Maglio Ordonez is one of the more decorated Venezuelans in baseball history. He’s still a major leaguer, he’s a former All-Star and a proud countryman. All of that should make him a huge hit at the ongoing World Baseball Classic, where the Venezuelans landed a big second round victory over the Netherlands yesterday. But it isnt working out that way. Instead, Ordonez is being boooed like A-Rod in Boston, and it’s all because of his political beliefs.
According to the ASSOCIATED PRESS, the disagreement between Ordonez and his country’s rabid fans stems from a series of current commercials in Venezuela. In the ads, the slugger advocates for the abolition of presidential term limits, a move which is patently aimed at getting more time in office for controversial head of state/autocrat Hugo Chavez. The controversial president has long exploited Ordonez’s success and fame for his own gain (no surprise there) as you can see in the video after the break, where Chavez holds a press conference to congratulate Ordonez’s past accomplishemts. While some, like fiery White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen weren’t so receptive, Ordonez has always been happy to play Chavez’s patsy. Needless to say, that’s not going over too well with the more liberal Venezuelans (i.e., expats in the U.S. and other countries) who have to watch Ordonez’s ugly mug — and horrible hair — in ads for a guy they’ve been fighting to push away for years.
Just listen to comments from a couple of Venezuela fans, and you get an idea of just how horribly Ordonez’s cameos were received.
“He should be expelled!” shouted Simon Azlak, a Venezuelan national and resident of Miami who attended the game with several friends.
“We don’t want to see him ever again,” his friend Juan Rangel added.
Expulsion: Not just for middle school anymore. Clearly, that’s not going to happen, but it doesn’t sound like fans are going to stop booing Ordonez any time soon, either. And the way Venezuela is steamrolling opponents right now, the fans coule get a much longer lease of life on their political soapbox, extending Magglio’s stay in an unintentded political crucible, all played out on international TV.
Bet that’s what he thought he was heading off for when he left Tigers camp earlier this spring, huh?
8:15 pm on March 15th, 2009
But what do actual Venezuelans think about him. These expats always have so many bad things to say about the leaders of their old countries, but the people who still have to actually live there never seem to be quite as vocal. Cuba used to be a place where americans went for vacation and the cuban's standard of living was even worse than it is now, except for a few cubans who made tons of money from the tourism and byproduct industries. Castro and Che Guevarra overthrew the government and kicked out those cubans that were making large sums of money while the rest of the country suffered. Thats why those cubans in south florida are always calling for his head, he had the nerve to take them rich people down a peg. That is mostly what Chavez is doing. He wants to make sure that the entire country benefits from all that OIL in Venezuela, and not just the Rich oil tycoons. But I guess even in this time of financial crisis, "Share" is still a four letter word though
11:06 pm on March 15th, 2009
LOLWUT?
11:39 pm on March 15th, 2009
SLIM6789 you are so wrong, people in Venezuela are having a nightmare because the Hugo Chavez's revolution. The only one who make money wiht the Venezuelan oil is Chavez, the Venezuelans are in a extreme poverty because we don't have any oportunities to make money. I write this because I live in Venezuela and I know what I'm talking, you should read about Venezuela and Cuba because you are extremly wrong.
5:00 pm on March 16th, 2009
What is important to say is that most venezuelan do respect political belief however… Mr. Ordoñez has agreed to become part of the mafia with his companies which receive contracts directly from goverment as counterpaiment of his backing to the comunist chavez.
there are some other players who back chavez however, we do have respect for them but … we can not back a good player who is a mafia comunist!!!!
8:30 pm on March 16th, 2009
Hmmm???? Convenient that you just happen to be living in Venezuela right now so I look like an ass. But I think I'll wait until I get a chance to visit venezuela before I take the word of some random internet poster who is probably sitting in his florida condo right now…. My grandmother went to cuba in the late 60's and she swears that all the people loved Castro. She had to help in the fields, and she says that he even visited the sugar cane fields. So don't tell me I don't know about Cuba..I think you are full of shit about being in venezuela. YOU CANT BE THAT POOR IF YOU ARE SURFING THE INTERNET?!?!?!
10:30 pm on March 16th, 2009
Disregard this troll.——^
1:24 pm on March 19th, 2009
slim6789,
1. Why are you so hostile man? no one is trying to make you look like an ass. You are reacting as the fans that you are criticizing. This posts are meant to be informative.
2. Like your grandmother did in the 60's. I think you should try this: stay in Caracas (or in any other part of the country) for a summer, go in the streets and scream "Viva Chavez" over and over again. We will show you our "love" for him.
2. Regarding Magglio: If he loves what is going on in Venezuela so much, why doesnt he raise his family there? If the revolution is going so well (like he says it is) he shouldnt have to worry about kidnapping, crime, and political persecution. He can be the number one spokeman for Chavez THERE. We dont like Magglio's opinion because he is doing it out of self-interest and money….which at the ends makes him more "piti-yankee" (Chavez term for a venezuelan who wants anything to do with american capitalism) than "socialist". On top of that he comes across as maybe the second biggest hypocrat in the country (after Chavez).
3. "You cant be that poor if you are surfing the internet": it doesnt require much to surf the internet. If you go to the barrios (poor neighborhoods) in Venezuela, you will be surprised how many extremely poor households have DirecTV (so they can change the channel when Chavez addresses the country 364 times a year).
There is more than one way to surf the internet, so please lets not make general assumptions on a person's income based on their accessibility to the internet.
4. Public figures or celebrities should know better when to avoid conflicting topics such as politics. If you voted for McCain this past election you will probably feel this way when you heard celebrities endorsing or talking about Obama.
Magglio Ordonez opinion would be respected if he lived and raised his family under the revolution he praises…….until then, if he continues to play with fire, he will get burn.
Thank you guys, hope this helps with the discussion. Nothing was meant to be personal, if it came out that way, I apologize.
10:24 pm on March 21st, 2009
Slim, you are so ignorant about History, Cuba today it is poorer than Haiti, there are cubans living in Haiti because of your pal Castro.When those dictators came to power Cuba had the highest GDP of Latin America, and most of the population was midle class, today everybody is poor but the Castro's brothers and their pals, regular cubans flee wherever they can, even to Haiti.That is what you want for the good people of Venezuela, good for the venezuelans to boo that " millionaire socialist", and if you like Castro and Chavez so much, why don't you go and live there so you can see and understand why we feel so strong about those dictators.