Fans’ response to Bauer will likely be varied
(Warning: this newsletter contains graphic and sexually explicit language.)
When the Dodgers signed Trevor Bauer to a three-year, $102 million contract in February, I had questions about his past behavior, and how the Dodgers scrutinized it before taking on such massive risk.
Today, I have different questions.
When a professional athlete on the team we follow fails off the field, should we hold it against him by withdrawing support — booing rather than applauding, not renewing a season-ticket package, switching from Spectrum cable to another provider? How do we hold this player’s off-the-field behavior against him and his team? Does the off-the-field stuff ever matter?
My sense is that the answers will vary from fan to fan. I don’t think we need to collectively draw a hard line in the sand, pick a permanent side, and scorn the dissenters. We do, however, need to think critically about what Trevor Bauer has gotten himself, and the Dodgers, into. We shouldn’t disengage from the reason why he’s on seven-day paid administrative leave as of today. That would say a lot about us.
Bauer has been the subject of a wide-ranging Pasadena Police Department investigation for the last six weeks. This week, a Los Angeles County judge issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of a woman who accused Bauer of assault. The habitually self-promotional pitcher was not content to be silent on the accusation. His
attorney, Jon Fetterolf, released a statement that went beyond denying the charge against his client — he shared explicit details of his relationship with the accuser. These are the details (relayed here, via ESPN’s Jeff Passan) Bauer wants the public to know. He is not denying they had a sexual relationship that involved choking, and slapping, and resulted in the woman being treated for a concussion.
If we’re going to listen to Bauer, let’s listen to both sides. His accuser shared more, and more graphic, details with
The Athletic. Among them:
• The woman said her medical notes state she had “significant head and facial trauma,” and that there were signs of basilar skull fracture
• The woman said that while unconscious during one encounter, Bauer penetrated her anally, which she did not consent to in advance
• Bauer wrapped her hair around her neck, causing her to choke and lose consciousness, then awoke to non-consensual anal sex
• During another encounter, she lost consciousness and awoke when Bauer “punched me hard with a closed fist to the left side of my jaw, the left side of my head, and both cheekbones”
On the same day the Dodgers made the traditional World Series champions’ visit to the White House, CEO Stan Kasten was answering questions about the organization’s response to disturbing details about Bauer’s sex life. That’s because there is little doubt a woman was assaulted. What Bauer’s legal team must prove is that this woman consented to her own assault.
In this case, however, consent might be legally irrelevant, as the lawyer Sheryl Ring explained in a piece for Beyond The Box Score:
“There are also some things to which the law says you cannot consent, even if you want to. Ordinarily, the law follows what is called the “Volenti principle” — you cannot be harmed by that to which you consent, ergo that conduct also cannot be criminalized. But there are exceptions: you cannot consent to your own murder, a principle which both should be self-evident and dates back several hundred years to the British common law . ... Also, every state has enacted a statute which states that you cannot consent to the infliction of grievous bodily harm. In other words, it doesn’t matter what the context is: whether or not sex is involved, you cannot legally consent to an act which will result in your death or serious bodily injury.”
MLB’s investigation of Bauer is separate from that of the Pasadena Police Department. To be suspended by the league under its domestic violence policy, a player does not have to be charged with a crime. (So it was when Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías was suspended 20 games in August 2019.) Manager Dave Roberts said Thursday that Bauer was starting today’s game in Washington, D.C., saying the Dodgers would follow MLB’s lead. They didn’t have to, then or now.
When Bauer’s sevenday administrative leave ends, the league can extend the leave by another seven days under the terms of the CBA. The 14-day window closes when the All-Star break ends. That timeframe tells us little for now, other than how long the Dodgers should plan to be without Bauer. It’s possible he returns sooner. It’s also possible that MLB will choose to suspend Bauer before any legal action is taken against him, and he does not play again this season.
Whenever Bauer is reinstated, the Dodgers are not obligated to let him pitch. They can certainly choose to discipline him on their own. Moreover, as a fan, you can choose to give him as much or as little attention as you please.
Use your own judgment, but remember this: it’s odd that we get to cheer or boo anyone in their place of employment. Most of us don’t have crowds of people following us around as we go about our jobs. Athletes and entertainers do. A baseball stadium is the most tangible manifestation of “the court of public opinion.” How we respond to Bauer on the field is a reflection of how our society regards the details of Bauer’s off-thefield behavior, the rough outlines of which Bauer himself wants you to know. We can respond privately to anything we want. Sports offers one of the few places we can effectively respond to any public person in public. As Steven Goldman has argued on his excellent The Infinite Inning podcast, being able to publicly channel your feelings about the perpetrators of assault, like Bauer, should be regarded as a rare gift.
So, can you simply ignore this? Can you cheer a person who conflates sex and violence? Does your response depend on one judge’s selective application of the Volenti Principle? Unfortunately, because of Bauer’s own actions, these are questions every Dodger fan must ask so long as he’s a member of the team.