Toronto short-stop Yunel Escobar was suspended for three games Tuesday by the Blue Jays for wearing eye-black displaying an anti-gay slur written in Spanish during a game last weekend against Boston.
Escobar apologized to his team and "to all those who have been offended" for what he said was meant to be "just a joke."
Escobar had written under his eyes "TU ERE MARICON," which can be translated as a derogatory term toward gays.
"It was not something I intended to be offensive," he said through a translator. "It was not anything intended to be directed at anyone in particular."
Escobar said he wrote the message 10 minutes before Saturday's home game on his eye-black, a sticker players wear under their eyes to reduce sun glare. The 29-year-old Cuban said he frequently puts messages there - usually inspirational, manager John Farrell offered - and had never previously written that specific slur.
Escobar insisted the word is often used within teams and by Latinos and "I didn't see it as something bad at the time."
"For us, it doesn't have the significance to the way it's being interpreted now," he said. "It's a word without a meaning."
"I don't have anything against homosexuals," he said, adding he didn't mean for the term to be "misinterpreted" by the gay community.
The suspension - issued after input from Commissioner Bud Selig, the players' union and team management - was to have started Tuesday night. The game between Toronto and New York was rained out.
The penalty was announced in a 26-minute news conference at Yankee Stadium. Escobar wore a jacket and jeans and was joined by Farrell, Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos, coach Luis Rivera and translator Robbie Guerra, a lawyer from the players' union.
Escobar's lost salary during the ban - $82,000 - will be directed to two advocacy groups, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and You Can Play.
Escobar will also take part in an outreach initiative to promote tolerance to oth-ers based on their sexual orientation, and participate in a sensitivity training program.
Pictures posted online showed Escobar with the message written during the Red Sox-Blue Jays game.
Farrell said Escobar's notes are often to the effect of "Let's go today." They draw so little attention that nobody caught the change.
"There was no reason to think it was something derogatory," Farrell said.
Farrell said the slur was written in small letters and "if someone had seen it, I would suspect someone would have said something."
