TGIF Feature: Pakistani American is Giants' president of baseball operations

SCREEN CAPTURE '/ SF GIANTS

San Francisco Giants President Larry Baer, left, introduces Farhan Zaidi to the press.

L.A. DODGER FANS have one more reason to hate the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants lured away the Dodgers' general manager Farhan Zaidi, the man sports authorities credit for the recent success of the Boys in Blue.

The Giants have hired Major League executive Zaidi as the club's president of baseball operations, President & CEO Larry Baer announced Thursday (Nov. 8).

"We set out to find one of the best minds in baseball and Farhan's many accomplishments and expertise exceeded our expectations," said Baer. "Farhan is widely viewed as one of the top executives in our industry and we are thrilled to have him lead the next chapter of Giants Baseball."

"I am delighted to return to the Bay Area and to join one of the most storied franchises in the game," said Zaidi, who worked with cross-bay rivals Oakland Athletics for 10 years before becoming the Dodgers general manager. 

"I have watched the Giants from afar and I have great respect for the organization's culture and many accomplishments. I am excited about this new opportunity and I'm looking forward to getting right to work."

Farhan Zaidi, right, and his wife, Linda Fang.

Zaidi spent the last four years as the, Dodgers' General Manager after joining the club in November 2014. Under Zaidi's leadership, the Dodgers have won four consecutive division titles while advancing to the National League Championship Series the last three years and the World Series the last two seasons. During that four-year span, the Dodgers have posted the second-best winning percentage in all of baseball (.584, 379-270).

Prior to joining the Dodgers, Zaidi spent 10 seasons with the Oakland Athletics, where he started as a baseball operations analyst in 2005 before being promoted to director of baseball operations in 2009, and assistant general manager/director of baseball operations in 2014. 

With the Athletics, his primary responsibilities included evaluating and targeting players in the amateur draft, free agent and trade markets. The Athletics reached the playoffs during Zaidi's final three seasons with the club. (2012-14) 

Zaidi, 41, earned his bachelor of science degree in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 and a Ph.D in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2011. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Lucy.

After his parents moved to Canada from their native Pakistan, Zaidi was born in Ontario. However he spent a good portion of his youth living in the Philippines after his father moved to Manila for his job with the Asian Development Bank. 

After High School, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he graduated from with a Bachelor of Science degree; in addition to his Bachelor of Science, he also holds a doctorate of philosophy (PhD) in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. 

While at Berkeley, he read Moneyball, the book about the Oakland A's use of sabremetrics to determine the potential of ballplayers. He worked for the A's from 2004 to 2014 in various capacities until he was hired by the Dodgers.

Despite his familiarity with sabremetrics, he is also loves talking and listening to the scouts, who often evaluate players by gut instinct.

Any baseball executive who depends on only one set of beliefs, Zaidi said during his first news conference at AT&T Park on Wednesday, is doomed to "leave a lot of opportunities on the table. I think where we are as an organization right now, we have to cast as wide of a net as possible and not put too many labels on what this process is going to be other than to make smart and sound decisions."

The first MLB game Zaidi attended was Aug. 10, 1987 game between the Giants and the Houston Astros, recalls Zaidi. Candy Maldonado and Will Clark hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning against Houston to generate a 6-5 victory.

"To come full circle today was pretty special," Zaidi said.
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The man behind the Los Angeles Dodgers' success

General Manager Farhad Zaidi introduced Dave Roberts as the Dodger's manager in 2014.

ARE YOU, like me, not a fan of the Boston Red Sox or the Los Angeles Dodgers and looking for someone to root for in the World Series?

As a fan of the San Francisco Giants, I'm loathed to say, I'm reluctantly, kind of rooting for the Boys in Blue even though, as of this writing, they are down two games to zero.

For the last five years, the Dodgers have had a record any team would be proud of: Five divisions championships and for the last two years, playing in the world series.

The Dodgers manager is Dave Roberts, a Japanese American former ballplayer. He's successfully managed a team of egos and talented ballplayers to baseball's pinnacle of success.

However, the reason for Dodgers' rise might lay at the feet of another Asian American. It is no coincidence that their record coincides with the hiring of Farhan Zaidi, the first Asian American general manager of any U.S. professional sports team. It would not be far fetched to say he is behind the man behind the phenomenal success of the L.A. team.

Following is a column I wrote in 2014 when the Dodgers announced the hiring of Zaidi. I updated it with additional material

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IT'S OFFICIAL. The Dodgers announced this morning (Nov. 7) that Farhan Zaidi, one of the A's two assistant managers, will be the new general manager of the Los Angeles baseball  team, making him the first Asian American GM of any of U.S. professional sports team.

