A Southern California lawmaker is calling for Major League Baseball to harshly punish a Houston Astros player after he made a racist gesture and remark during Game Three of the World Series Friday.
Astros first basement Yuli Gurriel hit a home run off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish in Friday night’s 5-3 Astros win. Following the play, cameras caught Gurriel pulling his eyes back as if to mock an Asian person’s face and called Darvish a racist term in Spanish.
Yuli Gurriel Facing possible suspension for racist gestures caught on camera while in dugout! pic.twitter.com/BaL8HbFjfD— YouWager.eu (@YouWager_FF) October 28, 2017
Major League Baseball has condemned the gesture, and Gurriel is set to face discipline for the incident.
Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman, who represents the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, called for that penalty to be suitably harsh.
“MLB. Performance enhancing drugs, major penalties. Racist taunts, we will see. #WorldSeries,” Sherman tweeted Saturday afternoon.
MLB. Performance enhancing drugs, major penalties. Racist taunts, we will see. #WorldSeries
— Rep. Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) October 28, 2017
Game Four of the best-of-seven series, which the Astros lead 2-1, is scheduled for 8:20 p.m. Saturday.
MLB officials announced Gurriel would be suspended for the first five games of the 2018 season Saturday afternoon.
