Photographer behind incriminating eye-black image hopes fans give Escobar a break,
Loyal Jays fan worried about reaction at games after controversial pic
When Yunel Escobar played last Saturday’s game with a homophobic slur written in Spanish in his eyeblack, nobody noticed — not the media, not the umpires or league officials and, according to manager John Farrell, none of Escobar’s teammates either.
Or if anyone did notice, none of them said anything.
The incident may have slipped by undetected if James Greenhalgh, a lifelong Jays fan and season-ticket holder, hadn’t posted his photo of Escobar with a translation of the slur. It was a difficult decision for Greenhalgh, a 37-year-old office manager from Markham. He suffers from anxiety and worried about the repercussions he might face from other Jays fans, the organization, even the players.
Greenhalgh has attended every single home game this season and his seat is as good as they come. Front row, right behind the Jays’ dugout, he sees the players up close. Many of them recognize him and pose for his camera. Escobar, in particular, has gone out of his way to acknowledge Greenhalgh, nodding and pointing to him almost every game. “He’s one of my favourites.”
So when Greenhalgh learned the meaning of the words on Escobar’s face, he considered keeping the photo to himself. He feared the taunts of other Jays fans, but worried more that the players would turn their back on him — that it would break a bond he felt they shared. “I was worried they wouldn’t look me in the eye.”
So he sat on the photo for a day, went to work Monday morning and tried not to think about it. He hoped an editor would notice the slur in one of the professional photos on the wire and absolve him of the responsibility of sharing it. That didn’t happen and he couldn’t shake the feeling he needed to make his photo public.
“When you hear or see something wrong it’s up to everyone to let people know,” he wrote on his Flickr account Monday afternoon with the photo. “‘That’s gay,’ ‘You’re gay,’ ‘You’re a fag,’ ‘You’re a faggot,’ are not acceptable insults in 2012. They are slurs and we need to get rid of them. When our sports heroes proliferate their usage our progress takes a step back.”
Then he posted a link on Twitter. Less than 24 hours later Escobar was suspended and explaining himself to a wall of TV cameras at a news conference in New York.
Greenhalgh knew the issue was important, but he had no idea how it would explode.
“I didn’t think I’d be getting contacted by Fox (TV), that my name would be on Al Jazeera.”
Greenhalgh sits alone at the Rogers Centre, something he hasn’t always been comfortable with. He enjoys the game, loves taking pictures and doesn’t need a crowd to have a good time at the ballpark. What used to bother him was what he believed other people were thinking: that he was a loser with no friends. He got over that and decided this year to challenge himself by not only going to a handful of games alone, but going to all of them. As far as sports fans go, Greenhalgh is rare, especially in Toronto. He’s patient, unconditionally supportive and loyal to a fault. He’s even confronted other Jays fans who heckle their own team. In short, he’s just the kind of fan the Jays need in this woeful season. He didn’t watch Tuesday’s news conference, he says, because he didn’t want to see Escobar “sad.” “I thought it would hurt my heart,” he explains. “Does that sound weird?” Greenhalgh also wants Jays fans to give Escobar a second chance. “I’m going to squirm if the entire crowd is booing him. I know I shouldn’t, but I feel that I’m responsible, that I created the firestorm.” He’s grown more comfortable with his decision every day, but still wishes he never had to make it. Most people have been supportive, but there has been some backlash, even a few threats via Twitter. He says he’s lost a couple of friends. But he’s happy the incident has sparked “important” dialogue on homophobia in sports and hopes it spurs the Jays to become more proactive in their inclusion of the LGBT community. Even still, Greenhalgh is contemplating ending his perfect attendance streak and skipping the Jays’ final homestand of the season. He says he’s going to take the weekend to decide. “I’d really just love to just go back to my seat, stand there and say, ‘You know, I didn’t do anything wrong here.’ But I’m scared, I really am.”