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Esta página no está disponible en español. Carlos Keeps It Simple --- Blue Jay Carlos Delgado Finds Inspiration In Books Like Siddhartha And Seeks A Balanced, Basic Life Meet The Millionaire Ballplayer Whose Best Christmas Present Ever Was A Pen
Carlos Keeps It Simple By Randy Starkman December 24, 2002 Everybody knows Carlos Delgado can go deep, but few would accuse the Blue Jays slugger of being deep. Over nearly a decade with the club, Delgado has become more and more guarded with the media, often limiting his responses to the numbing athlete-speak that dominates post-game interviews. But take Delgado out of the locker room and steer the conversation toward Christmas and watch the holiday spirit reveal a different character. Like, who would ever imagine that Delgado would say the best Christmas present he ever gave is a book once described as a "beautifully crafted examination of the quest for self-understanding," one that illustrates truths and knowledge about Hinduism and Buddhism, and is the most influential novel by Nobel Prize-winning German author Hermann Hesse? QWhat's the best present you ever gave for Christmas - and not merely from a material standpoint? A (Without hesitation) Siddhartha. QPardon. ASiddhartha. The book. I think it was a good gift. The person that I gave it to, I don't really want to say names, they really appreciated it and they say, they claim that it (smiles and laughs a little) changed their life. I don't know. I take it for what it is. QWhy did you choose Siddhartha? AMy good friend, (former Jays teammate) Shawn Green, was reading it one time. And I said, 'What is this?' He said, 'This is a very old book, blah, blah, blah.' I said, 'Can I read it?' And he gave me one and I read it and I thought it was pretty cool. It was something that I could relate to so I just kind of pass it on. QIs that the most inspirational book you've read? ANo, I got to go lately with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I got the opportunity to meet (author) Robin Sharma, had lunch with him one time and we talked about the book and I'm reading the other one, The Saint, The Surfer and the CEO. I think that's a great book from an inspirational point of view. QWhat was it about The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari which struck you? AIt goes back to something that I try to do, which is lead a simple life and create some good balance in your life. QWhat was the best Christmas present you ever got? AYou know what? I'm going to be honest with you. At the time it wasn't the best but this just became the best. My mom gave me a pen for Christmas 10 years ago. It seems like that pen lasted forever. It's funny because my dad loves pens. He always walks around with a pen. He always wanted a pen. And I bought him a pen for Father's Day one year. Two weeks later, he lost it. I bought him one for his birthday one year and he lost it. I have my same pen for 10 years. I don't know if it's because I'm busier now and I write a little more, but for the first time in 10 years I had to change the refill on my pen and I still had the same pen. It's just more than being the best, it's got the most sentimental value. I still have it. The other day I went out and bought another pen, but I kept that one because it came from my mom way back in 1992. QWhat do you use the pen for? AJust writing documents. It seems like lately you've got a lot more stuff. (Laughs) Paying your bills. Seems like you find yourself writing cheques quite a bit. Everyday stuff. I take a lot of notes. QYour mom says you're a hard guy to buy for? Why is that? AI don't know why. I say that I'm not. It's funny. I don't want to come across like arrogant or anything like that. But you travel quite a bit, you make your own money and you can pretty much get anything you want. But I always say that I'm really not (hard to buy for) because I like a lot of things. Everything that you give me I will really appreciate unless it's something that you know that I don't like to begin with. I don't know. She just kind of like looks in the closet and says, 'You've got like 10, 12 shirts. Why do you need another shirt?' But I really appreciate anything that is given with love and from people who care. That's a great present. QWhere do you usually celebrate Christmas? AI spend my Christmas at home in Puerto Rico with my family. QCan you describe a traditional Christmas in Puerto Rico for me? ALots of food. Very loud people. A lot of drinks everywhere. We have this tradition which is called a parranda. Basically, you get a group of people that can play some instruments and they will go to your house when you are sleeping literally and they will wake you up with the music and then you have to open the doors. You have to basically empty the fridge, give them what you have and they tag along and they go to the next house. It's a very good celebration. I think it's great. It's something we try to keep alive. Actually, these days it's kinda tough