Are The Padres & MLB Letting Oswaldo Pirela Twist in the Wind?

On Sunday, ICE detained San Diego Padres minor league catching coordinator Oswaldo Pirela at El Paso International Airport where he was planning to fly back home to Peoria, Arizona. The team's Triple-AAA affiliate is based in El Paso.

At the time of his detainment, Pirela was carrying a work permit which expires in 2029. The Venezuelan born Pirela had a brief minor league career as a teenager in the Texas Rangers organization before seeking asylum along with his family due to his opposition to the regime of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.

For its part, DHS acted with its usual grace:

FACT CHECK: This Venezuelan illegal alien, Oswaldo Jose Pirela Dominguez, was granted permission by the Obama Administration to remain in our nation until February 10, 2018. In violation of our nation’s laws, he overstayed his welcome by more than 8 YEARS. NOBODY is above the law, and he will remain in ICE custody pending removal. Being in detention is a choice.

Given the callousness of the Trump Administration, I am rather concerned about the reaction of the Padres and MLB to Pirela's detainment.

The Padres issued the following statement: 

We recently became aware of the detainment of minor league catching coordinator Oswaldo Pirela in El Paso, Texas. We are working to gather additional information and will not have any further comment at this time.

The Padres aren't exactly going out on a limb here. Meanwhile, MLB has said nothing.

Frankly, the Padres and MLB are afraid of the Trump Administration. Should they speak up then perhaps DHS will go after players at both the minor league and major league level. The Padres' roster features several players from Venezuela (Bradgley Rodriguez, Freddy Fermin & Luis Rengifo), the Dominican Republic (Fernando Tatis, Jr; Wandy Peralta & Randy Vasquez), Cuba (Adrian Morejon) and Aruba (Xander Bogaerts).

When MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred lifted the lifetime bans against Pete Rose and the 1919 Black Sox after meeting with President Trump last year, he acknowledged the "ingress and egress" of "foreign born players". As I wrote at the time:

I think I know exactly what Manfred was worried about. I'm sure that Trump basically told him, 'Either you reinstate Pete Rose, or all foreign-born players will be asked to leave the country.' Or perhaps he limited the edict to players from Latin American countries which comprise about 25% of all active MLB players.

If MLB isn't going to stick up for their star players, then they are certainly not going to go to bat for a minor league catching instructor who was just doing the job the Padres asked of him.

As it stands, I believe the Padres and MLB are letting Pirela twist in the wind. If push comes to shove, then the Padres will wash their hands of Pirela.  

Aside from being fundamentally unAmerican, it will serve to alienate a good portion of this country's Latino community which supports baseball more than any other population in America.

If the Padres and MLB let Pirela twist in the wind then it might be left to a former player, perhaps a Hall of Famer, to speak out on Pirela's behalf. But I'm not counting on it.

In which case, we can expect ICE to detain more foreign born (particularly from Latin American countries) personnel within MLB. As with most things concerning the Trump Administration nothing good can come from it especially if ICE is involved.

Thoughts on a Near Hit-and-Run Incident Outside a Boston Synagogue

 

(Congregation Kadimah-Toras Moshe in Brighton, MA)

A most disturbing incident here in the Boston neighborhood of Brighton via Boston.com.

A driver sped up and yelled an antisemitic slur at a couple crossing the street to attend Shabbat services Friday evening at an Orthodox synagogue in Brighton, the rabbi there said. 

The newly married couple was walking across the closest crosswalk to Congregation Kadimah-Toras Moshe on Washington Street when a driver sped up and they had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, said KTM Rabbi Daniel Aldrich, who spoke directly with the couple.

“He yelled antisemitic epithets as he drove by and then the very shaken couple came into our synagogue, and we immediately called the police,” Aldrich said. 

A spokesperson for the Boston Police Department said they received a report of an incident that occurred in the Brighton community at 101 Washington St. around 7:30 p.m Friday. The Civil Rights Unit is investigating whether there are any bias indicators involved in the incident, and no arrest has been made at this time, the spokesperson said. 

