Yankee fan Mohamed Albebe then...and now.
By BARRY MILLMAN
"The gods decree a heavyweight match only once in a while and a national election only every four years, but there is a World Series with every revolution of the earth around the sun. And in between, what varied pleasure long drawn out!" |
-- Jacques Barzun, historian and Presidential Medal Of Freedom winner, from God's Country and Mine, 1954
The World Series is still a ways off, but thankfully we've reached that celestial moment in the earth's revolution around the sun when pitchers and catchers report, and a biological alarm clock within baseball fans the world over rings the alert America's game is once more at hand. To mark the occasion, I'd like to share a newsy tidbit about a Yankee fan many of you may recall and my quest to clear his name. A few weeks ago, I happened to catch a report by BBC foreign correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse on his search for the gold-plated pistol carried by Libyan dictator Moammar El-Gadhafi when he was caught and killed by rebels on October 20, 2011 in the battle of Sirte, his hometown. [Note: With all due respect to the BBC, the N.Y. Post and at least a dozen other media outlets with differing stylebooks on the issue, I've chosen to use the late colonel's own personal preference for the English spelling of his name here. It's my blog and I'll spell how I want to.] Though most baseball fans were, like me, no doubt otherwise occupied at that particular historical moment by more mundane domestic matters (his capture occurred roughly about the time the Rangers were tying up the World Series at a game apiece with a 9th-inning two-run rally over the Cardinals), the next day's global news was dominated by the events transpiring in Libya. And accompanying many of the reports were images of a young man wearing a baseball cap bearing the unmistakable logo of the New York Yankees triumphantly brandishing Gadhafi's personal sidearm; a gold-plated Browning/FN Hi-Power Mark III pistol. Due at least in part to some media outlets mistakenly naming Mohamed Albebe (again, his spelling) as Gadhafi's executioner rather than the guy who simply discovered him hiding in a sewer pipe and captured him, (looking at you, N.Y. Post), it didn't take long for Mohamed to become a social phenomenon. "So, for at least one Yankees fan, it turned out to be a pretty good October." – Jay Leno "If he'd had a Boston Red Sox hat on he probably would have missed." – David Letterman Bad jokes and the Post's wreckless distortion of Mohamed's role in history aside, though, there also arose considerable discourse over whether he was, in fact, an actual fan of the Yankees or even of baseball -- the overwhelming consensus snidely suggesting he wasn't. Max Fisher, a former editor of The Atlantic, in an online story for the magazine ironically focused on ripping the Post's misleading depiction of Mohamed's role, openly doubted the veracity of Mohamed's Yankees fanhood, ruminating: “I have found traveling in the developing world that Yankees caps are prolific, but knowledge of American baseball teams is not,” and for added support included a tweet from a Saudi Arabian national working for NPR in Washington, D.C. at the time (and now a Wall Street Journal correspondent in his homeland) who opined:  Elsewhere, in the Daily News, Corky Siemaszko surmised Mohamed's cap was a charitable donation from World Vision, an organization that dumps "unwanted shirts and caps" from various American sports leagues in "third-world countries" where "clothes are scarce and the recipients can't afford to be picky." The New York Times' J. David Goodman, scoffed that Mohamed's ball cap appeared to be "in fairly pristine shape for a dusty war zone" (while somehow failing to note the generally clean and well-groomed nature of pretty much everyone else at the scene of Gadhafi's capture -- with the exception, of course, of the colonel who, you know, was hiding in the sewer pipe). Goodman dispensed with the question in a dismissive comparison to criminals wrapped in a haughty plug for his employer: "Mr. Bibi did not explain his choice of headwear and appears to have given no interviews since his early conversation with The BBC. But however the gray cap got there, it was not the first time a Yankees hat found itself far from the sports pages. As the Times reported in 2010, the hats often appear on the heads of those arrested in New York." Well, Messrs. Goodman, Siemaszko, Omran and Fisher, as professional journalists interested in the facts you'll all be gratified to learn that I can now confirm all your spitballing assumptions concerning Mohamed missed the strike zone. By a lot. After watching the BBC's fascinating report on Mr. Gatehouse's quest for the golden gun culminate in a face-to-face meeting and interview with Mohamed himself, I contacted Mr. Gatehouse on a quest of my own: To learn once and for all if Mohamed was indeed a fan of baseball or the Yankees. I asked the British journalist if he had, by any chance, raised the matter of the baseball cap with the young freedom fighter. He replied he hadn't and graciously offered to put me in touch with Mohamed so I could ask him about it, which I did. The following is a transcript of our online chat. [Note: Mohamed's fine grasp of English is self-evident in the BBC report. I was both surprised and relieved, though, to find his ability to communicate with me via the written word -- a more difficult skill -- equally as good. I've made only a few minor edits to his responses in punctuation and grammar for the sake of readability that in no way affect their content.] Me: Hi Mohamed. My name is Barry Millman. I write about baseball and the New York Yankees. Gabriel Gatehouse told me you would be expecting me to contact you. I'd like to ask you a few questions for a story I'd like to write about the Yankees cap you were wearing when you found the golden gun. Would that be alright with you? Mohamed: Hey. Yes, Gabriel told me yesterday. Me: It's a real pleasure to meet you. My first question is where did you get that Yankees cap? Mohamed: I bought it in my country. Me: How old were you when you got it? . Mohamed: I was 15 years. [Note: He was 17 in 2011 when he captured Gadhafi, so he bought it two years earlier in 2009; the season the Yankees won their last World Series.] Me: Are you a fan of the Yankees? Do you follow American baseball? Have you ever played? Mohamed: I didn't play because I had an accident, but I liked watching it on TV. Me: I'm so sorry to hear that. So you watched American baseball on TV and became a fan of the Yankees? Mohamed: Yes. Me: When you went to buy a baseball cap why did you choose a Yankees cap? Mohamed: I really liked the cap and I like the Yankees. Me: I liked it too. Do you have any favorite players on the Yankees? Mohamed: Sorry but I don't remember their names and for the last three years I haven't been able to watch. Me: Thats ok. I'm sure you are busier now that you are older. Are you still going to school? Mohamed: I'm still studying. I studied in Malta for a year last year. Me: Wow. That's great. What kind of profession are you studying for? Mohamed: The Faculty of Economics in Libya. Me: You're studying to be a professor of economics? That's impressive. Congratulations! Do you still have that Yankees cap? Mohamed: No I don't. Me: What happened to the cap? Mohamed: My mom lost my cap. Me: No! That's so sad. And she didn't get you another one?? I'll send you one if you like. Mohamed: I would be glad if you sent me another cap from the Yankees. Me: It would be my pleasure. Just send me an address to ship it to and I will. Mohamed: I will do. And I wish to meet you and watch the Yankees live. Me: I would love to meet you and take you to a Yankee game. My treat. If you come to the U.S. you'd better let me know so I can make the arrangements! Mohamed: Really thank you my friend I'm glad to hear that. Now that that's settled, batter up! You can email Barry Millman at nyyankeefanforever@ymail.com and follow him on Twitter at @nyyankeefanfore. |
