Wilson Ramos: Home

Wilson Ramos is rounding third and headed for home. The 50+ hour nightmare is over. Here at CapBall, the sense of relief is not calculable. Just a few observations and thoughts about this ordeal:

-Whatever anyone says about Nats fans, the ones that exist are amazing. I don’t know any Nationals fan that didn’t fall asleep or wake up thinking about Wilson Ramos. The candlelight vigil was touching and the fact that beverages were conveniently left outside the centerfield gate is a heart-warming gesture that shows the Nats’ brass was right there with us the past 51 hours.

-Twitter is a phenomenal tool for news. Rafael Rojas Cremonesi from vivacolorado, the Denver Post’s Spanish language news organization, deserves every single journalism award that exists. Basically every piece of information on this story came from him. He relentlessly reported this story, most likely sleeping just a few hours since Wednesday, and, if his twitter feed is any judge, racking up a gigantic cellphone bill.

-I would be perfectly fine if the Nationals banned their players from going to Venezuela, for winter league, to go home, to visit family, whatever. Innings-limits, pitch-counts, these are all things organizations do to protect players. Yet they are allowed to go to a country where kidnapping is an industry and they, and their families, are in danger. So let’s stop with the Venezuelan Winter League and the trips back home. If Venezuela really loves baseball that much, reform.

-Jesus Flores is a good dude. Ramos has taken his role over. But all he can do is give thanks over the safe rescue of Ramos. There is a similar theme throughout baseball, it’s a family, and while it’s no-holds-barred on the field, off the field they are all brothers. To see the tweets, statements and interviews was inspirational. I have close friends who are fans of the Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Rays and Royals, and their singular concern has been the well-being of Wilson Ramos. Not the Hot Stove League. And not anything going on at Happy Valley, which while sad and an outrage, has been settled for almost the entire time Wilson was in the hands of feckless thugs.

-ESPN is no longer a reliable source of baseball related information. Out of 50+ hours, “the family of networks” probably devoted an hour or two to a violent crime perpetrated on a 24 year old professional baseball player. Of course, news was slow in coming…but a network with an expert for everything and something like 8 networks (The Ocho) dedicated to sports, not nearly enough was done to highlight this story.

-Lastly…how do you come back from a kidnapping? Reading the accounts of his taking, what is going through Wilson’s head? This is a life-altering event. Will he ever be the same? Will he move his family to the US? Dual-citizenship? I’d lock myself in a room for a couple months if this happened to me…but I have no doubt Wilson will be in Viera in early February and on the field April 5^th, 2012 at Wriggly Field. Wow.

More thoughts? Thanks? Praises? Comment!