Delmon Young To Be Suspended By Major League Baseball: Sources
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.
