Willson Contreras Gets Emotional Talking About Venezuela

Contreras has a lot more than baseball on his mind right now. 

It's pretty rare seeing an athlete open up to the media like Willson did with NBC Sports Chicago the other day.

Contreras is obviously proud of his heritage. Major League Baseball had to tell him to stop wearing the Venezuelan sleeve that he used to protect his catching arm.

This was something that he wanted to talk about. He was the one who steered the interview in this direction and I think that takes a lot of guts. That's what we want in our celebrities. Using their influence to shine a light on problems around the world. The hurt in Willson's voice is very apparent.

NBCChicago - “I went down to Venezuela... it’s hard to see kids from 5 to 8 years old looking in a trash can for food,” he said. “It’s hard to see people dying because they don’t have medicine at all. Nowadays, it’s hard to go down there because you watch all of that.”

I've noticed that a lot of the time when news about Venezuela surfaces it immediately turns into a political talking point for what's happening here in this country. This is a great reminder that there are real people at the center of this. People who are suffering who did nothing wrong other than being born in the wrong place. It makes you remember the privilege Americans have that they were born into.