When the news first broke last April that Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young had been arrested in New York City for making an anti-Jewish slur following a night of drinking, I wrote about my disappointment in him
on this blog. I explained that, after hearing this news, it would be difficult for me to cheer for him even though he would continue to play for my beloved, hometown Detroit Tigers. In an
op-ed for the Huffington Post, I wrote, "My oldest son is 8. In the past year he has become a die-hard Detroit Tigers fan... How am I supposed to explain to my son that Delmon Young was drunk, got into a street fight, yelled an anti-Semitic slur and got arrested?"
After reading my words in the Huffington Post, Delmon Young's agent Joel Wolfe sent me an email explaining that "Del is a special kid, and nothing like the animal that the NY media portrayed him to be." About a month later I was at the same dinner as Delmon's other agent, Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group. We spoke for a while about Delmon, and again I was told that he's a special kid who just needs the right mentoring to stay on the path to success. I took those words to heart and decided to try and give Delmon the benefit of the doubt for the rest of the season, but it wasn't easy. Whenever he came up to bat I felt a little uneasy and would picture the scene on the sidewalk in front of his NYC hotel. I didn't really think he was an anti-Semite and I wanted to just forget about the whole incident, but it was difficult.
