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Julio Urías, Latino talent and the shadow of sexist violence in the baseball World Series

2020-10-21T01:01:13.813Z


A suspension for assaulting his girlfriend tarnishes the career of the Mexican pitcher, praised by López Obrador for his great performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers


Mexican pitcher Julio Urías celebrates the Los Angeles Dodgers' triumph.Rob Carr / AFP

"Yesterday I made my forecast for the World Series championship and I'm going with the Dodgers."

That is one of the pearls that the morning press conference of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico and a confessed baseball fan, has left this Tuesday.

There was no need for reporters to bring up tonight's start of the championship series in America.

In fact, a reporter's question was about the economic forecasts given the possibility of a covid-19 outbreak in the country.

The president resorted to a metaphor: just as Julio Urías "pulled the Los Angeles team out of the hole" with a masterful handover last night, remittances were going to help the government get out of the economic quagmire.

"A very good, extraordinary pitcher" were the qualifiers with which López Obrador praised the pitcher, in the opinion of several specialists, currently the best Mexican in the Major Leagues (MLB).

The performance in the defining game against the Atlanta Braves, in which he managed to hang zero in all three innings in which he participated, is the high point in the career of Urías, a young 24-year-old baseball player.

"Hero" and "star" are part of the adjectives with which he is cataloged in the specialized press and a reason for pride for Mexican fans, especially when it comes to the Dodgers, the team that won the hearts of the country of the hand of Fernando Valenzuela, a player with legendary status on both sides of the border for his performance in the eighties.

Zurdo too, in the same position and on the same team, you might think that comparisons with Valenzuela have been the heaviest slab that Urías has carried since he debuted in 2016. But they are not.

The pitcher was involved last year in an incident of sexist violence against his girlfriend.

The authorities did not press charges, but the league decided to suspend him 20 games as part of the protocol against "domestic violence," the term preferred by the league.

“I accept full responsibility for what I believe was inappropriate behavior during the incident.

Even in an instance where there were no injuries or a history of violence, I understand and agree that Major League Baseball players should be held to a higher standard, ”Urías said in a statement, deciding not to appeal the punishment.

Part of his decision was also based primarily on being able to return to the field as soon as possible: "It is important for me not to create uncertainty for my teammates as we get closer to the

playoffs

."

Urías' case revives the controversy of how professional sports leagues in the United States deal with complaints of sexist violence against their stars.

In 2006 there was a paradigmatic case in which Brett Myers, pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, was arrested for assaulting his wife.

Two days later, despite the scandal, Myers was on the pitch.

The justification was that his team had a lot at stake.

That logic - in which sports, economic and political interests are too great - has historically been imposed and in the case of baseball there was no protocol against gender violence until 2015.

Under the new rules, the league commissioner arbitrarily decides how many penalty games are imposed, workshops are held each year to educate players, and sometimes those under investigation are suspended from pay.

"I didn't do anything," said Cuban Aroldis Chapman, the first player to be suspended, after being suspended 30 games in 2016. The figure may seem quite severe.

The detail is that 162 games are played in a season, except this one due to the pandemic.

Roberto Osuna, another baseball superstar, was suspended for 75 games in 2018 also for domestic violence, but returned to enter the list of the 15 highest paid Mexican athletes, according to Forbes.

In the case of the 12 players who have been punished in the last five years, only four have missed more than half a season.

MLB representatives say the efforts are determined.

On the one hand, some baseball players, coaches and owners ask that the presumption of innocence be respected and have come out in defense of their teammates, demanding that their private life not be exaggerated or arguing that they have already served the punishment.

On the other, there are more and more voices that demand zero tolerance for these behaviors and insist on the role that athletes have as examples in society.

"If the goal is to reduce the number and severity of incidents of domestic and sexual violence, this policy has failed spectacularly," writes Sheryl Ring, legal analyst.

"As a public relations strategy, however, it works perfectly," he adds.

Other scholars, such as Melissa Breger and Margery Holman, look at how a culture of toxic masculinities prevails in the sports industry, but show hope in the power of sports to send a strong message against misogyny and violence.

"It is ironic that Urías prevented domestic violence in my house by winning this game" and "What happened with Urías and his girlfriend was an argument, nothing at all" are some of the messages that can be read under the anonymity of the social networks.

On the eve of the start of the series against the Tampa Bay Rays, sports articles about the pitcher cover the adversities he has faced: injuries, a birth tumor and last year's suspension, in analyzes that avoid the "rugged" part of the game. matter and focus, for example, on their fitness after playing again.

Between sports nationalism and a multibillion dollar industry, many fans prefer to switch channels when the debate gets awkward and calmly tune in to their baseball game.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-21

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