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 (It literally took me twenty minutes to come up with a title for this post that wouldn't be offensive, so that was my best effort)
A New York Times story last week talked about how Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez is a major fixture in the cockfighting game in the Dominican and after he reported to Arizona yesterday, Ramirez responded, kind of:
``I’m not going to let you finish the question,’’ when the subject of
his recently publicized and criticized involvement in Dominican
cockfighting was raised. ``I’m not going to talk about that. That’s
personal. It’s a different culture down there. I’m from the Dominican,
so let’s talk about baseball.’’
Asked whether he was surprised such a big deal was made after his
heavy involvement in breeding and fighting roosters was mentioned in a
New York Times story last week, he said:
``I said I’m not going to talk about that. I’ve just got to say this:
It’s a different culture in the Dominican, and that’s it.’’
Ramirez, who teammates say has more than 1,000 fighting birds, was
mentioned briefly in the Times story, which examined the popularity and
viciousness of what was called the Dominican’s second-most popular
sport, behind baseball. Well, there really isn't a good way to cover this, but let's give it a shot....
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 First of all, cockfighting is wrong and horrendous. Make all the 'Little Jerry" Seinfeld references that you can, but it's just plain wrong. I looked up some video of these 'fights' and they are....unpleasant. That needed to be said. Ramirez is morally wrong for participating in this 'sport'. That can not be argued. The harming of animals for 'sport' is distasteful.
So, should he be forced to stop doing something that isn't even illegal in his own country? Is this as bad as Michael Vick? Should the Cubs do something about this????
Well, this is a possible PR nightmare for the Cubs if Ramirez starts talking about it at all and tries to come off as if he doesn't care. Based on his responses to the questions, I'm thinking they already talked to him and told him to keep his mouth shut about it. Legally, Ramirez isn't going to face any legal situations because of the fighting since it's legal in the Dominican, but he might see a drop off in whatever endorsements he might have. Also, the Cubs might hold off from having Ramirez related promotions in and around Wrigley during the upcoming season. Beyond that, there probably isn't going to be too much done differently.
Morally, this is pretty bad stuff and although I wish he would stop doing it, there really isn't much that can be done other than companies pulling his endorsement dollars.
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2008 Cubs Preview
Stay classy Aramis. Stay classy.
You're gonna eat lightnin' and you're gonna crap thunder!
The real question is did Aramis get Marcelino to take down his bounced clown check?
Ta _ mal _ e!
Little Jerry would take out Little Aramis in a heartbeat.
I wish the media would leave him alone about this. He participates in a legal sport in his home country, end of story. Morally wrong in my opinion but it is legal. Vick performed in illegal operations in his home country. It's a different story. Maybe Ramirez should go Sammy Sosa when the reporters ask him about this. You know, he forgets how to speak English. One of our corporate auditors sent me a picture not too long ago from their audit down at one of our Puerto Rico facilities. The picture was of them holding one of the champion birds (which according to their story they were pretty much forced to hold because they couldn't communicate with the person). This was actually at a restaurant as well. Nothing like a good cockfight while you take down a burrito.