-out guy who will stand by his team, no matter what anyone else may say. But, and here's the key, I have to believe in my team and my team cannot let me down with any off-the-field shenanigans, like firing the manager without telling me what happened, or why it has to be done. My team cannot rip me off. It cannot be involved in anything that would bring scorn or shame. In exchange, I give my team my support, all of it.
Perhaps that's the kind of ballfan Harlingen blogger Jerry Deal is, as well. He'll go to the mat for his team, the weird Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, only Deal apparently isn't as discriminating as I am. He has shielded that minor league team like Luca Brasi protected Don Corleone. No compromises, no criticism.
Now, in his latest post on MyLeaderNews.com, he feigns being contrite and actually writes about the WhiteWings being "victims," of some unknown plan by the North American Baseball League, a conspiracy maybe, aimed at cheating local fans at season's end. We say it is the fans who were victimized by this club and by the league.
No home games in the championship series? Ridiculous. So much for supporting the team all year long. That is too much like spending everything in your wallet on that date with a semi-attarctive woman and getting, well, nothing, not even a glance backward as she walks up the sidewalk and into her house, as if you're not even there. Disdain? Well, sure. Deal would like everyone to think that he, himself, was a victim (no return of phone calls this week, for an explanation, not even from his good buddy, the team manager Eddie Dennis). Talk about used & abused. Deal must feel like that guy in the expensive date. Nothing from Eddie Dennis, a guy Deal postured as not only a great field manager, but a good friend. Shocking.
No, the City of Harlingen got nothing in return for availing its taxpayer-owned baseball field. Not one title game? Nothing from what likely would have been a nice-revenue series. Deal writes not a word about that angle. The team has been victimized, is his morning sermon.
Harlingen residents should march on City Hall and lift Assistant City Manager Gabe Gonzalez on their shoulders. It was Gabe who wanted the WhiteWings gone earlier his year, when word got out that the team was late on its payment of utilities it used at the ballpark.
Gabe Gonzalez was dead-on. This team and this league delivered zip, zilcho, nada. Left to assess its role, Harlingen must acknowledge that the deal must be sweetened if this league is to use this ballpark again next year. That's what Blogger Jerry Deal should write next, his epic on a baseball season that never was about baseball, but was about milking a poor town of its few resources...
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12 comments:
Exellent article. Had to be said. and Jerry deal would never write what you write. Thankz
...My prediction is that Harlingenites can wait till the cows come home, but those WhiteWings the city came to know during the season are not coming back, not until next season. That's the nature of minor league baseball and its use of players from all across the map. Put away the parade confetti and save the party hats for New Year's Eve... - Editor
jerry Deal will never admit, but he let the town down with not covering the WhiteWings like a real reporter. Just saying.
Agree, man if you want to see bad baseball or Minor league players, go to about 5 games of the whitewings or the roadrunners, and you won't return.
The league is broke, period.
Mr. Editor, Olivia Levier Richardson is saying bad things about you on Jerry's blog. How about a photo of this woman. I bet she looks just like Tony Chapa.
that Olivia is a nobody. just another local loudmouth. ignore her, like you ignore Tony The Turd Chapa. Losers!
Side Bar, Mr. Editor, I believe Mr. Rendon was a refrigeration Mechanic in viet-nam. Or at least that what he wrote in a letter to the editor sometime back.
He wasn't in an infantry unit. I believe he drove a Lt's driver. I know by his own admission he didn't a grunt.
Olivia L.R. wasn't bad mouthing anyone, she simply stated she was no fan of Paz-Martinez but agreed with his views.
El Perro and Hec, get your facts straight, before you start spewing rumors.
$200,000 dollars will get you a meeting with Rick Perry's staff. That man is a fake and a phony.
The editor of the Brownsville Voice blogspot, is coming hard on Kalifa.
And people criticized Jerry's bloggers for going after elected officials.
This editor, is tough on Jessica, as was Jerry McHale.
Anyone to Kalifa's defense????
Fred Rendon has been criticized by just about by everyone. He and his ptsd thing, is beggining to rub people the wrong way, as if people themselves didn't have issues.
He lives of the Veteran's Office dole.
A question for Rendon: Which came first, the chronic alcoholism or the ptsd.
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