I would suggest that bias indicators are self-evident when someone attempts to use their vehicle as a weapon while yelling anti-Semitic slurs at Jewish people.

What worries me is that no arrest has been made at this time. This could mean a couple of things. It could mean that authorities have no idea who committed this act. It could also mean that authorities do have a possible suspect but have seen fit not to pursue the matter. 

I cannot help but think that this driver may have done something like this before and his victims were too afraid to reach out for help perhaps because they have come to believe that authorities do not care about Jews.

In which case, I also cannot help but think that as long as this driver remains at large that he will try something like this again and when he does there will be bloodshed.

Perhaps he won't use his car. It is quite possible that he might walk into a synagogue and disrupt services just like what happened at Central Synagogue in NYC right around the same time at this attempted hit-and-run incident.

Or perhaps he will use his car to storm a synagogue and bring other weaponry just as the perpetrator did at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan last March. Should this come to pass then Abdul El-Sayed will have another opportunity to claim that "hurt people hurt people" and once make excuses for those who commit violence against Jews. 

Even if the man responsible for this act does not commit any further acts there will be someone else who will be more than happy to commit violence against Jews for being Jews. And the more this happens then the more violence against Jews is tolerated and eventually accepted as appropriate behavior in polite society.

Mixing Business & Family in NYC with a Touch of Tony Danza

I spent the better part of last week and the start of this week in New York City for my third business trip to Big Apple. 

My previous business trips to New York took place in April 2025 and in May 2026. Those previous business trips as well as my business trip to Wheeling, West Virginia in June 2025 took place between a Monday and a Wednesday. This business trip took place between a Wednesday and a Monday.

This meant that I took an Amtrak train down to NYC last Wednesday morning, arrived in NYC by 12:30 p.m., worked in the office for ½ day before spending all of Thursday and Friday in the office and another ½ day this morning before taking the train back to Boston.

While my previous NYC business trips had elements of family by virtue of staying with Dad, this time around my brother Ezra was also in town. I should add that the NY office is operating on summer hours which meant I could clock out a couple of hours early. This meant more time with the family in the evening as well as both Saturday and Sunday. Also going back to Boston on a Monday is considerably less expensive than doing so on a Sunday.

For those that don't know, Dad has a YouTube channel called Gugie Goldstein. Dad mainly shoots videos of various musical happenings around the city. Among his regular haunts is Manny's Bistro which is situated on Columbus Avenue near West 70th Street. On late Sunday afternoons & early evenings, there is a jazz band which plays right outside the premises led by former 20/20 producer Victor Neufeld. This band also regularly features guest appearances by actor Tony Danza who one might remember from Taxi and Who's The Boss?

I should mention that Danza, who turned 75 back in April, lives on the Upper West Side, and I saw him walking around the neighborhood on several occasions when I lived in NYC between 2018 and 2020. Dad has a bit of history with Danza. One night at a neighborhood restaurant, Dad gave Danza the "call me" sign. This did not amuse Danza one bit and he called him out on the carpet for it. 

However, over time, Danza has seen Dad videotaping the sessions at Manny's, has been appreciative of Dad's work and has accommodated his requests for several songs. Are they friends? Not by a long shot. But mutual respect will do just fine.

Ezra and I were on hand for Dad's latest session at Manny's yesterday. It was an overcast day, but Danza brought a lot of energy when he joined in the festivities especially by people who are walking by not expecting Tony Danza to be singing on the street in front of a restaurant. There were also a couple of tango dancers which also livened things up considerably. While this wasn't my first time viewing the proceedings, I had never been so delighted to be on hand for it.

Of course, all things must come to an end. While there were no issues on Amtrak this time around, no sooner had I arrived back in Boston there was power failure on the MBTA Red Line which forced the shutdown of the AC on the subway. After about five minutes of sitting on a sweltering train, I decided to take a cab in rush hour traffic back home. While this cost me some money, I will be reimbursed for it because in this particular circumstance, this cab ride is a business expense. Business travel does have its privileges. 

