In regard to situation involving Bauer, onus was on MLB to act
• When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted Thursday that the decision over whether pitcher Trevor Bauer would start for the team on Sunday in Washington was “out of our hands,” the eruption on social media was predictable. As usual, a lot of folks overlooked the fine print.
Friday’s announcement out of the commissioner’s office that Bauer was being placed on “administrative leave” while the investigation of allegations of sexual assault continues should have clarified things. Under the game’s collective bargaining agreement, teams are not to issue any disciplinary action once MLB begins an investigation, and even moving Bauer out of his Sunday start might have
been subject to a Players Association grievance.
Social media being a nuancefree zone, Roberts got the heat. ...
• As you might recall, a good portion of the fan base was uncomfortable with Bauer’s signing in February, citing the perception of hostility toward women (including instances of online harassment by his followers). I doubt anyone anticipated restraining orders or assault charges would be involved, but I suspect a good number of “told you so” messages have been exchanged in recent days. (Especially with a spokesman for the Pasadena Police Department telling USA Today on Friday that the investigation has become “bigger than we thought.” ...
• That Feb. 11 signing occurred 23 days after the New York Mets fired recently hired GM Jared Porter for sending explicit texts and images to a female reporter, and 10 days after public revelation of similar behavior by Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway, who was suspended and eventually fired. It might be an apples/oranges comparison, but the bottom line is similar: The #MeToo movement hasn’t had much effect on the sport’s personnel decisions.
• This is as good a time as any for a reminder: Playing major league baseball is a privilege, not a right. Your ability earns the opportunity, but your actions — on and off the field — should help determine if you keep it . ...
• The name/image/likeness era of college sports began at midnight on Thursday, and two of the first big beneficiaries were female athletes: Twins Hanna and Haley Cavinder, basketball players at Fresno State who not only are good at what they do on the court but have about three gazillion followers on TikTok. Just hours into this brave new world they had endorsement deals with a telecommunications company and a nutrition company.
And the Fresno Bee headline on the subject is classic: “Fresno State twins cash in on TikTok fame — and could earn more than college president.” In other words, not only coaches can make that claim now . ...
• Incidentally, Dabo Swinney is still employed by Clemson at last look. He’s the one who said several years ago, “But as far as paying players, professionalizing college athletics, that’s where you lose me. I’ll go do something else, because there’s enough entitlement in this world as it is.” You’d better believe the Twitterverse was reminding him of that this week.
Dabo, by the way, re-upped for 10 years and $92 million in 2019, a contract worth more than nine times the AAV of the deal for president of Clemson, James Clements, whose total yearly compensation according to the Chronicle of Higher Education was $1,016,773. So the players have something to aim for . ...
• Now that it’s no longer a sin to accept outside compensation, shouldn’t USC get its BCS football championship in 2004 officially restored? It won’t, in all likelihood. The NCAA is being dragged kicking and screaming into the player compensation era, but the revisionist history of its record book is one thing the organization still controls. I wouldn’t expect any “vacated” results to be restored . ...
• Along the same lines, Reggie Bush’s campaign to get his Heisman Trophy back is probably a lost cause, though there’s a slightly better chance of the Heisman Trust being openminded than there is of the NCAA changing course.
Reggie, an exciting player at a glamorous program in an era when L.A. was still without the NFL, could have earned close to what he was worth to USC under these rules, as much as $4 million to $6 million according to Joe Pompliano of the HuddleUp sports business newsletter. Bush, along with Michigan’s “Fab Five” basketball team of the early 1990s, might represent the two best (but far from only) examples of athletes who were born into the wrong era . ...
• One more painful suggestion for Trojans football fans: Consider how history might have changed if today’s rules had been in place more than a decade and a half ago. Pete Carroll might still be at USC . ...
• Things we wish we’d written/said dept., from Jemele Hill of The Atlantic: “Unless there’s a bag of Doritos at the finish line, marijuana is not a performanceenhancing drug. So they need to get with the times.”
In other words, suspending U.S. Olympic Trials 100-meter champion Sha’Carri Richardson for 30 days after a positive test for marijuana — knocking her out of the Olympic 100 in Tokyo — symbolizes the disconnect between much of the country, including the 18 states and two territories plus D.C. that have legalized pot, and the old white dudes in charge.
(Disclaimer: I’m an old white dude, and I don’t partake. But this is silly and tone-deaf at the very least.)
Consider that the U.S. AntiDoping Agency amended its rules in 2019 to make an exception for CBD, and that a World Anti-Doping Agency report the year before concluded there was no direct evidence of performance-enhancing effects. Reefer Madness, indeed.