The World Series has been riveting. Hopefully there are two more games to be played. But the stupid gesture by Yuli Gurriel has marred the games. Yu Darvish, on the other hand, has been magnificent in his response. I don't have problem with forgiving Gurriel as Darvish did. But I have trouble with some people who defended him. There were people giving a standing ovation yesterday when he came up to bat the first time! I understand Houston fans cheering him after his home run. But standing ovation before he bats means they were cheering his disgusting gesture.
A LA Times sport writer who is half Hispanic and half Japanese defended Gurriel slightly by asking people to take things into context. He said that the word Chinito was used by his soccer friends and family members on him and he was never bothered by it. Well, I agree the context is important here. I am sure his soccer friends and family members like him and the word Chinito is a term of endearment in this situation. But this was not a term of endearment from Gurriel to Darvish. He had just hit a home run off Darvish and he made the gesture and mouthed the word in the dugout. The intention, obviously, was to mock Darvish even if it was not intended to be racist. If he had done the gesture and mouthed the word while running the bases, there would a brawl. Even a flip of the bat and staring at the flight of the ball before running the bases would have been unacceptable in baseball culture. So no, under any context this was ugly.
I am not worried about Darvish being hurt by this. Just like when a player recently was called the N word at Fenway Park, the big time athletes maybe annoyed but they are not intimated. They know their team, their league and the media have their backs. I am worried about the youth league or high school players who are attacked as such and feel intimated. They may be suffering in silence. That is why as Darvish said, this has to be an education moment. Kids look up to professional athletes. So when athletes do something wrong, they must be punished and made clear that this type of action is unacceptable at any level.
Monday, October 30, 2017
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Wow, was totally thinking you were going to blog about the arrests from Monday. We've seen the eye thing happen on other occasions and it seems to me that there is never enough outrage over it to make it stop. I just don't think non-Asians care about Asians being mocked.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Darvish should have worn a sombrero and pretended to sleep in bullpen just to get even. And yes, I realize that he is Cuban, which makes it even better, by fighting one form of ignorance with another. If this had been in the regular season, Gurriel probably would have been suspended, but since it's the World Series, it seems MLB wants him to play and won't be suspended until next season.
So really the only thing to do is for the Dodgers to beat the Astros. It'll be a tough feat since they'll be going against Verlander tonight. Does Darvish get the start? They brought him to LA to help win a World Series, so he has to step up.
I heard there was a double elimination on DWTS? Has that ever happened before?
-LBOAYM
I thought about writing about the arrests but decided that I didn't have much insight. I still don't know if this is going to be Iran-Contras or Watergate. So I will wait to see what Mueller has next.
ReplyDeleteThe Dodgers got lucky against Verlander tonight and stayed alive. So it is up to Darvish tomorrow. This is the reason the Dodgers got him for. Roberts decided to pitch Hill second and Darvish third because Hill is way better at home than on the road. Darvish hasn't been around that long but had been slightly better on the road. It had worked out perfectly in the first two series. But didn't work out till tonight. If Darvish wins tomorrow, the disaster third game would be forgotten. If he loses, the front office will be criticized for getting him instead of Verlander.
They have had double elimination couple of times before I believe. But this is the first time they did not announce it was double elimination till the end. This must be a bad surprise for the couples who were eliminated. It is amazing that Derek Fisher retires from the NBA, goes on DWTS and then pinch ran in the World Series for Houston!