Yunel Escobar’s Eye Black Is A Black Eye For Baseball

 
This was on Yunel Escobar’s face during Saturday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game.

If you’re interested in what it means, you can Google Translate it, but suffice it to say it’s not a kind statement to the homosexual community.

Whether Escobar himself wrote it or the message was written by a teammate as a prank, it’s the kind of thing that has no place in this game in the year 2012, and will do nothing to improve his less-than-stellar reputation.

UPDATE: The Blue Jays have released an official statement.

The Toronto Blue Jays do not support discrimination of any kind nor condone the message displayed by Yunel Escobar during Saturday’s game. The club takes this situation seriously and is investigating the matter.

2ND UPDATE: Escobar was suspended 3 games on Tuesday, will participate in sensitivity training and have his lost salary donated to pro-LGBT causes . He apologized at the press conference, saying it would never happen again.  Jays manager John Farrell claimed no one on the team paid attention to what Escobar had written, because it was too small and he had written messages there before.

Needless to say, this is a pretty bad time to be a Jays fan right now: close to dead last in the AL East, ravaged by injuries, and now you’ve got a PR disaster in a city that prides itself on its tolerance.

Hat tip to @James_in_TO for the photo.