All it took was a bit of photo editing to make his message correct.
Correcting Yunel Escobar’s eye black
38 Replies
Subscribe
38 Comments
Editor
Certainly was an idiot and fully deserves the suspension. But let’s not forget, the guy can play baseball. This year has been a seriously down season at bat for him, but the fielding stats suggest he’s partially made up for it with very solid defense. Since 2007, Escobar has the fifth most WAR among MLB shorstops (behind Tulowitzki, Rollins, Reyes and Hanley Ramirez).
Editor
Nice work, Andy. I haven’t had a chance to check the reaction to his apology, which struck me as being almost as offensive as the original act: “I have friends who are gay. The person who decorates my house is gay. The person who cuts my hair is gay. I have various friends who are gay. Honestly they haven’t felt as offended about this. There’s just a different understanding in the Latin community of this word.” Even if true, the specific people he cites just happen to represent stereotypes. Maybe the revised patches should read “Dumb Ass” on one and… Read more »
Although many of the later stories fail to actually say what the slur was, which makes it hard to evaluate it. I understand that news outlets want to be sensitive and don’t want to use words that offend, but when the story is about someone who uses words to offend, we kind of have to be told what the offending words were. Also, and this is something that a Spanish speaker could tell me, how offensive is the Spanish word as compared to the English word it was translated to (since both words are slang terms, there obviously isn’t a… Read more »
The problem is that these words carry different strengths in different cultures and context is important. Whilst maricon can be used as a derogatory term, it can also be used among friends with far less potency. There was a similar issue in English soccer recently, with a Uruguayan player calling a French black player “negrito”. To the Uruguayan, this was just “banter” whereas in England, it is more likely to be seen as racism. He too faced a several-match ban. In both cases, given how long each person had spent in the US/Europe, you would expect them to know better,… Read more »
Author
I agree that words and phrases carry different meanings and emphasis. My point is just that he was so stupid to write something like that–any sort of joke, even if innocent, runs the risk of this sort of reaction. My guess, too, is that the word isn’t quite so innocent in his native culture and that he’s just a raging homophobe.
I’ve wondered the same thing myself, RJ. And indeed, the term “tu eres maricon” can also mean “you’re like a girl” according to a report from the Daily Mail. However, Escobar has spent how many years immersed in American and Canadian culture? As I understand, he speaks English and should know how “maricon” is interpreted by English speakers. He is either extremely ignorant, a close-minded bigot, or (more likely) both. That being said, freedom of speech means freedom to offend; MLB (or any league for that matter) shouldn’t be suspending players for expressing opinions, no matter how hateful or ignorant… Read more »
Editor
@27, Insert — Surely you don’t think that the bill of rights applies as strongly against one’s employer as it does against the government? If you are employed in the U.S., your employer certainly may impose justifiable restrictions on your freedom of speech when you are in the workplace, and sometimes even outside of it. Do you think Escobar would not be subject to discipline if he spoke those words in a corporate meeting? Or during a call to a customer? Or as he was handing back change at McDonalds? Do you really want a MLB culture where players can… Read more »
I don´t know how many spanish-speaking people read this blog, but let me add my two cents on the subject. For those who do not know, the word has a lot of different meanings, and yes, one of those meanings is used to offend gay men. However, if somebody tells you “maricon”, it´s also an insult, meaning you are weak, or you are a crybaby or even a coward. The thing is, whatever way it is used, the word is an insult and Escobar should have know better. He deserves the punishment, not for being homophobic, but for being an… Read more »
Author
When I was a senior in college, I organized half a dozen of my freshmen and we stole every roll of toilet paper on campus on a Friday night (they wouldn’t be replaced until Monday).
There was much more to the prank than that, but the essential detail for this thread is that we hit every dorm… except the one that the baseball players lived in.
And yes, they were blamed for it.
I did this because those pack-mentality, dateraping, gaybashing douchebags deserved it.
Why are the rest of the Jays escaping censure? Any of the otherpanish-speakers on the team could have told him to knock it off (including a certain aging infielder brought aboard for his leadership). I’m sure, instead, that other players who saw it just had a good chuckle over the “joke”. And I’m pretty sure that, stupid as it was, it was meant as a joke and not as an insult. A lot of the younger people I’m around use “gay” as a “jab” at others with no intention (though thoughtlessly) to smear that whole group. It’s just another dumb… Read more »
Speaking of politics and baseball, there is a raging fight going on in the comment section of an article on Israel’s baseball team over at MLB.com. The article is a roundup of news about the Israeli team trying to qualify for the WBC. There are a surprising number of anti-Israel comments and some just down right hateful. Some of the venom has to do with many of the Israeli players being Americans. I don’t remember the anger at the Dutch or Italian teams for using the same standard. Or Alex Rodriguez playing for 2 different countries in different WBC’s. I… Read more »
An open and anonymous internet forum invites the worst of commentators, as their postings will always stand out among the more numerous reasonable discussions. They are not representative of the sentiments of the general population, just as looking at an outdoor lamp at night would not lead us to believe that most insects are moths.
I hope you’re right… but I tend to have my misgivings. Being anonymous often is taken as license to say what one really thinks without fear of reprisal. It’s the equivalent of hiding under a bedsheet in a mob of like-small-minded fools.
It’s not that there are any more or fewer fools on the Internet than in real life – the medium gives them a spot to congregate and be out-n-proud stupid, that’s all.
Sadly, there’s a lot of hate out there, one of the dark sides of sports fandom is that is. Connected to the part of our brains that process. Ingroup as good/superior and out group as bad / inferior partisanship/ rivalry is only a step away from racism or xenophobia. Stick to HHS where never is heard a discouraging word and the racists are not posting all day.
Yes, folks project their own problems & hate on others. It is often enough Pathologies on Parade, & it is deeply sad that though all humans are capable of sensitivity, intelligence, individuality-to many just ironically create themselves as merely a stereotype, handicapping all their intellectual potency & human potential by becoming a Hate-bot.
Remind me to copywrite that phrase!
Escobar is forgetting that players aren’t just being paid because they can hit (or throw) a slider. They make the money they do because they are entertainers, and the thing you don’t want to be doing is sticking your thumb in the public eye. It’s no different than a member of the Ricketts family funding an anti-Obama superpac (again). Free speech is rarely free when people can take offense. HHS readers may love baseball for itself, but for Bud, the owners, the TV networks, baseball is a business, and if you anger some of your clients, you hit your bottom… Read more »
I disagree about the equivalence of embarassing your employer with a public slur vs. funding political speech. In the first case, the boss has every right to discipline the offender, in a manner deemed proper, for the reasons you outline. Doing political advocacy in one’s spare time, with one’s own earned income, is much different. The only thing I can think of that’s similar about them is that the First Amendment protects both expressions from government sanction, and for good reason. I don’t want to live in Oceania. Escobar acted like a jerk, but making that illegal means, eventually, a… Read more »
I know we are going off topic here. I’m all for free speech. Escobar works for someone, and when he’s working, he’s answerable to his employer. It’s simply a question of dollars. My teenaged daughter won’t shop at a certain clothing chain because of the chain’s position against gay marriage. She goes to a performing arts high school and thinks (in her teenaged way) that this is a slap at some of her friends. But the chain made that decision at a corporate level, which is their right to do, just as my daughter decided not to buy their clothes.… Read more »