Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic, October 28, 2017
Rob Manfred faces one of his most difficult decisions since becoming baseball commissioner on January 25, 2015. Suspend Yuli Gurriel, and many Houston Astros fans will flip out, no small consideration with the next two games of the World Series at Minute Maid Park. Slap Gurriel on the wrist and many, many other fans will become angry over baseball turning a blind eye to a player who was caught on camera making a racist gesture.
Manfred is going to catch hell either way, so he might as well do the right thing. He should suspend Gurriel immediately for one game. Do not simply fine him. Do not delay his suspension until next season. Send a message as the leader of a sport that is growing ever more international, ever more inclusive. ...
Manfred cannot worry about the union. He cannot worry about the percentage of fans who will be upset. He cannot worry about any perception of bias. Gurriel's action was indefensible, and even the union officials who would fight his suspension know it.
Here's the problem for Manfred: Suspending Gurriel could dramatically affect the outcome of the Series, which the Astros lead two games to one after their 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night. ... In 57 plate appearances this postseason, he is batting .340 with a .933 OPS. ...
Gurriel's gesture and mouthing of the word Chinito, which he said is a description Cubans use for all Asians, were captured not by the FOX cameras, but by the international feed. The images spread quickly on social media ...
Even accounting for cultural differences, Gurriel, 33, should have been smarter. ... [A]s the son of Lourdes Gurriel, a famed Cuban player, he did not grow up in isolation. He followed his father into baseball, playing in numerous international tournaments before his brief stopover in Japan. ...
[I]t's probably unreasonable for Manfred to lay this on the Astros and ask them to suspend their own player. No, on the biggest stage the sport offers, it is the commissioner who must take responsibility. A one-game suspension for Gurriel is appropriate. Manfred needs to take a stand and offer leadership, send a message and do the right thing.
MLB Gives Yuli Gurriel Delayed Suspension For Offensive Gesture
Paolo Uggetti, The Ringer, October 28, 2017
Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel will not face suspension during the World Series following being caught by TV cameras pulling back on his eyes and saying, "chinito" – Spanish slang for "little Chinese boy" – in reference to Dodgers starting pitcher Yu Darvish ...Manfred's Leadership Was Tested With The Gurriel Incident – And He Passed
Commissioner Rob Manfred ... announced that Gurriel will be serving a five-game suspension without pay to start the 2018 season, and that Gurriel will also undergo sensitivity training during the offseason. ...
Manfred said he wanted the punishment to come with the loss of salary. In addition, he said the penalty should fall to the wrongdoer and not the whole team because it was "unfair to punish the other 24 players on the Astros roster." ...
Initially, Gurriel responded to questions about the incident after Game 3 by expressing ignorance about the offensiveness of his actions.
"The truth is, I don't know, I didn't know how offensive it was. What I do know is that it wasn't my intention," Gurriel said in Spanish postgame. "I really feel, I feel ... I'm sorry because there were people that felt really offended, and that was in no way my intention, so I'm really sorry." ...
For his part, Darvish said postgame he was bothered by it, but that it was a learning experience. ... Darvish posted a tweet afterward ...
Jerry Crasnick, ESPN, October 28, 2017
Manfred made the best of a bad situation ... To his credit, Manfred didn't bury the lead. Upon taking his seat in a packed interview room four hours before Game 4 of the World Series, Manfred laser-focused on the heart of the matter.Manfred Whiffs On Gurriel Suspension
"There is complete unanimity – me, my office, both owners, both clubs and the MLBPA – that there is no place in our game for the behavior or any behavior like the behavior we witnessed last night," Manfred said. ...
The reactions of the two main parties helped lower the temperature. Gurriel was remorseful and contrite over his actions, and Darvish took the high road ...
So what could baseball do to send the proper message? If Manfred had tried to drop the hammer immediately, the union could have appealed, and the machinations of a grievance proceeding would have become an unwelcome sideshow to the sport's crown jewel event. Gurriel has already agreed to not appeal ...
