Yesterday I wrote about a column written by Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle. It was about Astros outfielder Carlos Gomez, who has had a poor start to the year.
The column, as I noted, was a hatchet job, blaming Gomez for the Astros’ problems despite the fact that Gomez is by far from the biggest of the Astros’ problems. It was particularly bad in that it presented an unedited bit of broken English from Gomez which seemed calculated to cast Gomez in a bad light. Many journalists were critical of Smith in this regard, noting that he could’ve used a translator, could have paraphrased or could’ve done some mild correction via brackets, as is often done with quotes from non-native English speakers.
Last night Gomez took to Twitter to call out Smith himself:
@ChronBrianSmith your intentions in your article were of real poor taste and had no affect on me. I am confident and proud of who I am.
— Carlos Gomez (@RealCarlosGomez) May 5, 2016
@ChronBrianSmith Thankfully I have a great support system and great teammates who are always there for me. God bless you!
— Carlos Gomez (@RealCarlosGomez) May 5, 2016
@ChronBrianSmith oh yeah next time you want an interview have Google translate on hand.. God bless #GetYourWritingSkillsUp #ZeroNegativity
— Carlos Gomez (@RealCarlosGomez) May 5, 2016
It’s possible to write a column about how a player hasn’t lived up to expectations without being an insensitive jackass. It’s possible to do so even in the sharpest of ways. Smith didn’t do that, however, and didn’t make an effort to try, it seems. Gomez is right to take issue with it. And I suspect that Gomez’s teammates and organization take issue with it too. Which likely doesn’t bode well for Smith getting cooperation from others in the Astros family.
