|
|
|
|
Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Sunday, April 29, 2012
When I read the news about Young, my heart sank to the floor. My oldest son is 8. In the past year he has become a die hard Detroit Tigers fan. He knows all the players by name. He knows their uniform number and their statistics (just like I did when I was a Tigers fan at that age). How am I supposed to explain to my son that Delmon Young was drunk, got into a street fight, yelled an anti-Semitic slur and got arrested? To my son, Delmon Young is a hero. He cheers for him. He prays that Young will hit a home run when he comes up to bat. I don’t think that it ever occurred to my son (or to me for that matter) that Delmon Young hates Jews in an inebriated, full-of-rage Mel Gibson sort of way.
Thanks to the Detroit Tigers organization and specifically owner Mike Illitch and Dave Dombrowski, the teams President/CEO/General Manager, baseball has become exciting again here in Detroit. The team has really made a concerted effort to reach out to children. That is great, but it also means that the organization has a responsibility to handle this matter quickly and appropriately. Delmon Young needs to be treated for his alcohol problem and a response to Tigers fans must be made soon concerning his anti-Semitic slur.
For me, I still don’t know how I will explain this to my son or if I will at all. The bottom line is that no one is asking professional athletes to raise our children. They are great athletes and not always shining examples of virtuous human beings. However, they need to know that children are watching. Impressionable children are watching how athletes behave on the field or on the court, as well as outside of their hotels. The NBA and Major League Baseball are both doing great things to help their athletes give back to the community and be good citizens. But they have to take care of the bad apples as well. I don’t know what the appropriate punishment for Delmon Young should be, either within the Tigers organization or in Major League Baseball, but I know that a strong message has to be sent to the young fans so they know this behavior is not tolerated.
Thanks to Rev. Barnald.
Repoz
Posted: April 29, 2012 at 11:33 AM | 72 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
tigers
|
Support BBTF
Thanks to
phredbird
for his generous support.
Bookmarks
You must be logged in to view your Bookmarks.
Hot Topics
Newsblog: Bradford: Could this be the smartest Red Sox team since '07? (4 - 10:23am, May 18)Last: Jose Can Still SeabiscuitNewsblog: BPro: Listen to What the Heyman Said (181 - 10:22am, May 18)Last: The Id of SugarBear BlanksNewsblog: OT: The Soccer Thread, May 2013 (794 - 10:22am, May 18)Last: Matt Clement of AlexandriaNewsblog: OMNICHATTER for MAY 18, 2013 (3 - 10:17am, May 18)Last: botemanNewsblog: PressBox: Boog Powell: Meat Of The Order (2 - 10:09am, May 18)Last: botemanNewsblog: OT: NBA Monthly Thread - May 2013 (931 - 10:07am, May 18)Last: JJ1986Newsblog: Pinstriped Bible: Albin: Is Ichiro done? (23 - 10:00am, May 18)Last: DL from MNNewsblog: BBTF SOFTBALL GAME IN NEW YORK--AUG 17 (263 - 9:57am, May 18)Last: McCoyNewsblog: Powerball odds? Juan Pierre's homers are long shots, too (9 - 9:53am, May 18)Last: Sunday silenceNewsblog: Beer and Loathing: Taking Stock of the Best and Worst Ballpark Suds | Extra Mustard - SI.com (138 - 9:53am, May 18)Last: McCoyNewsblog: [OTP-May] Politico: Congressional baseball game, May 1, 1926 (3205 - 9:17am, May 18)Last: GregDNewsblog: Josh Hamilton's allergies not linked to drug use, doctors say (29 - 7:48am, May 18)Last: BrianBriansonNewsblog: Dunson: The Campaign For Mariano Rivera To Start The All-Star Game Is A Backhanded Compliment (32 - 7:44am, May 18)Last: JE (Jason Epstein)Newsblog: TB Times: Crash victim works to forgive former Ray Bush (42 - 7:21am, May 18)Last: Swedish ChefNewsblog: Girardi Still Believes as Injuries Mount (2 - 3:03am, May 18)Last: Greg (U)K
|
|
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. The District Attorney Posted: April 29, 2012 at 11:54 AM (#4118964)Are there that many?
(After perusing the ethnic slur database)
Ok, but seriously, if I were on a gameshow *I'd* be hard-pressed to come with two. And one would be the lame "****ing Jew!"
But I would watch a Youtube video of Delmon Young saying, "Verily, part not not with one schilling unto yon penny-chasing, shylock vagrant!"
I bet that would set a record for short-lived gameshow. "Next up: Wheel of Torture with Joseph Goebbels."
As a Red Sox fan I'd have figured you'd be a big Rescue Me fan.
It always struck me as a little contrived, but that clip is funny.
