during Game 3 of the Championship Round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium on March 22, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.

It was all just a misunderstanding! Yadier Molina, the Puerto Rico captain, said in an ESPN interview at the team’s parade in San Juan that USA captain Adam Jones “really has to get informed” after mocking Puerto Rico’s plans for a postgame party and champion T-shirts prior Wednesday’s World Baseball Classic title game.

Jones made the comments after USA won the championship, saying the celebration plans inspired the team’s 8-0 rout.

Here’s what Molina had to say:

Molina made his comments to ESPN’s Marly Rivera during Thursday’s parade in San Juan, less than a day after Jones told MLB Network that Puerto Rico’s postgame plans sounded a little premature and inspired the United States’ dominating 8-0 victory.

“Adam Jones … is talking about things he doesn’t know about,” Molina told ESPN. “He really has to get informed because he shouldn’t have said those comments, let alone in public and mocking the way [preparations] were made.

“He has to apologize to the Puerto Rican people,” Molina said. “Obviously, you wanted to win; he didn’t know what this means to [our] people.”

“That’s why I’m sending a message to [Jones], saying, ‘Look at this, right now you’re in spring training working out, and we’re with our people, with our silver medals,'” Molina continued. “You’re in spring training and you’re working … you have no idea how to celebrate your honors, you don’t know what it means.”

I’m not sure you can really blame Jones. Without understanding the larger cultural importance of Puerto Rico’s tournament run as Jones, a California native, probably does not, all the celebration plans would seem presumptuous and arrogant. If you’re competitor, you think you’re opponent is overlooking you, and then you beat them in an eight-run shutout, you’re going to want to call them out.

But clearly, Jones missed on the bigger picture.

Sounds like an opportunity for some civil discussion. Get your popcorn ready!

[ESPN]

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.

2 thoughts on “Yadier Molina demands apology from Adam Jones for WBC parade comments

  1. For some reason I feel like if the roles were reversed everyone would be calling Adam Jones a crybaby for being so upset at a pretty innocuous comment.

    1. This issue is bigger than one comment. This comment is a symptom of a larger issue – there is very much a divide still existent in the MLB between American and Latin players. Witnessed firsthand that it even overflows into how wives/gfs of players treat each other. So while it may seem like some PR and DR players have taken recent comments too much to heart or that the comments are innocuous but their reactions are most likely in part because this attitude of ‘us vs them’ is so common in the majors.

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