Zaidi is a Canadian with Pakistani parentage but get this - he was raised in the Philippines. His father moved to Manila for his job with the Asian Development Bank. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, Zaidi experienced the 1986 revolt against President Ferdinand Marcos. The family was living in a gated community in Manila, although Sadiq’s colleagues suggested they live at a hotel outside the city. When Zaidi was nine years old, the family finally moved outside Manila.

“At one point, there was gunfire, and it really sounded like it was coming from right outside my bedroom,” Zaidi told the Times. “I was so terrified.” Thankfully, the revolt was short and Marcos fled the country.

Not only is the the first Asian American GM, he is the first Muslim GM in the United States.

“I’m a big proponent of diversity in our game,” Zaidi said during his first Dodgers press conference, notes The National. “So from that standpoint, I’m proud of it.”The Dodgers, who won the National League West five years in a row, were ousted from the playoffs in 2013 and 2014 despite having one of the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball. 

What may irk the Dodgers ownership even more, despite all the money they put out and which - on paper - is the most talented team in the National League, they had to watch from the sidelines as their arch rivals, the San Francisco Giants, went on to win the World Series in 2014.

With almost an entirely new front office, the Dodgers are showing that they are serious about shoring up the administrative side of the organization to match what they put on the field. But they may also be saying, playing talent is not enough to win the whole shebam.

They started by hiring Andrew Friedman, former GM of the Tampa Bay Rays. Friedman's first action was to hire to young baseball administrators who will probably bring a whole new way of operating to the organization, owned by the Guggenheim Baseball Management, that's Guggenheim - as in bankrolls of money. 

Besides Zaidi, Friedman brought in Josh Byrnes, former GM of the San Diego Padres, as senior vice president of baseball operations. The two hires will bring a new outlook and operations the Dodgers.

Zaidi's primary focus will be on the major league team and player acquisitions, while Byrnes will overs scouting and player development, said Friedman.

Zaidi, has been with the A's for 10 years, most recently as assistant general manager/director of baseball operations, after five years as director of baseball operations.

Zaidi, 42, earned his bachelor of science degree in economics from Massachusetts Instittue of Technology and a Ph.D in economics from UC, Berkeley. Although totally versed  in sabremetrics, that the A's used to combine winning teams with the lowest payrolls, Zaidi is reported to advocate blending old-school scouting methods with the the advanced analytics to combine the best of both diametrically opposed worlds.

"He's absolutely brilliant," A's GM Billy Beane told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. "He has a great qualitative mind, but also a creative mind. The ability to look at things both micro and macro is unique and Farhan could do whatever he wants to do, not just in this game, but in any sport or business. I'm more worried about losing him to Apple or Google than I am to another team."
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MLB and Asian Americans take one more look at the World Series racist kerfuffle

Yuli Gurriel's racist gesture was caught by TV cameras.

THE WORLD SERIES is long over but the incident where one of the players made a racist gesture to an Asian player on the opposing team still continues to be a source of conversation during MLB meetings held last week in Orlando.

For those of you who don't have the time to surf the Internet, let me bring your attention to this article in TheAthletic.com in which some prominent Asian Americans react to punishment meted out to Houston Astros player Yuli Gurriel.

During Game 3 of the series, after Gurriel hit a home run off of Dodger starter Yu Darvish, who is from Japan, Gurriel did the slanted eyes-bit from the dugout and called Darvish, "chinito," which translates into "Little Chinese" but, as we learned later, is a term applied to all Asians in some Latin countries.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred acted quickly and the next day announced his punishment: Gurriel would be suspended without pay for the first five games of next season.

Fans reacted as might be expected. Houston fans gave Gurriel a loud standing ovation the next game when Gurriel came up to bat. Dodger fans, in contrast, showered the Cuban player with a continuous loud unremitting chorus of boos when the series returned to Los Angeles in Games 6 and 7.

While Darvish, a native of Japan, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is half Japanese, was forgiving of the Cuban ballplayer, some prominent Asian/Americans believe Manfred and baseball struck out by failing to give Gurriel a more immediate, resounding punishment—a one-game suspension during the Series.

RELATED: Ballplayer receives 5-day suspension for racist gesture

The Japanese American Citizens League executive director, David Inoue, issued a statement on Oct. 28 critical of baseball for postponing Gurriel’s suspension and said he sent a private message to Manfred as well.

