Posted on 04/04/2014 7:36:50 AM PDT by Morgana
Being a sports radio host sometimes means being full of hot air when white noise would be preferable, as in the case Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason. The big names showed their small attitudes when New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy chose to be with his wife rather that at opening day of baseball season.
Esiason said:
“I would have said, ‘C-Section before it starts. I need to be at opening day. This is how we make our money; this is how we live our life. This is what is going to give our child every opportunity to be a success in life. I’ll be able to afford any college I want to send my kid to because I’m a baseball player.’”
Carton followed, “I got four of these little rugrats; there’s nothing to do,” as he talks about how Murphy can’t possibly have a need to be home past 24 or 48 hours post-birth. The hosts point out that federal law gives Murphy a right to two weeks of paternity leave, but he shouldn’t take that right because baseball is more important than birth.
To his credit, Murphy dismissed the criticism, telling ESPN New York:
“I got a couple of text messages about it, so I’m not going to sit here and lie and say I didn’t hear about it. But that’s the awesome part about being blessed, about being a parent, is you get that choice. My wife and I discussed it, and we felt the best thing for our family was for me to try to stay for an extra day — that being Wednesday — due to the fact that she can’t travel for two weeks.
“It’s going to be tough for her to get up to New York for a month. I can only speak from my experience — a father seeing his wife – she was completely finished. I mean, she was done. She had surgery and she was wiped. Having me there helped a lot, and vice versa, to take some of the load off. … It felt, for us, like the right decision to make.”
This controversy is one that would not be a controversy in a culture that valued life and birth. These “rugrats” are precious children. Opening day is, as Sporting News noted, one of 162 games played each day. It’s a day of work. The day of a life of a baby can’t be compensated with cash. The support to his wife can’t be replaced with a paycheck.
Baseball is a game. Birth is the miracle of life. To even compare one as being more important than another reveals the attitudes that have permeated a culture that regards sports figures as demi-gods while reducing the true value of life. Once upon a time, criticizing a man for caring for his wife and baby, telling him he should have told her to get a C-section–major surgery–and then calling kids rugrats with an entirely derogatory tone would have been considered offensive to the masses. Now it’s fodder for radio hosts to use airtime at the expense of a man who valued his baby and his wife over a game. If there is a baseball hall of shame, Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason should be the pillars of this museum.
FWIW, there have been a number of "Major League Baseball" "paternity leave" situations involving unmarried players. The union contract does not "discriminate" against them, of course, because it would be politically incorrect if that were the case.
I thought we were all pro-family here.
I fail to see anything against pro-family values in the consideration that the married player figure out how to have the birth in the off-season, or, if the birth occurs in the in-season, he keeps up with his wife's and the baby's progress by telephone or Internet until an off-day from baseball allows him to see the wife and baby in person.
You might say that baseball (and some other sports to a lesser extent) is structurally anti-family because of all the travel and time away from wife and children that a player must endure. I don't see anything magic that can correct that without compromising the game as it is played. But players should be well aware of that when they choose pro sports as a career.
What you recommend is simple logic. That's the way most women wouild be thinking not that long ago. But of course, the left is constantly into various forms of social engineering, and "paternity leave" is one of those.
Exactly so
I love sports, but it’s only a game. Somehow we lost perspective as to what really matters.
Very few players play all 162 games. In the end he’ll probably miss fewer games than most of the others.
The entire earth does not revolve around this self-centered, whiny, clingy, and immature little girl/child.
My job as a wife and mom, was to **hold it together** at home so my husband could do his Job that put food, not only on our table, put the tables of all the men and women working on his team at work. That's what big girls do.
It’s his job to take care of his family.
The wife is a girl-child. Real women would understand that she is NOT the center of the universe.
The game and the business go on without the player. Imagine the bad PR if the team forbade him from taking leave. Maybe it was in baseball’s best interest to allow him to take the leave.
It’s his job to take care of his family.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The wife has a job, too. That job is to hold it together at home so that her husband can fulfill his responsibilities to the other members of the team ( many or whom are dads, too.)
Many, many, many families depend on having a successful sports teams. There are likely hundred ( maybe thousands) of vendors servicing this sporing activity who would do better if the team does better.
Real **women** understand this and do what is necessary to hold it together at home...not only for her husband....but for all the families that depend on her husband.
“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
It was his **wife’s** responsibility to have consideration for the many, many, many families that depend on the success of the team. Remember, please, that when the team does well, so do the hundreds ( thousands?) of vendors who support the sport.
Big girls understand this and do what is necessary.
The “Godfather”. I love that movie.
Murphy played in 161 games last year. I can’t recall if his replacement, Wilmer Flores, got a hit.
I wonder what the average and error rate is for fathers whose wives are giving birth on the day of the game. It could be good for all I know.
Like I said, MLB is 162 games, 10 times the number in Boomer’s pro sport. The funny thing is if he would have played and had a bunch of errors or got injured there would be folks screaming that his mind wasn’t on the game and he should have taken the days.
Freegards
Many a championship in baseball has been won or lost by a margin of only ONE game. Every game counts when the records are added up at the end of the year.
Yeah, that Murphy, obviously not a gamer. He missed one ballgame last year, potentially cost the Mets the World Series. I hope the fan base doesn’t blame him too much for potentially blowing the World Series this season. For missing the first two games of the home opener against the Nats on account he took off because of his offspring was being born.
But seriously, it’s absolutely true that getting to the play offs has been decided by one win. I know if I was a manager I would think it was cool and tip my cap if a guy decided to play while his kid was being born, and that doesn’t just go for pro-sports. He knows his situation, hopefully. But if a guy thought he should really be with his wife, but didn’t have the option, I would think that situation is potentially WAY more trouble than the guy missing the first two games and coming back without any chips on the shoulder for the whole remaining season.
Freegards
I did not say that the team should have forbidden paternity leave.
I DID say that the wife should have been a big girl and thought about more than just herself.
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