Team Mexico players voice frustration over treatment in Valley

The baseball diamond isn’t the only place Team Mexico is worried about Americans during the World Baseball Classic.

While the two Pool D teams are set to play against one another Friday night at Salt River Fields, according to two Mexican players, the bigger concern has been the treatment they’ve received off the field around the Valley.

In a Yahoo! Sports article published earlier this week, MLB infielder Marco Estrada said he had an unnecessary run in with the law.

“I actually got pulled over today on the way to the field,” said Marco Estrada, a Milwaukee Brewers pitcher who has lived in the United States for 24 years, whose wife and children are American citizens and who is representing Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. At a stop sign, he said he looked both ways and thought he stopped. A police officer disagreed. At least Estrada was spared the indignity of being asked for documentation.

Sergio Romo, a closer for the San Francisco Giants and Team Mexico, makes his home in Phoenix during the spring and also told Yahoo! Sports that he’s had to deal with racial profiling on more than one occasion.

“I’ve been pulled over numerous times, driving a nice car,” said Sergio Romo, the closer for the San Francisco Giants as well as the Mexican WBC outfit. “The first question is: What’s your citizenship? The second question: Is this your car? And then: What do you do for a living? And it’s like, ‘Bro, you’re Mexican just like me.’ ‘Ah, but I was born here.’ And I say, ‘So was I.’ “

The Arizona legislature passed SB 1070 in April 2010, and the law has more or less cast a negative light on the state over the past three years. Comments by both Estrada and Romo only add fuel to the fire regarding the state’s perceived controversial stance on the immigration debate.