Open Thread for Yunel Escobar Press Conference

Unfortunately, flying out to New York for the Yunel Escobar press conference isn't in the budget, much as I did bring up the subject with SB. BlueJays.com is going to have it streamed live at this link and it will be on the Fan590. We can use this as an open thread to talk about it. The press conference is to start at 3:30 Eastern. I figure the time between now and then will be used to coach Yunel on how to respond to questions.

Here is what I really don't get: why didn't one of the coaches or players say to Yunel "this is a bad idea". Not just the Spanish speaking ones but any of them. I mean, if you couldn't read it, wouldn't you be curious enough to ask, 'hey what does that say? I know I would be. I guess I'm the curious type, but if there was writing on someone's face that I didn't understand, I'm sure I'd ask. And, of course, there are enough guys on the team that wouldn't have had to ask. That no one cared to read it, or read it and choose not to stop him, is as big a deal to me as Yunel doing it in the first place.

Also, this has given me a new appreciation for this little website of ours. In reading what people are saying on twitter and other places I'm amazed at the number of people that think the way to deal with a homophobic slur is by making racist remarks or think that, because they are anonymous on the internet, piling on homophobia is the way to be. Thank you to everyone here for keeping the discussion of a very troubling story on a level that makes me proud to be here.