The only thing which would have made it better is if Tony Danza were driving the cab. Or maybe Marilu Henner who I met many, many moons ago. But that is another story for another day.

A Thought for Hayden Panettiere

 

Yesterday afternoon, I was in Barnes & Noble in NYC's Union Square. On my way out of the store, I noticed that actress Hayden Panettiere had an autobiography titled This is Me: A Reckoning. I'm not sure why it caught my eye, but it did.

A few minutes ago, I look online and see she has died five days shy of her 37th birthday. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know a great deal about her career aside from her days as a child actress in the film Remember the Titans which frequently airs on TV and on the TV show Heroes. Nevertheless, she left an impression and now she is gone. Perhaps she is at peace. Still, it is sad that she did not live a full life.

As of this writing, no cause of death has been released. However, given her youth, one cannot help but think that her passing was not natural. Saddest of all, she leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter. 

Tommy John Should Have a Plaque in Cooperstown

Former MLB pitcher, coach and broadcaster Tommy John passed away yesterday at the age of 83. 

John's passing was not unexpected as it came just over a week after he had released a written statement was which read during Old Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium announcing his time was coming soon. In recent years, John had been in poor health with a serious case of COVID and was subsequently diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Although John last toed a big-league mound in 1989, his name is known by baseball players everywhere by virtue of the medical procedure known as Tommy John surgery. The procedure was performed on his pitching elbow by Dr. Frank Jobe in 1974 and ended up extending his career by 14 seasons retiring at the age of 46. Towards the end of his career, John joked, "My body is 46, but my arm just had its bar mitzvah."

A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, John signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1961 and would make his MLB debut with the Tribe as a September call up in 1963. Prior to the 1965 season, Cleveland traded John to the Chicago White Sox in a three-way trade with the Kansas City A's in a deal which included Rocky Colavito and future New York Mets star Tommie Agee.

John would spend seven seasons on the South Side of Chicago as a mainstay of the Chisox rotation along with Joe Horlen and Gary Bell. After winning 82 games in a White Sox uniform and earning an AL All-Star Game selection in 1968, the Chisox traded John to the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the 1972 season for Dick Allen who would win the AL MVP. John held up his end of the bargain becoming a dependable part of a Dodgers rotation which included future Hall of Famer Don Sutton, Claude Osteen and Andy Messersmith.

In 1974, John was en route to a possible NL Cy Young campaign. In 22 starts, John went 13-3 with a 2.59 ERA when he injured his elbow in a start against the Montreal Expos in mid-July shortly before the All-Star Game. 

Not only did John miss out on the Dodgers' NL pennant triumph but there was a good chance that his career was over. John made the fateful decision to allow Dr. Frank Jobe to perform reconstructive surgery on his left elbow by transplanting a tendon from his right wrist. Prior to Tommy John surgery, going under the knife would not extend his career.

John would return to the Dodgers in 1976 going a serviceable 10-10 with a 3.09 ERA in 31 starts. However, in 1977, John would exceed all expectations with his first 20-win campaign finishing runner up in NL Cy Young balloting to future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton. John would also reach the World Series for the first time in his career and would do so again the following season falling short against the New York Yankees.

Prior to the 1979 season, John signed with the Yankees as a free agent. He would win 21 games and finish runner up to Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan in AL Cy Young balloting. In 1980, John would win a career best 22 games finishing fourth in AL Cy Young balloting behind Yankees teammate "Goose" Gossage, Oakland A's hurler Mike Norris and Baltimore Orioles hurler and future broadcaster Steve Stone. John would earn an NL All-Star Team selection in 1978 and back-to-back AL All-Star Team selections in 1979 and in 1980.

