ESPN’s SportsCenter tried to publicly shame President Obama today and his attendance at a Cuban baseball game by tweeting the photo above with the caption, “Meanwhile, next to the stadium in Havana...”
The implication was that there was poverty just outside the stadium where Obama was watching the game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team. But the first response to the tweet reminds Americans that we have no right to get on any high horse about poverty. In fact, the conditions outside our own stadiums appear much more dire.
People started to tweet Google Street View shots showing the streets outside of major American stadiums.
Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky pointed out that Willets Point, where the Mets play at Citi Field, doesn’t even have sidewalks or sewers.
So I guess before you start calling out Cuba for being poverty stricken, maybe sports commentators at ESPN should get out of their box seats and look outside some American stadiums.
Update 6:12pm: Bob Ley was just interrupted on live TV. Maybe they saw SportsCenter’s tweet at Google’s new tech center in Havana.