Pedro and the Cockfight

Video surfaced on Youtube this week of NY Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and MLB Hall of Famer Juan Marichal at a cockfight in the Dominican Republic.
First some facts.

• The video - which is over 2 years old - shows Marichal and Martinez acting as honorary "soltadores".In other words, they were the ones that put the animals into the ring.
• Right or wrong, cockfighting is legal in the Dominican Republic. In fact, the fight took place at the nationally known Coliseo Gallistico de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo Cockfighting Coliseum).

U.S.-based animal rights groups are - predictably - up in arms about the whole ordeal. And the gods know I don't blame them. Cockfighting is a particularly barbaric practice, and there are a number of very good reasons why it's illegal here in the US.
So why can't I get worked up over this whole thing?
Well, I think the biggest reason is the knowledge that other people don't hold the same values as I do. And apparently Hispaniola is an entire island filled with people who hold strikingly different values regarding the morally and ethically correct treatment of animals. So much so, in fact, that a practice most Americans would find viscerally repulsive is not just tolerated; it is to baseball in the Dominican what pro baseball is to pro football in the US: the second most popular spectator sport.
Should we condemn Martinez and Marichal for their involvement in an activity that is perfectly legal where they observed it? Perhaps. Perhaps that outrage would be better directed toward your local congresscritter in a call to pressure the Dominican Republic (and other nations) into discouraging - if not outright eliminating - the practice.

The other thing. Harris Interactive released a poll earlier this week (2/5). US adults who follow one or more sports were given a list of sports and asked to name their favorite.
No big surprise, professional football was the favorite of the biggest chunk of the pie: almost 30% of respondants named NFL as their sport of choice. Football is very popular in the US, an additional 12% of those with a preference preferred college football, making it the third most popular.In second was baseball (Harris didn't separate college from pro) with 15%.
Fourth is where it gets interesting. In 1985, when Harris started the poll, fourth and fifth were a tie between pro and college basketball. Not surprising, this was during the great Celtics-Lakers matchups and Michael Jordan's rookie year. Today, fourth place is Auto Racing (including both F1 and NASCAR), and fifth is - of all things - hockey. The basketballs are in a 3-way tie for sixth with men's golf.