Cup of Coffee Extra

While it's not Free Thursday, I did want to share what I wrote about the incident in last night's Nationals-Red Sox game with my Free Tier readers.

And That Happened

Nationals 8, Red Sox 1: Nationals starter Cade Cavalli struck out 13 batters over seven innings while giving up just one unearned run on a single hit, but no one is going to remember that. What they're going to be talking about today is how, in the fourth inning, after he struck out Willson Contreras, he yelled "Sit down boy!" at the top of his lungs at the Venezuelan player. You can hear it as plain as day on this video as soon as the ball crosses the plate:

Contreras, clearly shocked at what he heard, appeared to mouth back, “Are you talking to me?” He then walked toward Cavalli and the benches cleared. Before everyone got to the infield Cavalli could be seen jawing at anyone and everyone. The brawl, such as it was, was mostly some pushing and shoving at first but eventually Contreras threw his helmet in Cavalli's general direction and things heated up again before they settled down.

Contreras will no doubt face discipline from MLB for that which, whatever, fine. The real question is what will Rob Manfred do about Cavalli.

No one in this audience needs to be told why Cavalli aggressively calling a person of color "boy" is an act of wholly unacceptable racist invective. There is a long and rich history of white people addressing racial minorities in that way as a means of reinforcing racial hierarchies and power dynamics of the Jim Crow era. This was historically the way white people talked to Black men, but it applies all the same to Latinos. Calling someone "boy" in this context is to attempt to strip a man of his adult status. It's infantilizing and demeaning and it is very much meant to be so.

There have been a handful of on-field and off-field incidents over the past 25 years or so in which a player displayed or voiced such obvious bigotry and/or engaged in racist provocation for which they faced discipline:

• In 2024 Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran shouted a homophobic slur at a fan who had been heckling him. Duran was given a two-game suspension. The suspension likely would've been longer if had not been for the fact that the fan had been taunting Duran about his past mental health struggles and a suicide attempt about which Duran had recently gone public. While no one said it officially, that clearly served as a mitigating factor in the discipline that was leveled;
• In a 2022 game Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson repeatedly called White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson “Jackie," referring to Jackie Robinson, as a means of taunting him. Donaldson got a one-game suspension and a fine. Rob Manfred called Donaldson's actions "disrespectful and in poor judgment";
• During Game 3 of the 2017 World Series Houston Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel hit a home run off of Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish, after which television cameras caught Gurriel pulling the corners of his eyes to mock the Asian pitcher. Gurriel also was heard uttering a Spanish term that is derogatory to Asian people. In the wake of that Manfred suspended Gurriel for five games, mandated sensitivity training, and directed Gurriel's forfeited salary to diversity charities;
• In a 2017 game Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar struck out against pitcher Jason Motte. Believing Motte had quick-pitched him, Pillar shouted a homophobic slur directly at the pitcher. Pillar immediately and publicly apologized for his actions after the game but he was nonetheless handed a two-game suspension and was fined;
• In 2012 Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar was suspended for three games when he took the field with a homophobic slur written in Spanish on his adhesive eye black. Escobar's lost salary was donated to gay advocacy groups;
• In a notorious off-the-field incident in 2012, Tigers outfielder Delmon Young, while heavily intoxicated, engaged in a physical altercation and shouted anti-Semitic slurs at a group of tourists and a panhandler who was wearing a yarmulke outside the Tigers team hotel in New York. Young was given a seven-game suspension. The Tigers parted ways with Young after the season and he'd never be an everyday player again;
• Finally, then-Atlanta closer John Rocker famously gave an interview to Sports Illustrated in which he made a string of highly volatile racial, xenophobic, and homophobic remarks when referring to Black, Latino, and immigrant people of New York and, in one case, even one of his own Atlanta teammates. Bud Selig suspended Rocker for 28 games but an arbitrator reduced it to 14.

I laid those out so we all know the precedents at play. Which I think is important given (a) the current climate in this country; and (b) given Rob Manfred's recent cowardice with respect to the San Francisco Giants pitchers who defaced their caps on Giants Pride night a couple of weeks ago. There Manfred, obviously fearing pushback from right wing politicians and groups who consider even mild criticism of white Christian people who engage in bigotry to itself be oppression, authored a cowardly and defensive letter to Missouri Senator Josh Hawley about the incident which was made public. I personally suspect that the incident will serve to cow Manfred from disciplining players for demonstrating bigotry in the future out of fear that those elements might take up the player's cause in the same way and give him P.R. headaches. I guess we'll see if I'm right about that now.

Whatever the case, Rob Manfred has a choice. He can (a) issue a significant and immediate suspension and fine to Cavalli for his blatant display of racism toward Contreras and unambiguously defend that discipline in the event there is public pushback; or (b) he can let this simmer for a couple of days which would allow someone like Josh Hawley to take control of the narrative again and turn Cavalli into a cause célèbre for Trumpers and white supremacists.

Ball is in your court, Commissioner. I have extraordinarily little confidence in your ability to do the right thing in most cases, but this is the easiest case possible. I don't think that even you can screw this up. Of course, after all of these years, you still never cease to find ways to surprise me.