When I first read the story of how
Escobar played an entire game with a gay slur written in Spanish
across his face, I was confused. I couldn't understand how incredibly
stupid someone could be to publicly display that phrase. Convinced
there was more to the story, I did what I often do: I dug deeper.
As I sifted through the various stories
about the incident, I came across an interview with a Spanish
professor who essentially equated the use of that phrase amongst
Spanish speaking friends to saying "you are a wuss" or "you
are weak" in English. Okay, I thought, so if you're with your
Spanish speaking buddies, that word doesn't really mean anything
overly offensive. But you aren't hanging out with your friends in
Havana, you're playing baseball in Toronto, a place with a large and
active gay community where that particular word is sure to cause
outrage.
Coming to something of an understanding
of why Escobar decided to write that on his eye black, the next
question was how did this happen? How did he make it onto the field
with that written on his face? How did 20 other players, 5 coaches,
and the manager not notice over the course of the game that he had
that written across his face? Was it a prank gone awry? Was he
disliked by his teammates to a point that someone did this to try to
get him run out of town? This was the question that bothered me more
than the act itself because I sensed that this incident was the tip
of the iceberg, was a harsh indication of a bigger problem that I was
acutely aware of.
I was somewhat surprised by the fierce
outcry that followed on the internet and on the radio. My initial
reaction was that Escobar had to go, but I had to take into account
that I was ready to see him go at the deadline due to his
frustratingly selfish and subpar play. To my surprise many people
were ready to, and still advocate, sending him packing. When it was
announced the Blue Jays had suspended him for three games, the
outrage was elevated to another level.
Then came the press conference, that
most would agree was a trainwreck that made the whole situation
worse. Escobar, who curiosly played the "me no speaky English"
card, sounded exactly like a teenager in the principal's office, like
a kid who got caught doing something he shouldn't have. Two things
stuck out to me in the press conference. The first was the insistance
by Escobar that he didn't mean anything offensive by the phrase,
followed by answering the question "what did you mean by it?"
by repeating what he kept saying throughout, that he meant nothing by
it and that he had nothing against gays. So my initial confusion with
the story became unfounded, Yunel Escobar really is that stupid.
The second thing that stuck out was
manager John Farrell stating that he saw that Escobar had something
written in his eye black, but didn't think anything of it because he
did it all the time. Umm, what? You have seen him go onto the field
with things written on his face before and never done anything about
it? When I thought about Farrell's response to that question and went
back to my original question of how no one else noticed for nine
innings, another thought came to me: maybe no one did anything
because no one on the bench cared.
The next day, it all came into focus.
While discussing the incident on Prime Tiem Sports, Gregg Zaun went
on a full-on rant, and everything he said made all the little things
I had noticed over the course of the season make sense. Zaun
explained, in a nutshell, that the Blue Jays clubhouse is a
consequence free environment, where you can do things you aren't
supposed to do as a baseball player and nothing will happen. And as
much as it pains me to say this, I think Zaun is right on the money.
(A more detailed account of Zaun's rant can be found here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/zaun-rips-blue-jays-from-top-to-bottom/article4553442/?cmpid=rss1
)
Over the course of the season, and
especially in the last few months, I've noticed the Blue Jays players
doing a lot of things that professional baseball players don't
ordinarily do. Baserunning mistakes that a little leaguer knows
better than to make. Near collisions in the outfield on routine fly
balls. A certain shortstop constantly drifting into shallow left or
center field and snatching popups that the outfielder could easily
get to. One player losing not one, not two, not three, not four, but
five fly balls in the sun before anyone says anything to him about
his sunglasses. Arguing with umpires. Not running out ground balls.
Zaun's rant along with all these
repeated mistakes on the baseball field shed some light on the fact
that for the most part these young players that the Blue Jays have so
expertly marketed over the course of the season don't care. They
don't act like professionals. They don't need to worry about
consequences because there are none.
The inmates are running the asylum.
When you boil it down, all this says
about Escobar specifically is that he is incredibly immature,
amazingly stupid and, despite the fact that he will be 30 in
November, he still has a lot of growing up to do.
I think the same can be said about the
Blue Jays team as a whole.
-matt
