Friday, March 6, 2015

Herculean Effort at Understanding

It's probably the headline of this piece quoting Herculez Gomez on yet-uncapped Mexican-American Ventura Alvarado that threw me off a bit. 

Herc, who played in the 2010 World Cup with the USA, is as red-white-and-true-blue as they come, encouraging other young Mexican-Americans like Paul Arriola to cast their lot with the USA. But I remember years ago asking a young, as-yet-uncapped Herc about his chances with Mexico - and yes, he was open to that possibility. Mexico never came calling, but the USA did. Thus, I was surprised that he would judge Ventura (a bit harshly, I thought) for doing something similar - saying he was undecided as to his final choice, but open at this point to both countries. 

I tweeted that opinion and then went on to do something else. While I was gone, Herc responded in a couple of tweets. But on my phone, this was the first one that popped up. 
While I thought it was odd that Herc would tell me, "Get offended," I figured it was short for "I can't control if people get offended," or something. 

Now I was confused. I scrolled down and saw that the first Tweet I responded to was actually the second part of another one. 



So Herc was explaining that there was more to the quote in the article and he was actually cautioning Ventura about possibly offending fans, not really blasting him at all. Now it was my turn to try to explain. 





Herc was pretty forgiving about it all. 


  Ultimately, Ventura Alvarado will have to make his choice - like Herc and Omar Gonzalez, Joe Corona and many others to come. Honestly, I think part of the fun of the rivalry involving the USA and Mexico is watching what happens with those choices. 


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