Contreras y Ramirez -- What didn't make the paper...

You wouldn't know it by checking this blog lately, but I'm still covering baseball at the Star, working toward becoming the world's greatest, walking 'round the planet earth making money and having fun.

Latest stop, Chicago, where I covered the Jays/Sox series and interviewed Chicago's Cuban twosome, Jose Contreras and Alexei Ramirez about the recent warming of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

Upset at his team's performance in the World Baseball Classic, Fidel begins training for a comeback...

Now that you've read the story, here's the story behind it:

Although both men are optimistic that they might one day reunite with relatives back home, neither feels comfortable returning to the island as long as one of the Castro brothers runs it. Yes, the U.S. now allows Cuban emigrants to travel to the island freely, but Contreras explained as far as the political establishment is concerned, guys like him -- high profile athletes who defect for big money contracts in the U.S. -- aren't just emigrants.

They're traitors.

So until Cuba has a ruler more sympathetic to guys who leave the island to chase their dreams, Contreras says he'll continue living in the U.S., seeing his relatives when they receive special clearance to travel to the Dominican Republic, and pining for a return to his island.

Those are pretty important details, and I'm sure you're wondering why they're missing from the story. There might be an explanation that makes sense, but for now we'll have to blame a newspaper industry that still doesn't know how to interact with the Internet.

The story I filed was a little too long for the space reserved for it in the newspaper, so a few paragraphs had to go. I get that. But why those paragraphs couldn't run online, where space isn't restricted, is a mystery I still haven't solved.

A little further behind the story....

If you've been following this blog (and I know some of you were before I went AWOL), then sabes que yo he estado practicando mi espanol. Todavia no es perfecto pero esta mejorando un poco cada dia.

Still, that doesn't qualify me to interview guys like Contreras and Ramirez en espanol, so a day before sitting down with them I enlisted White Sox media relations staffer Lou Hernandez to translate.

Understand that I don't always need the help. Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro, for example, is a good sport. He lets me practice my Spanish on him in interviews and I usually understand about half of what he's telling me. And earlier this month I started interviewing Tigers slugger Magglio Ordonez when I heard his halting English and stopped him short.

"Si estas mas comodo hablando en espanol," I told him. "Podemos hacer la entrevista en espanol."

He sighed in relief and we moved on.

So while we waited for the translator I chatted with Contreras en espanol, and learned that he loves Toronto -- especially Babaluu -- but hates the cold weather up here.

I told him I felt his pain.

He and Ramirez were also intrigued that I've actually been to Cuba, and when I showed Contreras the Cuban tourist money I still carry in my wallet he explained proudly to a disbelieving Dominican teammate that the money is worth as much as U.S. cash.

While talking with Contreras I got to use one of my favourite Spanish words: Aunque.

Translation: "Even though."

As in, "Aunque Canada es mi pais, Chicago es mi ciudad."

And interviewing Ramirez allowed me my first ever opportunity to use a phrase I've been eager to drop in conversation: Vale la pena.

Translation: Is it worth the sorrow/heartache/trouble.

Like Contreras, Ramirez talked a lot about the difficulty of leaving relatives behind in Cuba, so I asked him si "vale la pena estar aqui?"

For the record, he said si, vale la pena because he's living an entire family's dream by playing in the majors.

Anyway, as my former AfAm studies professor Charles Payne used to say, I said all that to say this:

I'm glad I made the effort to learn more Spanish over the winter and I'll be back in the classroom as soon as time and my budget allow it.

After Ramirez finished his interview Hernandez told me he had never spoken so freely to a reporter since coming to the White Sox last season.

Now it might have been simply that he was in a talking mood that afternoon. He might have been just as talkative with any of the other reporters who stalk locker rooms before and after games looking to scavenge a quote or two.

But I'm betting I'm the first mainstream reporter to ask him in (halfway decent) Spanish how he felt about the political situation back home. And I know I'm the first person to interview him who has also seen Manolito Simonet in concert.

Pretty sure that scored some points too.