There’s no point in getting all maudlin and preachy about this, but it should be shown to as many people as possible: Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar showed up to Saturday’s game against the Boston Red Sox with “you are a faggot” written on his eye-black in Spanish. Somewhere an entire high school of Alabama football fans just got really into the Blue Jays.

The words under Mr. Escobar’s eyes were “TU ERE MARICON,” which can be translated as “You are a faggot.” Other possible translations of the phrase lack the homophobic connotation, but are nevertheless offensive.

Mr. Escobar, a 29-year-old native of Havana, Cuba, has been seen at other games this season with different Spanish phrases written on his eye black. (via The Globe And Mail)

The other translation that is offensive but not homophobic is, “you are a pussy”. Long story short, there’s no way he thought he was writing “you are a jerk” on his face in Spanish, and no matter how he translates it it was something stupid and awful. Like I said, I don’t need to hop up onto a soap box and start pointing giant fingers at a dude who wrote “you are a faggot” on his face in magic marker, and unless Sarah Palin starts TwitPicking herself wearing a Yunel Escobar jersey we can probably just roll our eyes, dismiss Yunel’s contributions to baseball with a wanking motion and continue not giving a shit about the Blue Jays.

Here’s a statement from the people who do care about the Blue Jays, the Blue Jays:

The Toronto Blue Jays do not support discrimination of any kind nor condone the message displayed by Yunel Escobar during Saturday’s game. The club takes this situation seriously and is investigating the matter.

Alex Anthopoulos, Sr. VP Baseball Operations and General Manager will be available to the media tomorrow afternoon at Yankee Stadium and we expect him to be joined by Yunel Escobar, Manager John Farrell and Coach Luis Rivera. Details and location for the media availability will be announced tomorrow.

I hope Yunel’s response to the media is either “a less important person did it and didn’t tell me what I was sticking to my face” followed by a mailroom firing or “I AM a homophobe, losers!” followed by a bunch of crotch-chopping. Maybe next time he’ll skip the slurs and go straight to the offensive eye-black classics, like “DONG 3:16″.

[h/t to Big League Stew]

At some point after the New Orleans Saints evened their preseason record to 2-2 despite the fiery hell wishes of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Lance Moore made a decision. The oft-promising 28-year old receiver stood in front of his locker, stared at something he picked up at an LMFAO garage sale and thought, “Yes, this is the outfit that I’d like to wear to address the media tonight.”

Meanwhile, 1,100 miles or so away, Colby Rasmus was asking himself what he could do to break out of the humiliating slump that he’s currently enduring for the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately, on Saturday, Rasmus went 0-for-3 and struck out 3 times, as the Blue Jays lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 8-2. At some point prior to that goose egg, Rasmus thought to himself, “Corn rows, that’ll end this 1-for-40 misery. Yes, corn rows.”

So obviously that begs the most important question of the day – who did it worse, Moore or Rasmus? Let’s examine.

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Or, more specifically, Rajai Davis #cangoupandgetit. That two seconds where he slows down and purposefully times it makes this the catch of the year for me. (via Rant Sports)

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What you see on the left is the classic logo of the Toronto Blue Jays, the one the Jays wore in 1977, the one they wore during back-to-back World Series championship wins in ’92 and ’93. What you see on the right is the club’s new logo for 2012, an image that leaked on Wednesday and follows the Miami Marlins 1970s gas station clusterf**k in a string of recent, could-be should-be logo leaks.

Just like the Marlins leak, the team won’t confirm or deny, but makes it pretty clear that they aren’t going to deny. From thestar.com:

“We won’t comment on rumours or speculation … at such a time as when we have an announcement to make, we will happily release that information,” [Jays’ spokesperson Jay] Stenhouse said Thursday.

Two things:

1. Canadian spelling of “rumors” left in for your enjoyment
2. Do you think Jay Stenhouse got the Jays spokesperson job because his name is “Jay”?

If this turns out to be their new logo, it beats the hell out of their last decade of tough guy muscular birds and italicized art deco disasters. It’s what an updated logo should be — a cleaned-up, sleek design that keeps with the times without pretending the greatest and most prosperous times in your team’s history didn’t happen. It also (hopefully) prevents the Jays marketing team from thinking “creepy looking man-birds” is what people want to see.

Because seriously:

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Vernon Wells redefined the meaning of common sense on Sunday when he announced that he would not *GASP!* opt out of his contract after this season. Five years ago, Wells signed a 7-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays worth $126 million, so it shouldn’t take a math genius to figure out why he wouldn’t want to stick out those final three years, despite the fact that he’s not worth even half of what he’s being paid.

And you can’t blame the guy, because who the hell would give up that kind of cheddar? But just in case you were wondering, Wells offered up his reasoning.

“Why would you waive your no-trade clause (to accept a trade to the Angels) and then opt out one year later?

“Maybe it’s just society, but people put too much on struggling,” Wells said. “All of a sudden, everything is negative – you’re a bad guy; you’re unhappy. It’s a struggle, yeah. But that’s all it is. I’ve struggled before. Baseball is such a different game. You can be an All-Star one year, struggle the next year and become an All-Star again.

“It is what it is. … (Southern California) is a great place to live, a great place to play. I’ve got a lot of good years left and I look forward to having them there.”

(Via OC Register)

Well, he has three years left, sure. Unless the Anaheim Angels of Anaheim can find a team that would be dumb enough to take on that kind of contract. Maybe the Blue Jays are interested.

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Tampa Bay Ray Evan Longoria was robbed during Spring Training, and yesterday he was able to find some closure. From a report via Tampa’s News Leader™ WTSP 10

A Port Charlotte man was arrested Wednesday for his involvement in the burglary and grand theft of a Tampa Bay Rays spring training rental home earlier this year.

Steven Charles Vaughn, 22, is charged with Armed Burglary of an Unoccupied Dwelling, Grand Theft and Dealing in Stolen Property. Vaughn was already in jail on unrelated charges.

While the Rays were at a spring training game in nearby Charlotte Stadium on March 26, thieves got into their home and stole $60,000 worth of items, including numerous electronics, watches, jewelry and an AK-47 that belonged to third baseman Evan Longoria.

His jewelry and his what?

Yes, apparently Evan Longoria has a stash of automatic weapons in his home, and it may or may not be because he’s one of Gillette’s “Young Guns”. Regardless, it’s always good when a robbery gets solved, and The Dugout is pleased to present this exclusive transcript of the police report that led to an arrest. Of, uh, a guy already in jail. But still.

Today’s Dugout is after the jump.

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