because things are so tough and there's so much crime, people don't want to be out there too late. QSo what time does this all happen? ABasically how they do it, you get together at one house around 12 o'clock or 1 o'clock in the morning. And then they decide they're going to go to someone's place as a surprise. So, they go to this place, they're there for half an hour, 45 minutes, they clean them out, and then go somewhere else. They usually end up pretty late, 4 or 5 in the morning. At the last one, they make the big soup, what we call the sopon, and then that's the end, that's the end of the famous parranda. QYou mentioned the musical instruments. Are you a musician? A Not at all. I wish I could but I'm terrible. I might as well be deaf, because I'm not very talented when it comes to music. QWho's been your best teacher in life? AMy dad. I'm a big fan of my dad. Sometimes, we have our love-and-hate relationship, but I think he's a very smart man. He lives a very simple life. Just the way he has his priorities, I think he's very impressive. Lately, he's been retired so he's a little bit more laid-back. I'm still on the go and he kind of like slows me down every once in a while. But when I stop and think about it, I learn a lot. So I guess we fight so much because we're so much alike. But it's a great relationship. QWhat's the biggest misconception about you? AThat I might be a lot more serious than I actually am. That I'm tougher than I actually am. When I'm working, people, all they see is when you're playing. They don't see you off the field. I'm a big kid. I'm not going to lie. I like to have a good time. I like people with a good sense of humour, a good personality. Every once in a while when I'm working, it's just like game face, you're locked in, you're competitive. But I like to relax, I like to have a good time and I like to chill. I don't want to be the stereotype. I'm not the guy that drives the 10 cars and walks around with an entourage. It's just like I go around everywhere. I want to feel like I can live a normal life. Carlos Delgado Born: June 25, 1972 Birthplace: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Achievements: Has averaged 36 home runs and 111 RBIs over the past seven seasons. His best season was 2000, when he had a .344 average, 115 runs, 196 hits, 57 doubles, 37 homers, 137 RBIs, 99 extra-base hits and 123 walks. Named to his first all-star team. Has two years left on a contract that pays him $19 million (U.S.) per season. Quote: "I don't think I'm better or worse than anyone because I do what I do." JOSE JIMENEZ/GETTY IMAGES Carlos Delgado says the best Christmas gift he ever gave was a copy of Siddhartha, by Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse the book changed the lucky recipient's life.
He brings tidings of joy to West Kensington Helps teens find safety, friendship By DAN GERINGER December 24, 2002 Night had fallen on North Fifth Street near Indiana when Santa arrived a little late at the West Kensington Boys and Girls Club, wearing civvies and his Santa hat. Miguel Rivera, 32, a volunteer who coaches the club's basketball teams, found director John Gonzalez in the sea of young children from Potter-Thomas and Willard elementary schools, and breathlessly apologized for being late. He said his Santa suit was in his car and asked hopefully if there was still time to put it on and give out presents. Gonzalez, 44, smiled with all the patience that his decades as a grass-roots community organizer had taught him. Some kids already had their toys, he said. But more kids were on the way over from Sheppard Elementary. Santa thankfully retired to his car to suit up. More kids are always on their way over, Gonzalez said, above the joyful toy-and-cookie-fueled noise of the party. The club, he said, is a life-saving haven in a drug-devastated neighborhood with a history of children caught in lethal cross-fires. West Kensington Boys and Girls Club is a clean, crowded testament to the ying and yang of adolescence: a Microsoft-donated computer lab for research and homework is a few steps away from Playstation 2, Xbox, big screen TV and a pool table for post-homework stress relief. The joint is always jumping. Somebody's always "got next." Outside, a block away, a guy with a cell phone glued to his ear prowls his corner, checking out every car that goes by with streetwise eyes. Inside, Gonzalez said, "This is my old neighborhood. When I was growing up around 4th and Berks in the late '60s, early '70s, me and my brother and the other kids on the block used to walk to school together and come home together. Our parents weren't afraid of something happening to us. Whenever the Phillies were playing, dad sat outside in a beach chair, watching the game. We used to leave our doors open. Nobody was afraid. "There were jobs. I remember my uncle came here from Puerto Rico, and two days later he started working on American Street, which was all factories." From the mid-70s on, Gonzalez said, "Stetson Hospital and Stetson Hats and all the