“MLB did drop the ball on this by not doing something during the World Series,” said the statement. “There were some people who were calling for a suspension for the rest of the World Series. But one game, that sends the message that look, this is an issue that is more important than the game, that is above the competition of this game and strikes to the core of the values of the organization. They made the value judgment that, ‘Racism is going to be OK, and we’ll accept it in this situation,’”

“For me, this was the one opportunity for Major League Baseball to show its hand with respect to honor or dishonor,” said Don Yee, a sports agent who represents Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. “And I felt that if the commissioner had issued a one-game suspension during the World Series, for me, as an Asian-American, it would have said that Major League Baseball is a game of honor, irrespective of how big the World Series is.”

Manfred told The Athletic last week that he was aware that his decision was met with less-than-unanimous approval. “I’ve had communication from advocacy groups. I’m aware some people don’t agree with the discipline,” Manfred said. “I’ve tried to be thoughtful about accepting their input on the issue.”

Yee, however, said the issue is particularly sensitive for Asian/Americans, many of whom believe discrimination against them is taken less seriously than racist insults against other minorities, and that Gurriel’s punishment might have been harsher if his gesture had been directed at, say, an African/American, Jewish or gay player.

To many Asian/Americans the delayed suspension was a case of a missed opportunity. MLB whiffed.

READ the entire article here.

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Yu Darvish will start Game 7 of the World Series to face his nemisis Yuli Gurriel

Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish seeks redemption

JAPANESE PITCHER Yu Darvish of the L.A. Dodgers will take to the mound tonight (Nov. 1), in the biggest game of his life.

UPDATE: Darvish was taken out of the game after an inning and a third after giving up five runs. Houston Astros win, 6-1, four games to three.

When Yuli Gurriel stepped up to the plate Tuesday (Oct. 31) at Dodger Stadium in Game 6 of the World Series, L.A. fans rained down a chorus of boos. Expect more of the same tonight from fans of the Los Angeles team. The L.A. region has one of the largest Asian/American populations in the country.

That fan reaction was in stark contrast to Houston Astros fans who greeted the Astros' first baseman with a standing ovation despite Gurriel's racist gesture towards Dodger's pitcher Yu Darvish in Game 4.

After hitting a homerun off the Japanese pitcher, Gurriel returned to the dugout, pulled his eyes back and called Darvish "Chinito" a disparaging remark for "Little China man." His gesture was caught by the cameras and that set off a firestorm on social media as fans, (not just Asians) criticized the racist act.

In an ironic twist that only serves to hype the drama for Game 7, Darvish will return to the mound in a chance to redeem his lackluster performance in Game 4 when he lasted only 49 pitches before being yanked.

He will - off course - face Gurriel again in a moment of high drama, as if the crucial Game 7 in one of the most interesting World Series needed it. 

Darkish admitted Gurriel's slant-eye gesture was offensive, but he downplayed the incident saying instead that he hoped everyone can use the moment to learn something.

Gurriel apologized and wanted to do so face-to-face with Darvish, but the Japanese pitcher turned down the encounter and just wanted to move on.

MLB suspended Gurriel for five games at the start of the 2018 season avoiding any punishment during the World Series.

That delayed punishment didn't sit well with some Asian/American civil rights advocates.

“By postponing the suspension until next year, MLB also makes it clear that the game of baseball, and the World Series itself, are more important than applying its disciplinary action immediately. This is a choice of priorities by MLB in delaying application of punishment,” said the Japanese American Citizens League.

The Japanese American National Museum agreed.

“We believe that allowing Gurriel to continue to play in the World Series, rather than making his suspension immediate, does not send a strong enough message about the unacceptable nature of his actions,” it said. “While this incident will serve as an opportunity to further important discussions about race and racism in our country, Gurriel’s actions must not be construed as anything other than reprehensible.”

“As Asian/American civil rights organizations, we were shocked to see the slanted eye gesture that Houston Astro Yuli Gurriel directed at Los Angeles Dodger Yu Darvish during the World Series on Friday night," said the Asian American Advancing Justice organization in a statement. 

"Although Darvish found Gurriel’s actions offensive, Darvish’s response to this incident was gracious and urged unity," the legal advocates' organization continued. "But when Gurriel pulled back his eyes, he disrespected not only Darvish but millions of Asian/Americans, for whom that is perhaps the most commonly experienced racist gesture. Ironically, Gurriel and Darvish represent teams from two of the most diverse cities in the country, both with significant Asian American populations." 

(ASAM NEWS contributed to this report.)
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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.

"Slant eyed" insult caught on camera in the World Series

INSTAGRAM

Astros ballplayer Yuli Gurriel went from "hero to zero," with this racist gesture.

WHAT? REALLY? Did this really happen in baseball's World Series? The same night a ballplayer was making fun of an Asian player, he was getting an Asian/Amerian baby named after him.

