Would Major League Baseball really consider suspending Yuli Gurriel during the World Series? The Houston Astros first baseman is looking at a potential discipline from MLB for using his fingers to mock Yu Darvish’s eyes, and then used a racially charged term in spanish.
The incident happened after Guriel hit a home run in the second inning off Darvish:
— All Sport News (@All_SportNews) October 28, 2017
MLB released this statement on the matter, per ESPN.com:
“We are aware of the situation and the Commissioner intends to speak with the player tomorrow.”The 33-year-old Gurriel — a native of Cuba — told reporters via an interpreter — that he didn’t mean any harm by it.
“I did not mean it to be offensive at any point,” Gurriel said. “Quite the opposite. I have always had a lot of respect [for Japanese people]. … I’ve never had anything against Darvish. For me, he’s always been one of the best pitchers. I never had any luck against him. If I offended him, I apologize. It was not my intention.”Darvish, speaking through an interpreter as well, called the gesture “disrespectful.”
“I feel like, of course, Houston has Asian fans and Japanese fans, and Asian fans live all over the place,” Darvish said. “And acting like that, it’s just disrespectful to people around the world, to the Houston organization. It’s not OK.Gurriel actually played for the Yokohama DeNA Baystars of the Japanese Central League in 2014.
“Including him and I, nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s different. We’ve just got to learn from it. He made a mistake, and we’ve just got to learn from it. We are all human beings. It’s just learn from it, and we’ve got to move forward.”
