AJWatson3
March-25th-2004, 04:01 PM
from ESPN Insider Peep Show:
"Baltimore Orioles: A number of major league baseball players have followed up their careers with forays into politics. Vinegar Bend Mizell was a congressman for many years and Jim Bunning a senator. No big leaguer -- save for one who played a ballplayer in a movie -- has ever been President. Orioles outfielder Melvin Mora hopes to change that one day. Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post writes that Mora harbors dreams of becoming president of his native Venezuela, a country in the throes of some serious problems. "I want to find a way to fix the country, and I think the only way to fix the country is to be on the top, the president," he told Sheinin. "I've been thinking about [running]. But now is not the time." Mora is in the first year of a three-year, $10.5 million contract. Sheinin asked Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, the president of the Venezuelan Baseball League for an assessment of Mora's chances. Said Aveledo: "Melvin is a popular figure here. He's someone about whom we feel a lot of pride, not just in his region, but the whole country. If he thinks that after his playing career, he would like to become a politician, I see no reason why he could not be very successful."
"Baltimore Orioles: A number of major league baseball players have followed up their careers with forays into politics. Vinegar Bend Mizell was a congressman for many years and Jim Bunning a senator. No big leaguer -- save for one who played a ballplayer in a movie -- has ever been President. Orioles outfielder Melvin Mora hopes to change that one day. Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post writes that Mora harbors dreams of becoming president of his native Venezuela, a country in the throes of some serious problems. "I want to find a way to fix the country, and I think the only way to fix the country is to be on the top, the president," he told Sheinin. "I've been thinking about [running]. But now is not the time." Mora is in the first year of a three-year, $10.5 million contract. Sheinin asked Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, the president of the Venezuelan Baseball League for an assessment of Mora's chances. Said Aveledo: "Melvin is a popular figure here. He's someone about whom we feel a lot of pride, not just in his region, but the whole country. If he thinks that after his playing career, he would like to become a politician, I see no reason why he could not be very successful."