factories were closing down, and violence was coming in. When I was a teen, I looked around and it hit me. Everything was crime, gangs, shootings, all those strangers hanging on the corners. You didn't see neighbors sitting outside no more. My dad would stay inside and tell us not to go outside. No more leaving your door open. People put those iron railings on their windows. "Sometimes I go by the 1700 block of North 4th Street, past the house I was raised in, and look around. The hospital got knocked down. The factory got knocked down. Most of the houses got knocked down. Almost everything is gone." Drugs and violence took over so quickly, Gonzalez said, that families were overwhelmed and helpless. "Neighborhood deterioration was like a cancer," he said. "It started at 18th and Mount Vernon. There was a big drug problem there. The government cleared the area out. So the drug problem moved down to 6th and Jefferson, then it headed this way. Now, it's all the way down to Feltonville and Juniata Park. When it moves in, it wipes out whole neighborhoods very quickly." One day, during Gonzalez's 10 years as a community liaison with United Way, he had an epiphany. "I visited this family at Lee and Indiana. I was in the house talking to the mom about this new program we had when her four-year-old son suddenly walked to the front door and tried to go outside. She immediately got up and ran and pulled him away from the door. She said there was a lot of drugs and shooting out there. I could see how frightened she was. "I got up and looked out the door. There was nobody outside. I mean, nobody. I thought, 'Oh, my God, these people are prisoners in their own homes.' That's when it really hit me. I became a community organizer." As both deputy managing director and community liaison for former Police Commissioner John Timoney's Operation Sunrise drug sweeps, Gonzalez was the go-to guy putting block captains in direct contact with city officials who could shut down the nuisance drug house or tow the abandoned car on the block that was making everybody's life miserable. More recently, Philadelphia Safe and Sound, the quasi-public child advocacy nonprofit which funds the West Kensington Boys and Girls Club along with United Way, found that the city served younger children much better than it served teen-agers. So a year ago, Gonzalez moved the younger club kids into after-school programs at their neighborhood elementaries, and turned the club building into a teen center. "The only problem was: we didn't have teens," Gonzalez said, laughing. "So I stood out on 5th, right in front of the building, grabbing teen-agers walking down the street, asking, 'You want to come in and see our new teen center?' I got a nucleus of 10 or 12. They brought their friends. We're crowded every day now from after school to 9 p.m." "We reeled in a lot of kids from Edison, Kensington and Olney high schools who would otherwise be in the streets," said program director Maria Aponte. "If you need to go to the library, they go with you," said Edison student Sol-Angel Ruiz, 14. "We have a computer lady here who helps you with anything you need for homework. We have rules: no foul language, no hats inside, no do-rags, no disrespect. You could leave money around and you come back later, it's still there. "We have salsa classes, art classes. We learn cosmetology in the salon next door. We learn how to bake in the bakery down the street. We mentor kids at Shepherd Elementary. I'm here every day with three friends from my block: Adamaris, Jessenia and Glorivy. We love it here." Because the aunt they live with works, the club is a safe haven for Tasha Lassiter, 13, and her sister, Alehea, 11, from Potter-Thomas. Tasha credits the club staff with helping her write the campaign speech that won her the student council presidency. Her campaign promises included brightening the school bathrooms with wall murals, and separating boys and girls at recess to eliminate "a lot of girls getting hit by the boys." She delivered on both promises. "You can talk to Miss Debbie, Miss Maria and Mr. John here about anything," Tasha said. "I love the cosmetology classes next door in the salon. We wash each other's hair and give each other facials. I'm hoping we get to work in a nail salon, too. I like that there's a lot of kids here and not too many rules, but enough rules so there's control and not chaos. I feel safe here." Khary Kirkland, 17, from Dobbins/Randolph Vocational, who lives around the corner, seconded that emotion. "I like it because they make you feel safe," he said. "They don't want you to be scared. Where I live at is not really violent, but I feel safer here." "I know if I got 35 kids here with me, under my wing," Gonzalez said, "those 35 kids are safe for as long as they're here. That's what this thing is all about. I'm a big believer in God. I believe God has been preparing me all these years to find out what I really want to do in life. I found out. This is it."
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