The Houston Astro's first baseman Yuli Gurriel mocked Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish by pulling his eyes back to make those infamous slant eyes.

Just about every Asian or Asian/American has suffered the indignity of stupid bigots who want to make fun of people from Asia by pulling back their eyes. The hateful gesture, as harmless as might seem to non-Asians, is destructive to kids' self-esteem and still gets the blood boiling, even as adults.

Gurriel had just hit a homerun last night (Oct. 27) off of starting pitcher Darvish putting his team ahead 1-0. Back in the dugout, cameras caught Gurriel making that racist gesture while saying "Chinito," Spanish slang for "Little Chinese," then laughing.

Darvish, who is half-Japanese, said the gesture was "disrespectful" and "offensive to everybody," while calling for Gurriel to be reprimanded.

“I’m sure the Astros have Asian fans, too," he told journalists in Japanese.

Well. Gurriel had at least one Asian/American fan. And after last night, he has at least two.

Ironically, the same night Gurriel was acting like an ass, a Japanese/American fan Rickie Sakamoto from Houston was naming his newborn son Yuli, after the ballplayer.

As of late last night, there has not been any apology from Gurriel or Astro's management.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to meet with Gurriel Saturday (Oct. 28) to discuss the incident and will "consider discipline," per the New York Times.

MLB's Sam Dunn wrote: "Yuli Gurriel may have himself two home runs in the World Series, but he just went from hero to zero.

​"To say that this is not okay is a titanic understatement."

According to MLM, there's precedent for suspension for making derogatory comments of gestures, though none applied to race or occurred during the postseason, let alone the World Series. Yunel Escobar was suspended three games in 2012 for featuring a homophobic slur on his eye black, while Matt Joyce and Kevin Pillar each received two-game bans in the last year for making anti-gay remarks during games.

In this era of heightened sensitivity because of the racially insensitive - or to be kind, racially ignorant -  leadership in Washington and the reemergence of the presence and teachings of white supremacists, racist gestures, words or actions - intentional or unintentional - need to be pointed out and condemned. As people of color, we can no longer remain silent and just internalize the emotions stirred up by those situations.

It may have not been Darvish's night. In his first World Series appearance, he lasted only 49 pitches before being pulled. The Dodgers went on to lose the game 5-3, giving the Astros a 2-1 advantage in the best of seven World Series.

Despite his poor performance, Darvish doesn't deserve that. Nobody does.

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Asians and Asian American key to Dodgers drive to World Series

DODGERS

Dodgers general manager Frahan Zaidi

WITH THE addition of another ace, the L.A. Dodgers could be baseball's equivalent to the NBA's Warriors when Golden State added superstar Kevin Durant to a starting lineup that already had three all-stars.

The Dodgers were already among the best teams in Major League Baseball this season when they added Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish to their pitching rotation. The trade sent shockwaves throughout baseball. Aside from it being pushed through just prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, the team with the best record in baseball added an ace to a starting rotation that boasted the best ERA.

Adding Davish will give the Dodgers three Asian pitchers as starters, He'll be joing a staff with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda.

At the center of the dramatic, last-minute deal is Dodgers general manager Frahan Zaidi, a Canadian of Pakistani descent, who grew up in the Philippines and was educated in the United States.

Before Darvish began his first start as a Dodger, he met with Zaidi, the man who engineered the blockbuster deal with the Rangers that brought the electric right-hander to Los Angeles minutes before the non-waiver Trade Deadline.

YOUTUBE

Former Rangers' ace Yu Darvish in Dodger blue.

Darvish and Zaidi went over how the right-handed hurler would attack the Mets' hitters in his first start with his new team. They discussed pitch location and selection, how Darvish could best use his vast arsenal. 

At night's end, against the Mets, Darvish went seven scoreless innings allowing only three hits. His win in his debut puts the boys in blue at 77-32, 45 games over .500 and on their way to breaking their 29-year world series drought.

"He adds another ace, in my opinion," said Mets' star Jay Bruce. "He's going to be right there when the bell rings. He's one of the best pitchers in the game and they just added him. It doesn't make for an easy lineup of pitchers to go through."

"One of the things that's made him so effective is his assortment of pitches," Zaidi said. "The fastball, the ability to reach 95, 96, 97 mph, the ability to kind of take something off. He's got a couple really good off-speed pitches and a couple really good breaking balls.

"Coming to a new league, I think there's going to be an adjustment period on the part of the National League and that will really be an advantage for him," said Zaidi.

Darvish becomes the seventh Japan-born pitcher for the Dodgers, who already have right-handed starter Maeda. The best known of Japanese Dodger was Hideo Nomo, who started the All-Star game in his rookie year.

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