@The Guss Report – This year marks the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. He faced a tidal wave of hatred ranging from being spit upon to receiving death threats.
His story is not just an element of baseball history, but of American history. As such, Robinson’s 42 uniform number has been retired by every team in both leagues.
Last week, Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium also marked the 45th anniversary of Robinson’s death. His heroism was commemorated by his now 95-year old wife Rachel, and his children Sharon and David, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
If this was to convey a message by MLB, it was that racism and intolerance is not welcome here, despite baseball’s ongoing struggle to promote African Americans in its executive suites and in the manager role in its stadium dugouts.
And it took just a few days for baseball’s phoniness to be exposed.
During Game 3 on Friday night, Yuli Gurriel, a capable (but largely unknown) player on the Dodgers’ opponent, Houston, smashed a home run off of Dodger pitcher Yu Darvish.
Upon getting back to the dugout for the high-fives and fist bumps of his teammates, Gurriel was recorded on camera using his fingers to pull back his eyelids to mock Darvish’s Asian facial features. Gurriel later acknowledged he referred to Darvish as “Chinito,” which means little Chinese boy in Spanish. (Darvish is Japanese-Iranian and Gurriel is Cuban.)
As the game carried on, a storm of outrage brewed on social media, as pointed out by KABC’s Rob Fukuzaki.
By the next morning, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred issued a swift and significant – but tellingly tolerant – punishment for Gurriel.
The player would be suspended without pay for the first five games of next season, that Gurriel would not appeal the punishment, and that his forfeited salary for those games would be donated to charity by the Astros.
But Gurriel would be allowed to continue playing in the World Series.
If this was supposed to convey a message by baseball, it is that addressing racism and intolerance head-on is less important than the World Series.
While probably few believe that Gurriel’s knuckleheaded racist moment actually makes him a racist, delaying Gurriel’s punishment until next year, rather than suspending him for a single game of the World Series (Saturday’s Game 4), spoke volumes.
Manfred’s excuse is that he didn’t want to punish all of the other Astros, or their fans, for the behavior of one person.
But that’s precisely what was called for — to show all watching that that behavior is unacceptable, and that when it is committed, it impacts everyone.
Like an umpire’s mistaken on-field call, Manfred really blew it…on a World Series week designed to commemorate Robinson, an historic baseball and American history figure.
And it came on a week when Houston had other race troubles.
Bob McNair, a Houston billionaire, philanthropist and owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans football franchise, proved that one needn’t be a journeyman baseball player to let a seemingly racist moment.
At a meeting of NFL owners to address the Colin Kaepernick issue of players kneeling during the national anthem at its games to address mistreatment of African Americans by police forces around the country, McNair is believed to have referred to protesting football players as “inmates running the prison.”
Ouch.
Called out for it, McNair issued several apologies over the weekend, clarifying his intent in The New York Times:
“McNair sought to clarify that a remark he had made about ‘inmates running the prison’ was in reference not to players who continue to sit or kneel during the national anthem, but to the ‘relationship between the league office and team owners and how they have been making significant strategic decisions affecting our league without adequate input from ownership over the past few years.’”
Regardless, McNair, believed to be the biggest financial supporter (among his fellow NFL owners) of President Trump’s campaign, proved – as if America needed another reminder – that being wealthy and worldly doesn’t make you wise.
Maybe it’s just Houston’s ongoing bad karma which, if you look at the history of the Astros’ home field, Minute Maid Park, may explain it. In 2000, it was originally named Enron Field – after the energy conglomerate Enron, famous for its accounting fraud scandal. Part of McNair’s immense wealth came from the sale of his company, Cogen Technologies, to Enron and CalPERS.
Mr. Guss, MBA, is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and he has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. Verifiable tips and story ideas may be sent to him at TheGussReport@gmail.com.