Terry Francona lashes out at racist abuse directed at Cleveland's Yu Chang
Cleveland Indians infielder Yu Chang committed a costly throwing error that allowed the Chicago White Sox to tally the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Monday's 4-3 Chicago win. Early Tuesday morning, Chang shared abhorrent anti-Asian slurs and insults directed his way via social media following the loss.
Manager Terry Francona defended his player and also hit out at the guilty parties when speaking with reporters ahead of Tuesday's showdown in Chicago.
"Errors are part of the game," Francona explained, per Joe Noga of Cleveland.com. "But ignorance and racism, they shouldn’t be anywhere."
Francona added:
"Those comments, they have nothing to do with baseball. Whether a play’s being made or not, they’re just an excuse for somebody to be stupid and ignorant. That’s really what it is."
Cleveland also tweeted a message of support with the hashtag "#StopAsianHate":
"I wanted to check on Yu, make sure he’s OK and make sure that he understands that what was the lunacy, or the idiocy of what was said is not shared by hopefully very many people, certainly not in the Indians organization," Francona said. "He’s an extremely mature young man and he’s fine."
Famous Asian athletes, such as Tottenham Hotspur superstar Son Heung-min, have received increased amounts of online racist abuse throughout the COVID-19 pandemic:
Former NBA star Jeremy Lin was called "coronavirus" during a G League contest in February.
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