A factor of being the majority and therefore ineffective, but white slurs have always been the dumbest. "Honky, redneck, peckerwood, cracker."..and one I heard only in the last month, 'pinky'. Pinky? Really? The more historical weight, the more societal approval given, the more effective a slur is. Which is 'porch monkey' alone is more effective than all the white slurs put together.
Obligatory South Park clip.
I've also heard* it used in the sense of "to haggle succesfully over price." (*From a relative, very embarrassing.)
I heard it (not often, admittedly) growing up in California as well. You'd also get "stop being Jewish" along similar lines, although generally that meant stop being cheap/stop haggling rather than cheating.
A Sikh friend of mine runs a small business and often likes to say "He ##### me on the price but I Indianed him on the quality of the product".
EDIT: wow, the past tense form of "Jew" as a verb is nannied?
Second, joual (Quebec French) uses a lot of religious themes as profanity (maudit câlice is a common one, it literally means "damned chalice", but it's the kind of thing you'd mutter when your goalie lets in a soft goal. Tabernac is used pretty much when we'd use damn.) so using it as an insult wouldn't seem a stretch.
It always meant haggle when/where I grew up (suburban NY, 1960s); never heard it used to mean cheat.
I make an open plea to request that this link ends or evolves into a sober-metric treatment of the horrors that occured as a result of the acceptance of something intended to dehumanize as "just a joke" and/or acceptance of anti-semitism by the majority of a population.
Stinking fat Belgian bastards
The Plegms
People still say 'I got gypped (or variances of)"
Gypsies are constant! :-)
Anyway, which is harder to explain -- Delmon Young may not be an upstanding citizen or Abraham being willing to kill Isaac because the Big Guy* asked him to?
*Not Prince Fielder.
I don't know, if God took time out of his busy schedule to specifically ask me to do something I'd probably do it. The question should be why would God want me to kill my child?
You can read it as fiction or non-fiction, but the book makes it pretty clear that Abraham knew no real harm would come to Issac. Genesis 22:3-5 (emphasis added):
DB
I think the answer you'd get from a theological perspective is that in Abraham's time God spent a lot more time communicating with humans. As such its easier to understand the impulse to follow His commands.
To put it another way (I really hope I don't rile anyone up here), suppose humanity was in contact with a race of Aliens that knew everything we did and could kill us. They were objectively there because we talked to them. You'd probably follow most of their orders, right? There's a reason Christian's have traditionally been known as "God fearing"
Perhaps. But from reading the book (again, as fiction or non-fiction) Abraham doesn't strike me as the type of character who would feel the need to lie to his servants.
DB
That's a pretty thin thread to base that interpretation on, especially if you're relying on a later, English translation/interpretation. It's also not exactly the type of subtlety you can expect an 8-year-old to pick up on.
(It's probably been about 30 years since I read it but my memory is, yes, Abraham assumes god isn't serious but is also expecting god to reveal the joke a lot sooner than he does. When push came to shove, Abe was gonna do it. I always thought that was the point -- all along Abe was "oh, c'mon, god's not really gonna make me do it" so god pushes him until Abe thinks god is gonna have him do it. But, like I said, that was a long time ago for me.)
But it's also mainly beside the point which is that parents "have" to explain all sorts of crazier #### to kids than this. This might be even moreso for religious parents.
The guy's a rabbi. In addition to all the easy stuff like God and death, he's got to explain the Sabbath, kosher, Abraham/Isaac, slavery, polygamy, why they don't celebrate Christmas like all the other kids' families and why you need two testicles to go to heaven. All those things can be explained but it takes some time and aren't necessarily gonna make sesne to an 8-year-old. "People get drunk and say stupid, hateful things" doesn't seem that hard to explain -- point to the Bible story when Noah gets drunk, right?
No one likes the Romani.
I have no real idea, though. I think a lot of people don't actually know that there's an ethnic group out there who are called "gypsies" (for Egyptians, actually). It's seen more as a profession--like calling someone a carny.
It's certainly possible to read the story that way, but the text doesn't force you to. The Kierkegaard reading (the teleological suspension of the ethical) is also available. As are many others.
I think it depends. There's two tacts he could take. "We shouldn't cheat for Young because he gets drunk and says stupid things" or "It's OK to cheat for Young the player while we don't care for the things he does off the field." Number two seems like a difficult concept and indeed a fair portion of the adult population fails to grasp it.
She's got her Irish up
He Scotched the deal
Let's go Dutch
He Welshed on the bet
I could come up with more than 2. But I'd just be quoting The Life of Brian
kike, yid, heebie, hook nose, kosher*, Red Sea pedestrian, not a Roman*
*May not be actual slurs.
This is a Shakespeare reference, though:
Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 2
Cassius. Did Cicero say any thing?
Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.
Cassius. To what effect?
Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, Ill ne'er look you i' the
face again: but those that understood him smiled at 375
one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own
part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more
news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs
off Caesar's images, are put to silence. Fare you
well. There was more foolery yet, if I could 380
remember it.