Given the examples on the books, a five-game suspension for Gurriel seems like a logical progression. In 2012, Toronto shortstop Yunel Escobar received a three-game suspension for displaying a homophobic slur on his eye black. This year, Toronto's Kevin Pillar and Oakland's Matt Joyce were both hit with two-game suspensions for anti-gay slurs in May and August, respectively. ...
Manfred's response was authoritative and pragmatic in a way that marked his tenure as baseball's labor lawyer under Bud Selig and bodes well for his commissionership. ...
His leadership skills were tested on the fly, and he passed the test.
By Michael Baumann, The Ringer, October 28, 2017
MLB routinely suspends players for using identity-based insults during games (even if they immediately apologize as Gurriel did), but after 18 hours of inaction, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred ... bungled this in a way that's offensive all its own. ...Yu Darvish Saves Yuli Gurriel From World Series Banishment After Racist Gesture
Gurriel's gesture and language – however benign he claims his intent to have been – is a verbal attack on every Asian and Asian American player and fan watching the game. How can you be comfortable watching this game if such behavior is tolerated? How can you feel like you're a part of that community when one of its most prominent members is sending that message on its biggest stage?
And insofar as the union has a duty to protect Gurriel from suspension, it also has a duty to Darvish – and every player of every race – to ensure that they'll be able to work with dignity, rather than having to face insults for who they are. ... In protecting Gurriel, they've failed many of their other members. ...
When someone does wrong, we expect him to apologize, atone, and not do it again. Gurriel apologized, and missing a World Series game would've been a fitting atonement precisely because it would have had the effect Manfred wanted to avoid: It would have penalized Gurriel's teammates for his ill behavior.
Athletes live in an insular community ... And the best way to change the hurtful language that gets tossed around casually in that environment is to provide an incentive for the players to police themselves: Incentives don't come much bigger than losing a middle-of-the-order hitter for a World Series game. ...
By pushing Gurriel's suspension to the regular season, Manfred is saying that promoting a world free of racist language is a less important goal than preserving the Astros' best chance to win the World Series. ... This isn't about baseball – it's about showing what kind of behavior you tolerate when the eyes of the world are upon you.
Perhaps this shouldn't be so shocking from a league that allowed a team called the Indians to put its redface caricature mascot on national TV throughout last year's playoffs. Chief Wahoo is just as offensive as what Gurriel did, even if we're desensitized to it by exposure, and MLB's stance could not be a better example of all talk, no action.
Steve Buckley, Boston herald, October 29, 2017
Despite what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says, a little bit of me will always wonder if the magnanimity and diplomacy of Yu Darvish rescued Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel from being suspended from the World Series.Baseball, Manfred Strike Out On Gurriel's Delayed Suspension
In a vacuum, Gurriel should have been escorted from the Fall Classic premises and told not to rejoin the Astros until spring training. ...
It was blatantly racist. Please hold the cards, letters and emails about overdone political correctness, the "cultural differences" that arise from Gurriel being from Cuba and the fact that an end-of-the-night apology was offered. It was racist. Start there or stop reading. ...
Manfred's decision – a five-game suspension, without pay, to be served at the beginning of next season – will be viewed by some as a slap on the wrist.
It's not. It's the right call. Yes, Manfred could have made a more forceful statement by tossing Gurriel out of the World Series. The Players Association could have appealed, thereby allowing Gurriel to continue playing, but that's not the point. A World Series suspension, appealed or not, would have been history-making. Manfred chose not to unleash that level of power, partly, he said, because it would have been "unfair to punish the other 24 players on the Astros roster."
By Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times
The racist gesture made by the Houston Astros' Yuli Gurriel toward the Dodgers' Yu Darvish on Friday night called for somebody in power to swing for the fences.MLB Suspends Astros' Yuli Gurriel For 5 Games Next Season But Not World Series
Instead, baseball bunted. ...
