Danny Graves was born in Vietnam, and grew up in Florida.
But he's got all the spirit of a native New Yorker.
When Graves, then a closer for the Cincinnati Reds, was confronted on May 22 by a fan who hurled an anti-Asian slur at him from a seat above the dugout, Graves did what most of us would do: He hurled back some equally nasty language and, for good measure, displayed his least polite finger.
The response of his ballclub was to suspend him for several games, until he was released from his contract on June 2. It's unclear what happened to the fan. The team told the New York Times it belives no one had been removed from the park.
So it appears that Graves' employer showed more deference to an obnoxious, racist customer than to their own employee, who did not in any way provoke the confrontation except to pace in the dugout within sight of this jerk.
(See posting below on out-of-control sports fans).
"This is like hitting us all in the head with a shovel," Reds' first baseman Sean Casey told the Dayton Daily News. "This was a poor way to handle it."
To say the least.
The good news is that Graves, who led his team in career saves, with 182 so far, has been picked up as a middle reliever by the Mets. The team may be in the basement so far this season, but they lead the league in class for this acquisition.
New York may not be where the action is this season, but we embrace diversity here, and the bigots mostly know to keep their big traps shut.
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