Craig Mitchell -- The Baseball Melting Pot

America is the melting pot. We are a conglomeration of people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.  Baseball is a microcosm of that melting pot.  The melting pot is now immersed in an era of political correctness.  There is a hypersensitivity about slurs, racial, religious or orientation based that a slip of the tongue can prove to be fatal to a career.

I’m speaking about the incident with Mets pitching Coach John Warthen.  Apparently, he referred to  Daisuke Matsuzaka’s interpreter as a “Chinaman” in a joking manner. I for one do not think of the 61 year old veteran coach as a racist. I believe he meant it in jest and his better judgment failed him. Now I’m not defending the action, but I do believe some attention must be paid to the intent.

Wall Street Journal reporter Stu Woo overheard the remark and was “Stunned” but the use of the slur.  Woo overheard it when Warthen apologized to Cutler. Apparently Warthen said “I’m sorry for calling you a Chinaman yesterday”, “I didn’t mean to insinuate –- I know you’re not Chinese. … I thought it was a pretty good joke, though.”  Cutler brushed it off, but Woo, who is Chinese, could not stand idly by and let the incident go. He said “I didn’t want to be complicit in tolerating the use of a slur that should have been retired long ago,”

I agree, but only to a point. Words are not just words.  Words are powerless without intent. If the word was used as an attempt to injure or insult that is one thing. When it is recklessly used in an attempt at humor the bite should not be the same.  It’s still wrong, but the perpetrator should not be vilified.

Back in 2011, Roger McDowell had a high profile incident at AT&T Park in San Francisco. While responding to heckling fans, McDowell said “Are you guys a homo couple or a threesome?” and then performed some sexual gestures and movements.  He then went on to allegedly threaten another fan with a bat when he told McDowell there were children present. In my opinion, McDowell’s actions were much more egregious and occurred during an interaction with fans and was not a silly slip of the tongue in the clubhouse.  It was a remark meant to insult and was aggressive.  For the incident, Baseball suspended McDowell for two weeks and issued an undisclosed fine. He got off easy, in my humble opinion.

Baseball has never been so multicultural.The rosters of all 30 teams represent dozens of countries and is truly and international sport. That’s something to be celebrated. Tolerance is not only required, it’s demanded.  There must be a zero tolerance to hate speech and blatant racism or prejudice.  There is no argument. That said, I have an issue labeling what Warthen said as hate.  What he said was misguided, insulting and not thought out, but he meant it in jest and clearly he apologized for his mistake. Mr. Woo, felt it needed to be expounded upon.  I find it tough to blame him, but I do believe political correctness can go too far.

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As a gay man, I hear slurs that could be referring to my sexuality all the time. Nearly all of the references are muddy. By muddy I mean, unclear as to what they are referring to. As an example, I heard someone in a supermarket meat department say to a co-worker “Don’t be a fag.”  Now, a knee jerk reaction would have me stomping off to the manager’s office and complaining.  But what he meant was….”Don’t be a wimp.”  And I’m not rationalizing, I have used the term “fag” what way a million times. Generally you can tell what someone means by intonation and mood.  However, that interpretation differs greatly from person to person. Therefore avoidance of the slur should be the call.

Richard Pryor was once questioned by friends and other black comedians and fans why he used the N-word so much in his act.  Pryor’s response, was “To take the power away from it” Clearly a nice try by Pryor.  The word remains as powerful as ever.  Then again, if you are of the right persuasion and you put an “a” at the end of it….it’s non-offensive to a degree.  Lenny Bruce played with words to show how intent and intonation can change a brutal insult or graphic sexual reference and make it amusing if not hilarious and not insulting.  I was watching the movie “42”. The scene that recreates the brutal heckling by Phillie manager Ben Chapman was so hard to sit through. Each slur cut like a knife.  It cut into my consciousness, and I was sitting on a couch watching the movie 67 years later. I cannot fathom the pain and rage that Jackie Robinson kept under control. That’s the key.  That’s the ground zero.

Jonathon Niese tweeted the day after Woo printed the article “"Stop Tweeting about our clubhouse. That ----'s got to stop." I understand what he means. But he’s wrong.  Reporters, guests and interpreters are welcome and are part of the Met clubhouse, any clubhouse for that matter.  Being in the clubhouse does not give you cart blanche to ignore insensitive or racially charged remarks.  Intent aside, Mr. Woo was right to make this an issue. I’m sure that Dan Warthen is not driving all over Florida with a white hood.  He is a man from a “older” generation who made an honest mistake. He’s apologized and frankly if a suspension or fine was to follow I, for one, would be very surprised. Because there is a ton of difference between what Warthen said and what McDowell said and did.

I got a lesson in this a few months ago. I was on my personal Facebook page and I posted a joke that called someone a “retard”. I was barraged by comments from friends admonishing me for my insensitivity. I was in shock.  I have used that term a million times, both onstage and off. I wasn’t making fun of mentally handicapped people. I was saying that the butt of my joke was stupid or silly. I defended my use of the word.  Until it dawned on me, it was no longer appropriate nor acceptable either in a public forum or in casual conversation. I’m human, I honestly meant no harm. But it did cause harm.  I apologized and I have removed the word from my vocabulary.

This is similar to what I think happened with Warthen.  He’s not excused, but I believe we cannot treat him or view him with the same bile that was afforded Roger McDowell. What McDowell did was unfortunately an act of hate.  Both actions are forgivable, but must be weighed differently.