Tigers’ Delmon Young Returns From Suspension

Young was arrested and charged with an aggravated hate crime in April when he drunkenly yelled anti-Semitic epithets at a group of tourists on a New York City street in the early morning outside the Hilton New York hotel. Young tackled one of the men in a brief scuffle, and the man sustained minor scratches to his elbows.

Young spent the rest of the night following the altercation at a nearby hospital because of his high level of intoxication before being jailed and booked at a police station.

There’s a whole angle here about MLB punishing Young without having punished its long line of drunk drivers, and that’s an angle worth exploring. Here, though, what matters is Young, and how he’s being dealt with after an incident of profound ugliness. He’ll get a few more days of uncomfortable inactivity, then he’ll get a whole lot of days of uncomfortable activity.

He’s under arrest for a drunken, anti-Semitic rant outside the team hotel on Friday night in New York City, during which there was a physical altercation. He’s been charged with second-degree aggravated harassment; it’s been classified as a hate crime, which could carry larger penalties.

Major League Baseball has decided to suspend Detroit Tigers slugger Delmon Young because of his drunken anti-Semitic rant and arrest, two sources have told The Post.

The announcement could come as early as today.

Young was arrested for hate crime harassment about 2:40 a.m. Friday after he shouted anti-Semitic slurs and allegedly shoved a tourist to the ground outside the Hilton Hotel.

The tourist was chatting with a panhandler who was wearing a yarmulke and a Star of David before the star outfielder’s outburst.

Young, arrested early Friday morning following a physical altercation with four men outside his hotel, has been charged with second-degree aggravated harassment. The incident has been classified as a hate crime, as Young allegedly used anti-Semitic slurs during the altercation. Dombrowski confirmed that Young was inebriated.

“Those situations themselves are concerning and not what you would like to see,” Dombrowski said, according to the New York Times. “If the allegations are true, that is also concerning and not what you’d like to see happen. I do not know what happened there. I do know the other things.”

For more on Young and the Tigers, please visit Bless You Boys and SB Nation Detroit.

I don’t know what happened Thursday night in New York.

You don’t know what happened Thursday night in New York.

The Detroit Tigers know they should say something about Delmon Young, who was arrested and could be charged with a hate crime after an incident in New York on Friday morning. But they also know that they can’t say anything. Their official statement:

We are aware of the situation, however it is our club policy not to comment on pending legal matters. As we understand it, this is an allegation and we need to allow the legal process to take its course. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time. Per a provision in the Major League Baseball Basic Agreement, any allegation that involves alcohol is referred to MLB’s Employee Assistance Program.There isn’t much more they can do. While it sure doesn’t sound good for Young, it is important to remember that this is an allegation, not a conviction. The crimes he’s being accused of are repugnant, but all we know right now are scant details.

Getting charged with assault? That’s the kind of thing that will damage a player’s reputation. Getting charged with a hate crime because of anti-Semitic remarks? Hoo boy. From the Detroit Free Press:

Young was arrested after an incident early Friday morning in New York with an unidentified 32-year-old male. If accurate, the anti-Semitic remarks could shift this from an off-field issue that baseball wouldn’t want to touch (like drunk driving or spousal abuse) to something that baseball will have to address with some sort of reprimand on its own, either at the league or team level (like smoking pot or saying nice things about Fidel Castro).

Detroit Tigers slugger Delmon Young was arrested early this morning after he allegedly assaulted a man in front of a Midtown hotel, police sources told The Post.

Cops were called to the hotel around 2:40 a.m. after Young, whose ballclub is in town to play the Yankees tonight, pushed the man to the ground, sources said.

Young, known for his powerhouse arm in the outfield, was “highly intoxicated,” sources said, and had to be taken to the hospital to sober up before being moved to a police precinct.The man who was assaulted, according to the article, suffered “scratches” and was treated at the scene.

Young had an injury-plagued 2011 and is off to a slow start in 2012, hitting just .242/.311/.333 with one home run in 74 plate appearances.