Catcher Geovany Soto broke in with the Cubs and played seven years in Chicago until being jettisoned to the American League in 2012, so it's inspiring that he can still keep his head up while the Cubbies are tearing it up this season and the Angels have spiraled around the toilet bowl. It's also inspiring that first-year outfielder Ji-Man Choi is choosing to ignore the spotty history of South Koreans in Major League Baseball (Chan Ho Park was the best of a pretty mediocre lot). But the most inspiring Halo on this year's squad has to be third baseman Yunel Escobar. No, it's not because he rebounded from a 50-game suspension in 2014 for testing positive for a banned substance, hitting more than .300 this year and last. It's because he's living proof of how MLB cares. In 2012, while playing for Toronto, Escobar took the field with the word maricon carved in the black tape beneath his left eye. He was suspended three games, and the salary he forfeited was donated, in part, to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Escobar apologized for the affront, saying he meant nothing by it, that it was a joke, and that he has many gay friends. In other news, maricon is Spanish for faggot.
