There is outrage everywhere.
This statement. That gesture.
Safe spaces. Snowflakes.
You know what it all is missing in the grand scheme.
Houston Astros' Yuli Gurriel reacts after hitting a double during the ninth inning of Game 5 of baseball's World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)Grace. And one more: Compassion.
No, not passion. Passion is everywhere in the social issues du jour.
We are easily offended and then easily outraged at those who are easily offended.
Well, in the last week, in one of the most watched baseball series in the last two decades, grace at its highest form was before our very eyes.
And most of us missed it.
Last Friday, Houston baseball player Yuli Gurriel hit a home run off Yu Darvish. The slugger is Cuban; the pitcher is Japanese.
Baseball has become the biggest melting pot in American sports, and that's a good thing. It's been 70 years since Jackie Robinson crashed the all-white party that was Major League Baseball, and in April studies showed that this year there are more Latino players (31.9 percent of all MLB players) and players of color (42.5 percent) than ever.
In a lot of ways sports, especially as embodied by those involved on the field, court or course, is the avenue in our culture least affected by race. If you can play, whether you are polka-dotted or purple, someone will find a spot for you.
But that does not mean there are not issues.
And that brings us back to Gurriel and Darvish, who served up a home run to the Astros slugger last Friday. When Gurriel returned to the dugout, he put his fingers to the side of his eyes and pulled, a gesture universally taken as insulting for Asians. He also reportedly called Darvish "China Boy" in his native tongue.
It was the type of high-profile, highly insulting moment that makes the tabloids re-write headlines and the talking heads have their talking heads pop off.
And then it wasn't, because Darvish handled it with a supreme grace that should serve as an example for all of us.
Baseball vowed an investigation into Gurriel's actions, and Commissioner Rob Manfred acted swiftly, suspending the player for five games in 2018.
"Why not in the World Series, right now?" some asked, and the question seemed fair.
Manfred's main reason was because of Darvish's response.
Here's the response from the Dodgers pitcher, who was slated to start Wednesday's winner-takes-all Game 7, on social media after the incident:
Jay Greeson"No one is perfect. That includes both you and I. What he had done today isn't right, but I believe we should put our effort into learning rather than to accuse him. If we can take something from this, that is a giant step for mankind. Since we are living in such a wonderful world, let's stay positive and move forward instead of focusing on the anger. I'm counting on everyone's big love."
Thank you, Yu.
So many would have grabbed the lightning rod of outrage, looking for gains and maximizing the division caused by one fallible human's stupid action.
In fact, his social media offering may not have been as eloquent or as understanding as his postgame comments, especially considering he had just gotten the loss as a pitcher.
"Nobody's perfect. And everybody's different," Darvish said. "And we're going to have to learn from it. We are all human beings. That's what I'm saying. We'll learn from it and we have to go forward."
This is not to excuse hatred, mind you. Those knuckleheads in Middle Tennessee last weekend and the knuckle-draggers in Charlottesville, Va., do not deserve grace. They deserve scorn and outrage for opportunistically making the most of our divide.
Darvish could have made a monster issue out of Friday night. It would have been understandable, and it would created everything from CNN and Fox News specials on opposite sides to potentially players taking knees during the traditional playing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the seventh-inning stretch.
But Darvish showed the utmost grace and understanding in a emotional moment of swirling feelings, and regardless of how the World Series ended, that should be the lesson we all try to duplicate going forward.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.