Carlos Gomez is unhappy with a Houston-based reporter who recently published a story that makes the Astros outfielder look bad in more ways than one.
Earlier this week, Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle put out a feature about how much Gomez has struggled since the Astros acquired him at the trade deadline last summer. While harsh, the assessment of Gomez’s play is accurate. However, one particular quote Smith printed from Gomez seemed uncalled for.
“For the last year and this year, I not really do much for this team. The fans be angry. They be disappointed,” said Gomez as he roamed center field against the team with which he spent 2008-09.
English is Gomez’s second language. When that is the case, reporters almost always clean up the quotes so a player’s accent is not reflected. Here’s how Smith could have printed the quote without changing any of its context:
“For the last year and this year, I did not really do much for this team. The fans are angry. They are disappointed.”
It seems like it would have been common courtesy to clean up the quote, but Smith chose to double-down by printing it in the article and highlighting it in his tweet:
Carlos Gomez: "I really not do much for this team. The fans be angry."https://t.co/98xfvN664w @HoustonChron #Astros
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) May 5, 2016
Gomez took to Twitter on Thursday to rip Smith.
@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
There’s a difference between misquoting a player and tweaking the wording. In this case, there was no need for Smith to quote Gomez word-for-word. Does he print every “um” and “you know” he hears when speaking to other players? Of course not.
Gomez is an eccentric player (remember this bat-breaking incident?), which Smith alluded to numerous times. We’re not sure if Smith has some sort of problem with Gomez because of that, but he could have done a better job of treating him fairly in this instance.
H/T Deadspin