In 1981, John would return to the World Series for the third time in his career, but the season was overshadowed by the tragedy of his son Travis sustaining a serious head injury when he fell out of a third story window. The following season, John would have a falling out with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner when Yankees brass brought up his son during his pitching struggles. Late in the 1982 season, the Yankees would trade John to the California Angels, a team which would win the AL West.

John would spend all of 1983 and 1984 with the Halos before being traded to the Oakland A's during the 1985 season. In 1986, John would return to the Bronx Bombers to finish out the final four seasons of his career. 

In 26 seasons, John appeared in 760 games (700 starts) with a record of 288-231 with an ERA of 3.34 striking out 2245 while walking 1259. Between 1995 and 2009, John was on the BBWAA Ballot and only topped 30% of the vote during his last year of eligibility.

In 2025, John fell five vote shorts of Hall of Fame induction by the Classic Baseball Era Committee which elected Dave Parker and Dick Allen (the man for whom he was once traded).

Yet it is worth noting that Jim Kaat was enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Golden Days Era Committee in 2022. Kaat, who pitched 25 seasons in MLB, had remarkably similar stats (283-247 with a 3.45 ERA, 2,461 strikeouts along with 1.083 walks.)

If Jim Kaat has a Hall of Fame plaque, then why doesn't Tommy John?

I wouldn't be surprised if John was enshrined posthumously. That might give his family a small measure of comfort, but Tommy John wouldn't get to see his moment in the sun.

As it happened, while John did enjoy a broadcasting and coaching career, his world would fall apart when his son Taylor took his own life in 2010. A Hall of Fame plaque can only bring so much joy.

Hall of Fame plaque or not, Tommy John makes an indelible legacy on baseball every time a pitcher gets his elbow surgically repaired and career extended. Tommy John made his bones. R.I.P.

Joshua Báez Hits 3 HR in MLB Debut for The Cardinals

Joshua Báez put himself on the map in his MLB debut on Saturday afternoon for the St. Louis Cardinals.

The 23-year-old Boston native hit 3 HR in his first 3 at bats driving in 5 runs in an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Báez becomes the first MLB player to hit 3 HR in his big-league debut. He belted all 3 of his HR off Cubs starter Matthew Boyd. 

The Cardinals selected Báez in the second round of the 2021 MLB Draft straight out of Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Perhaps Báez will prove to be the spark necessary for the Cardinals to gain a NL Wild Card berth. If Báez continues to hit in this manner, then he could win NL Rookie of the Year honors despite only six weeks of playing time.

Mamdani is Shocked, Shocked That Jews in Prayer Would Be Assaulted in NYC

 

It is amazing how I can be somewhere, and my mother knows about it before I do. 

As it happens, I am in New York City. After awaking a short time ago, I saw a text from Mom about the assault which took place during Shabbat services last night at Central Synagogue. It is a Reform Temple located on Lexington Avenue & East 55th Street. When I lived here, I would often pass Central Synagogue on my way to work at the Chrysler Building.

During the incident, which was livestreamed, a hooligan comes in ranting and raving and punches a 63-year-old woman in the face. The punk also headbutted a security guard and spat at him as well as desecrating the synagogue.

True to form, NYC Mayor Mamdani was "shocked, shocked" such a thing would happen:

This despicable act has no place in our city, and our administration will do everything in our power to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe.

I trust Mamdani to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe about as much as I trust President Trump to protect women from sexual assault.

Now I suspect that this bum probably has a deep-seated hatred for Jews, but that Mamdani's recent taxpayer funded video tirade gave this hatred legitimacy and emboldened him to commit this heinous act. Since Mamdani issued his irresponsible statement, we have seen two stabbings on the Upper West Side plus the brick throwing incident at a synagogue in Sarasota, Florida in which the suspect specifically stated he was inspired by Mamdani.

Sooner or later, Mamdani words and deeds will get Jews killed in NYC and beyond. 

As far as the safety of Jewish New Yorkers goes, the surest way to ensure is to see to it that Mamdani is defeated in the next election. Although by then, a lot of death and damage will have been done.