The baseball career of Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young is going on hold according to sources cited by the New York Post . MLB officials have decided to suspend him for an as-yet-unspecified period of time. The Post says an official announcement is imminent.
Delmon Young was taken into custody by the NYPD for a hate crime assault early Friday morning after allegedly spewing anti-Semitic slurs and then getting into a rumble with a tourist in the Times Square area. The cops reportedly determined that he was drunk at the time. Young was freed on a $,5000 bond after his arrest, but was benched by the Tigers for the three-game series against the Yankees and placed on the restricted list which is permitted under the MLB collective bargaining agreement for alcohol-related incidents.
The team will also apparently require Young to “undergo alcohol and anger evaluation.”
Young, a career .281 hitter, is on a one-year contract with the Tigers worth about $7 million.
Likely crafted by a publicist, Young apparently issued a written apology to all concerned. In an article posted to the Tigers’ website , team president/GM Dave Dombrowski said that Young ” is extremely remorseful, extremely apologetic.”
In a separate article, Post columnist Phil Mushnick puts forth an interesting idea: “Perhaps a more appropriate action would be to have Young, a power hitter, to write a 500-word essay on the greatest slugger in Tigers history, Hank Greenberg…”
Among many accomplishments, Hall-of-Famer Greenberg, who was an active MLB player from 1930 to 1947 (excluding his military service during WW II), remains the record holder for most RBIs in a single season by a right-handed batter and over his course of his career was subject to anti-Jewish slurs from other players.
