Peter Gammons had some nice tidbits in his column today, including this one:
Reds players let it be known that their distaste for the Danny Graves release started with the fact that he was notified with a phone call, but more important, what set off his [obscene] gesture was a fan who according to teammates yelled, “go back to Vietnam.” That told players that the fans’ racist behavior is acceptable. (Gammons, plus some background on Graves’ release and the gesture.)
Yeah, I’m in the camp that says baseball players shouldn’t have to accept racist taunts in their workplace, and the fact that they earn a huge salary doesn’t change that opinion. The focus shouldn’t have been on the gesture, but on Graves’ bad pitching.
Interesting that the Reds players’ reaction to Graves leaving was completely different from their uncontained glee at the DFA’ing of D’Angelo Jimenez, who I shall always remember as one of those “position players who pitched in one game”, much like Mark Grace.