That is your shift linkage end piece thingy. Super scientific I know. Basically, when you shift gears inside, you physically move a cable, which pulls/pushes that black/yellowish end piece. When it moves, that silver plate with the ball on it physically moves, telling the tranny which gear to be in.

It looks like, from the picture, that the end piece of the linkage is broken in the center (like a bushing of sorts) You'd need to replace that little end piece, and clip it back onto that silver ball, and you should be golden. It's fairly easy to get to, but Im not sure if that end piece is threaded in there, or not. If it's not, then you might end up having to fill that center area with some sort of filler, to take up the gap that's in there (though, that'd be a last ditch effort)

Hopefully someone will chime in and let us know if that end piece threads on/off, and the exact name/part number it is.