By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 30, 2021 – Jazz Chisholm Jr. and the Miami Marlins are in town for a three-game series with my beloved Washington Nationals, but unfortunately I am very disappointed that the up-and-coming baseball superstar from The Bahamas is on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hamstring and will not be in the line-up for any of the games.
Chisholm sustained the injury while stealing second base during the first inning of Miami’s 5-4 loss to Milwaukee on Tuesday, April 27. He is off to sensational start of the season, batting .290 with four homers and seven steals in 21 games.
I live just six blocks from Nationals Stadium, and even though I have a mobility problem and use a walker, I was really looking forward to seeing at least one of the games, but I had to abandon that likelihood after all my efforts to get a ticket failed.
The stadium is operating at reduced capacity and social distancing and other COVID-19 protocols are being observed, but tickets are available within a price range of $72 to $219. If Jazz were in the line-up, I certainly would have been tempted to purchased one of the $72 tickets, despite my current dire economic problems because I really want to see him play in person.
Indeed, several weeks ago, I contacted Ron Burke, the Advertising and Marketing Director at the Washington Informer, who has a very good relationship with the Public Relations Department of the Washington Nationals, and asked him to look into the possibility of arranging with the Nationals for His Excellency Sidney Collie, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), to attend one of the games to officially welcome Jazz to D.C.
The Washington Nationals is one of the corporate sponsors of the District of Columbia Spelling Bee, which is organized and sponsored by the Washington Informer, the award-winning Black-own newspaper where I was News Editor for 12 years when I previously lived in D.C. for 21 years before returning to The Bahamas “permanently” in 1996.
Because of his close contact with the PR Department of The Nationals, I thought that Ron would have been able to arrange for Ambassador Collie to attend one of the games, but he was unable to do so. However, he suggested that given the fact that Jazz is a Bahamian and The Bahamas is very close to Miami, The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism should use “Jazz Chisholm’s rising stardom and growing popularity in Miami to arrange with the Public Relations Department of the Marlins to sponsor a Jazz Chisholm Night during one of the Marlins upcoming home games this season.”
I thought it was a fantastic suggestion, so I included it in an email I sent to Joy Jibrilu, Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, in which I noted: “Prizes given away could include several round-trip tickets to Nassau and Freeport. I am sure that your Public Relations Team in the Florida area can generate a whole lot of publicity for The Bahamas from such a promotion, and as a former president of the Bahamas Baseball Association who is a baseball fanatic I would be more than happy to assist in promoting the event.”
Hopefully, Director General Jibrilu will follow-up on this suggestion, and if she does, I would like to suggest that Jazz Chisholm Night be during one of the Marlins games against the Washington Nationals August 24 – 26. Maybe, by they I shall be in good enough shape financially and physically to visit Miami for the game and also visit friends in Freeport.
Of course, given the numerous Los Angeles Dodgers fans in The Bahamas, a visit by the Dodgers to Miami would also be a very good time to sponsor a Jazz Chisholm Night in Miami.
Meanwhile, I have already put all of my problems in storage for a couple hours and I have invested in a bottle of Dewar’s White Label Scotch to watch my beloved Nationals defeat the Marlins tonight, although if Jazz were in the line-up, I would have pulled for him to get a hit every time he came to bat.
