Ballplayer suspended for 5 games for racist gesture, but ...

Yuli Gurriel caught doing this during the World Series to taunt Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish.

YULI GURRIEL, the Houston Astros ballplayer, who pulled his eyes back to mock Yu Darvish, a Japanese pitcher for the L.A. Dodgers, was admonished by his team and suspended for five games.

His racist gesture was caught by the cameras and sparked at avalanche of criticism on social media.

However, because of the way baseball has its appeals system set up, it was decided to mete out the punishment at the beginning of next year's baseball system.

Last Thursday, in the first inning of the third game of the World Seriess, Gurrial smakcked a home run off of Dodger pitcher Darvish. After he returned to the dugout, he did the slant-eyed thing, called Darvish "Chinito," and laughed.

"I did not mean it to be offensive at any point," Gurriel told ESPN's Scott Lauber. "Quite the opposite. I have always had a lot of respect [for Japanese people]. ... I've never had anything against Darvish. For me, he's always been one of the best pitchers. I never had any luck against him. If I offended him, I apologize. It was not my intention."

Makng it even worse, Gurriel, who later apologized, also said he was aware that “chinito” is racist as hell.

“In Cuba and in various places, you don’t say ‘Japanese,’ you call all Asians ‘chinitos,’ ” Gurriel said. “But I was in Japan and I know they are offended by that.”

What? He knew what he did was offensive, but, he did it anyway? 

So ... Gurriel ... meet Chris Rock. Rock, you will remember, was the comedian hosting the Oscars two years ago and made fun of Asians in a poorly received joke against Asians. Apparently, it is still OK to make fun of Asians. Imagine the uproar if he had poked fun against an African/American player?

By the time Gurriel serves his punishment, people would have forgotten what he did. If MLB really wanted to make an anti-racist statement, it would have been more fitting to have the Astro third baseman sit out a game immediately during the World Series, when his absence would have more impact.

A day after the incident, during the broacast of the fourth game of the World Series, nobody said anything about what Gurriel did. It's already been forgotten.

Sorry MLB, you missed the opportunity to really make a strong statement.