Astros’ Yuli Gurriel Under Fire for Making Racist Gesture to Dodgers’ Yu Darvish
Houston Astros player Yuli Gurriel apologized after getting blowback for a racist gesture directed at Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish during Game 3 of the World Series last night. According to WikiPedia, Darvish identifies as Japanese-Iranian.
As ESPN reported, while in the dugout Gurriel “used his fingers to motion at his own eyes in a mocking gesture” in apparent reference to Darvish.
In addition to all the online blowback Gurriel got, Darvish weighed in with a brief statement on Twitter late last night:
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) October 28, 2017
Gurriel offered an apology and said he didn’t mean to be offensive. Per ESPN:
“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.”
The 33-year-old Gurriel is a native of Cuba who played for the Yokohama DeNA Baystars of the Japanese Central League in 2014. Darvish is of Japanese and Iranian descent.
Gurriel said it’s common in Cuba to use the word “chinito” to describe someone of Asian heritage, although he admitted he realizes it’s considered offensive in Japan.
A spokesman for the MLB told ESPN, “We are aware of the situation and the Commissioner intends to speak with the player tomorrow.”
You can watch CBS Los Angeles’ report above.
UPDATE –– 4:18 pm ET: The MLB announced a 5-game suspension at the start of 2018:
Astros 1B Yuli Gurriel suspended without pay for first 5 games of 2018 regular season for inappropriate actions during last night’s game.
— MLB (@MLB) October 28, 2017
[image via screengrab]
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