This was NOT a good look.
The World Series is exciting so far with some brilliant and exciting games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, but what happened last night in Houston is something MLB needs to deal with immediately and swiftly.
Astros star first baseman Yuli Gurriel was caught on camera in Houston’s dugout making an ugly racial gesture at Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish after Gurriel homered off Darvish early in the game.
Related: Good Things DO Happen In Baseball, Though
Darvish, who is from Japan, was evidently the target of a motion Gurriel — who is from Cuba — did with his hands towards his eyes, laughing about it afterwards with teammates.
Here’s the video clip of the moment in question (below):
Yuli Gurriel under fire after gesture made in dugout after homering off Yu Darvish: https://t.co/CoY4gEYRDG pic.twitter.com/TmF1HJNUTo
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) October 28, 2017
Ugly, ugly stuff.
After the game when confronted about it, Gurriel apologized, saying through a translator (below):
“I didn’t mean to offend anybody in Japan. I have a lot of respect. I played in Japan. I was commenting to my [teammates] that I hadn’t had any good luck against Japanese pitchers here in the U.S.”
The commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, will reportedly meet with Gurriel today to discuss the incident and possibly hand down a punishment.
I’ve been told MLB will interview Gurriel about the dugout gesture toward Darvish and consider discipline.
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) October 28, 2017
Whatever happens, there needs to be some kind of response from the league.
Darvish himself responded to the incident late last night, too (below):
pic.twitter.com/2e2JJLg821
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) October 28, 2017
Very, very gracious from Darvish.
Let’s hope Gurriel learns why this type of thing is completely unacceptable — and let’s also hope MLB actually does something about this.
We’ll see.
[Image via FOX.]
-
Categories
