For the marketeers cranking out publicity for the San Francisco Giants’ farm team in San Jose, the tweet was a total strike-out.
Posted on Aug. 20 but now being circulated this week on social media, the tweet features an animated GIF of what appear to be three team members, presumably standing next to each other out on the diamond at San Jose’s Municipal Stadium, “celebrating Japanese heritage night!”
But for a team based in the middle of a region that practically invented political correctness, the GIF is about as politically tone-deaf as it could imagine: one player, sporting a traditional Japanese headband called a hachimaki, is caught in an endless loop of karate-style kicks; the guy on the right, wearing a Giants cap, is fanning himself; all three are wearing yukata-style bathrobes; and the middle player, wearing a rice-farmer’s kasa, is bowing with hands clasped together like Mickey Rooney’s controversial portrayal of Mr.