In the original Aramaic, Abraham asks God where he wants this killing done, and God says out on Highway 61.
You left out "dead honky." </Richard Pryor>
I think a lot of people don't actually know that there's an ethnic group out there who are called "gypsies"
I don't think this is true. I would bet the large majority of folks know this.
As for Abraham...they locked up David Berkowitz.
Edit: There's also at least some dispute as to the etymology of the phrase.
The only dispute is doubt. Nobody's got anything else.
I hope its just a hilarious double typo, but I guess if it was subconscious I wouldn't know.
Not least of which Romanians.
Though I may be judging from a small sample. Of the handful of Romanians I know one is a member of the aristocracy so their opinion of the gypsies may be skewed.
I have no real idea, though. I think a lot of people don't actually know that there's an ethnic group out there who are called "gypsies" (for Egyptians, actually). It's seen more as a profession--like calling someone a carny.
It's actually both.
There are real Gypsies (Romani) that apparently came to Europe from India.
Then there are other itinerant groups (Travelers, among other names) who are European (many of them Irish).
And nobody likes any of them.
I'm not sure people from North America would have that kind of visceral reaction to Gypsies or Gypsy references.
You're right about "being in the majority" being the critical point of difference, but trust me, if you were the lone white person in a crowd of angry black people, you wouldn't be thinking about the "effectiveness" of any names you might be called, no matter how dumb they may seem from a safe distance. But if you just want an epithet that'll get the point across, "goddam white motherfucker" will do quite nicely, just as "you bunch of fucking Jews" gave Delmon Young's sentiments 100% of the required sting. In both cases there's absolutely no ambiguity about the intent of the speaker, and the only "defense" would be that "he started it by insulting me in a similar manner"---which is only a defense if the counter-charge were actually true.
My experience has been pretty much the same, from the few Romanians I know (who aren't members of the aristocracy, so there's that).
Then you should settle it in the accepted Pikey tradition, with a bare knuckle boxing match.
"Sheenie" says (so Google tells me) sholem-aleykhem.
Heard about this on NPR maybe 10 days ago (i.e. before the latest begathon, now in its 2nd week, commenced ... I came thisclose to giving those guys money till I discovered how comparatively large a chunk that "administrative costs" take out of contributions, so wound up going with a couple of other nonprofits instead).
The translation that I've always preferred goes "God said to Abraham, kill me a son. Abe said man, you must be puttin' me on. God said no, Abe said what? God said you can do what you want to Abe but the next time you see me comin' you better run. Abe said where you want this killin' done and God said out on highway 61."
And Mike Bloomfield. And Al Kooper.
Edit: Damn it!
That was a threat my grandmother used to use. If you don't behave or eat you vegetables, the tinkers will come and kidnap you.
This line always cracks me up.
And sell you to the evers, who will in turn sell you to the chances.
Don't ask me; I just heard the slur "coon" for the first time a few weeks ago.
EDIT: I guess I've heard of about four of them. Jesse Jackson introduced me to one, some years ago. So don't ever say he doesn't educate people.
I don't want it to seem that I'm minimizing what Young did; it's that it seems domestic violence isn't given the weight by baseball that it should.
Maybe Delmon Young does tutoring like CrosbyBird does?
It is pretty barbaric to not speak Greek. Mandarin is still on my to do list, but Greek is the most beautiful language I've ever learned. The concept of the men/de construction has helped me tremendously in how I think about prose writing.
Guys with actual domestic violence on their record - Milton Bradley, Derek Lowe, Brett Myers - got a lot of trouble in the media in the aftermath. The trouble receded with time in a way that I find troubling, but around these parts all those guys have their dedicated hate-bases**. My guess is that if Young doesn't repeat this incident, the media will forget about it over time, too. (They forgot about the assault on umpire with a dangerous weapon, after all.)
**of which I am a part, to be clear. (Though I cop to some shameful fanboy memory-wipes with Lowe.)
Quebecois profanity is so awesome that I consider learning French just so I could use it naturally.
As a Jewish kid growing up in the 80s/90s, we were taught to be sensitive to use of the word "gyp". It was used in part as a way to explain how non-Jews might have used the term "jew-ed" before that phrase gained widespread disapproval, since most of us in that class had used the term "gypped" before. I am fairly certain most of us stopped using it after that.
Bigotry is the new market inefficiency!
And *as* someone who has dated several psychos...it seems to me that society generally placing it between "drunk driver" and "Child molester" gives it way too much weight.
Spoken like a true product of a protected elite Yankee enclave. (Assuming that's accurate; I haven't been taking notes.)
Miguel Cabrera's wife called 911 to report domestic violence.
Please ban yourself from BTF.
You're setting a horrible example for everyone else.
Yea, I usually link to articles backing up what I say; I didn't this time because I'm actually kind of busy at work.
No harm, no foul.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main