\"I never stay outside for `God Bless America,'\" Delgado said. \"I actually don't think people have noticed it. I don't (stand) because I don't believe it's right, I don't believe in the war.\"

Delgado was the first high-profile athlete to speak out against the U.S. Navy's six-decade presence in Vieques (Puerto Rico), where it used the lush green hillsides and pristine beaches as the prime testing facility for the weapons of the entire Atlantic Fleet.

The Jays slugger had heard some of the island's 9,300 residents complaining about how uranium-depleted shells used in the tests were causing abnormally high rates of cancer and other serious illnesses. By the time the Navy finally did pull out of Vieques on May 1, 2003, it left behind a community terrified by health concerns, dealing with unemployment close to 50 per cent and facing unresolved development and cleanup issues.

Carlos Delgado, recently sat out the playing of God Bless America, and has been doing it as well, he’s against the war in Iraq…(speaking out about ve-acas) he’s anti-war, opposed to war of any kind…the weapons used in Iraq were used in vee-acas…he will stand for the National Anthem, Canadians make a distinction between the National Anthem and God Bless America, he says it as a song used for patriotism, (is he anti America or is he anti war?)…he thinks the song is used to rally up the troops and he doesn’t support the war, …(should you call on god to bless any one country over another)…Take, listen, look at all the people going to see Fahrenheit 911, there’s plenty of people here that oppose the war, …Take, it’s American to protest something….Take, normally we criticize athletes for not putting their necks out and taking a stand, having an opinion, putting your neck out there…Take, then again, should they use the playing field as a pulpit…Take, another take, the guy is putting himself in the cross hairs, it’s going to potentially cost him money in endorsements. The guy could fall in line and do nothing, and go with the company line…Take, he considers himself an American citizen…Take, having a poor year, ribcage injury is part of it…doesn’t have much protection in the lineup…

Bottom line, do I have some questions, perhaps, would I not get up on the bench for God Bless America? No. But it’s a right, he considers himself a US citizen, that’s what America is about believing what you believe and not be punished for your views, he doesn’t support the war effort, he believes that by standing for that song, he would be supporting the war, he’s anti war, so he sits, am I thrilled to see it? No, am I offended and do I think he’s the enemy because of it. No. He’s anti war, not anti America, if he was anti America, he wouldn’t consider himself a citizen nor would he be making all that jack on American soil, if so, he’d be a hypocrite…Take, part of being an American is being able to stand up for what you believe in or in this case what you don’t believe in, and he’s taking a stand, he’s saying this is what I believe in and I give him credit for it, it’s not for me, when that song is played, I’m getting up on the bench, but I’m not offended by…it’s the path of greater resistance not less.

But it’s a right, he considers himself a US citizen, that’s what America is about believing what you believe and not be punished for your views,

JC:
I doubt Carlos Delgado's protest will impact his popularity in Canada at all, and I expect that's where most of his endorsement money comes from.

DownLowNY
This brings to mind the case of Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, the Denver Nuggets player who staged a similar protest in 1996. It ended up costing him his career in the NBA when he was released the following season.
I would not be surprised if Delgado suffers a similar fate.
In any event, I admire Delgado's courage and consciousness. He could have gone alone to get along, but he chose to take a stand. Let's hope he doesn't end up regretting it.

judemorrison:

As for the status of P.R., the people of P.R. have , in every referendum, opted to retain their Commonwealth status, rather than go the Independence route, so please don't categorize the status of the island as a persucuted colonial possession of the big, bad U.S. That would be inaccurate and way too PC.

judemorrison:
As I stated previously, I fully support Delgado's right to protest and express himself, and Fantomas, I would hope that he is ready and willing to accept the consequences of his actions. What I meant by my previous post was that on too many occassions people confuse their right to express themselves with an incorrect belief that there will be no consequences for such expression. Downlo seemed to intimate that if there were any negative reactions to Delgado's protest that the Latin community should somehow join together in an action against baseball. If fans express their opposition to Delgado, and owners react to that fan displeasure by, say, not renewing his contract, this would not be censorship (no one would be stopping his freedom of expression) but business (an action that I, personally, would disagree with.)