Commissioner Rob Manfred needed to make a powerful statement Saturday that included an immediate suspension.
Instead, he offered words backed by weakness.
"There is no place in our game for the behavior or any behavior like we witnessed last night," announced Manfred.
Except, apparently, in the World Series, where Gurriel will continue to maintain his place without immediate punishment.
"There is no excuse or explanation that makes that type of behavior acceptable," Manfred added.
Except for the excuse that, hey, everybody chill, we don't want to mess up the mojo of our Fall Classic! ...
[I]t was announced Saturday that Gurriel will be suspended for five games next season. Yes, next season. Six months from now. When nobody cares. A statement nobody hears.
Manfred offered four excuses for why Guerriel wouldn't be suspended now, four lame rationalizations falling under a single description: Baseball was taking the easy way out. ...
[Manfred's] fourth [excuse] is absolutely bonkers: "I felt it was unfair to punish the other 24 players on the Astros roster," Manfred said. "I wanted the burden of this discipline to fall primarily on the wrongdoer."
Yeah, because that should be his priority, keeping a bunch of baseball players happy at the expense of his sport's social integrity. Forget the nation of fans who saw the gesture and were offended.
So, really, baseball will initially tolerate the mocking of millions of Asian Americans as long as it doesn't do anything to inconvenience 24 ballplayers?
Baseball wasn't so forgiving three Octobers ago when it came to the Dodgers. Remember the 2015 National League Division Series against the New York Mets? Remember what happened when Chase Utley's takeout slide into second base in Game 2 broke the leg of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada?
Utley was suspended for two games. Immediately. There was no waiting for next season. There was no worry about impacting the other Dodgers. There was no fear of fooling with the postseason. The suspension was delivered on the spot.
Yes, Utley appealed ... [and] the suspension was overturned the following spring, so it also didn't cost him any money.
But the point was made that dangerous play would not be tolerated even on one of baseball's biggest stages.
When it came to racism at the World Series, sadly, stunningly, that point was lost.
Associated Press/CBC, October 28, 2017
Manfred would not compare Gurriel's actions with the Cleveland Indians' decision to keep using their Chief Wahoo logo, which has been criticized by Native Americans and others.
"I see a difference between behaviour from one player directed specifically at a player and a logo," he said. "While both are problematic, I don't see them as the same issue. We continue to have conversations with the Indians about the logo, and it's an issue I intend to deal with in the off-season."
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Also from The Ringer:
It's important to remember that when Americans think of capital-R Racism, it's usually white-on-black racism. Gurriel's case is much more complicated, as it involves two players who live not only under the cultural norms of the United States, but the countries in which they were born, raised, and started their baseball careers. Los Angeles Times columnist Dylan Hernandez, the son of a Salvadoran father and a Japanese mother, wrote in the aftermath of Friday's incident that the gestures and language Gurriel used, while shocking to American spectators, aren't as malicious in Spanish-speaking countries, and how in Cuba, they wouldn't be interpreted that way. It's a perspective worth considering.
Darvish's perspective is also worth considering. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Darvish tweeted a statement urging fans to "stay positive and move forward" rather than vilify Gurriel. Darvish was gracious when he didn't have to be, particularly considering he'd just gotten torched in the biggest game of his life. But Darvish has a unique perspective on prejudice in baseball – when he was playing in Japan, Darvish was a controversial figure for many reasons, some of his own creation, some because others considered him an outsider due to his half-Iranian ancestry. ...
Part of Manfred's calculus in pushing the suspension to April was to avoid an appeal that might drag on through the last few days of the Fall Classic – now that Gurriel's only missing regular season games, he won't appeal. It's the union's job to check the league's power to take players off the field and take money out of their wallets, even when what they're being punished for is as offensive as what Gurriel did.
Like I said, it's complicated.
But it's also not nearly as complicated as Manfred is making it out to be.
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