judemorrison:
Fantomas, what I was referring to was your implication that the U.S. has denied the Puerto Rican people the right of deciding for themselves what their status, vis-a-vis the U.S., should be. I'm well aware of the history of U.S. colonialism, but I repeat that I think that it would be wrong to classify PR as a colony or the U.S. as a colonial Caribbean power in today's world.

Delgado Makes a Stand by Taking a Seat
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

\"I'm not trying to get anyone mad,\" he said Monday in Oakland, where the Blue Jays were playing the Athletics. \"This is my personal feeling. I don't want to draw attention to myself or go out of my way to protest. If I make the last out of the seventh inning, I'll stand there. But I'd rather be in the dugout.\"

Good for him. In the world of mainstream professional sports, where cookie-cutter athletes rarely take a stand on any issue, let alone one as highly charged as a war, Delgado is a rarity. He is unafraid to question a ritual that he does not agree with. Delgado's protest this season has been so quiet, so subtle that Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, didn't know about it until I called him to talk about it on Monday.

When you called me today you actually startled me,\" he said from his office in Milwaukee. Selig later read a statement that he had prepared on Delgado's action.

\"I'm in the process of getting more information, but eventually I would like to sit down and discuss it with Carlos,\" Selig said. \"I am very sensitive to this kind of issue, both as a matter of respect for our country and for one's right to express his opinion.\"

I'll be watching to see how Selig handles this.

It was Selig, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, who ordered all teams to play \"God Bless America,\" injecting a political statement into the games.

\"I don't honestly think that politicizes the issue,\" Selig said, calling the playing of the anthem a matter of respect. \"After all, we do have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.\"

With all due respect to Selig, once \"God Bless America\" became a political statement, a player like Delgado became free to express his own political views.

Delgado's comments sparked debate for days on Sporting News Radio in the U.S., where he was criticized by former Jays manager Buck Martinez and ex big-league pitcher Bert Blyleven. It was also a hot topic on the nationally-syndicated Jim Rome Show.
. . .
But former NFL all-pro defensive lineman Bill Maas blasted Delgado's stance as \"un-American\" on his Kansas City radio show and criticized him as hypocritical for accepting a paycheque in U.S. dollars — a common theme espoused by opponents of Delgado's views.
. . .
But in the Mesabi Daily News in Virginia, Minn., columnist Jimmy Lane had harsh words for Delgado.

\"I'll tell you what, Carlos. I'll bet it doesn't bother you to walk into a bank on Friday afternoon and hear the song playing when you cash your very large paycheck, does it? You make me sick, Delgado.\"

An article titled \"Don't Stand For It\" in Metro Pulse, a lifestyle magazine based in Knoxville, Tenn., where Delgado once played Double A ball, suggested baseball should rebuke the slugger.

\"Delgado saw a cause and has used his fame to help effect change,\" writer Tony Basilo opined. \"But now, he's misusing that platform, disgracing the heritage of the very fans that gave him his bully pulpit in the first place.\"
. . .
Taking a stand against U.S. foreign policy is rare among high-profile athletes and often comes at a price.

Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title in the 1960s after refusing to serve in Vietnam. Basketball player Craig Hodges was blackballed from the NBA after protesting the Gulf War during a 1991 visit to the White House with the champion Chicago Bulls.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the Denver Nuggets was booed repeatedly and soon found himself out of the NBA after refusing to stand for the \"Star Spangled Banner\" in 1998. And Canadian-born Dallas Mavericks forward Steve Nash was criticized last year when he said of the invasion of Iraq: \"I think it's really unfortunate in the year 2003 that we're still using violence as a means of conflict resolution.\"