Whitney McIntosh, SB Nation, July 20, 2018:
MLB Needs To Stop Using Mike Trout's Personality As A Shield For Its FailuresTyler Tynes, SB Nation, July 18, 2018:
We've known for a long time that MLB has a marketing problem. ... The only league that even comes close to being as terrible at baseball in these [promotional] areas is the one where players routinely die from a degenerative brain disease, but not before they are insulted and denigrated by owners whenever they try to express opinions about civil rights or free speech. ...
None of MLB's marketing problems have anything to do with Mike Trout. It's truly wild that I even have to say that, that this is a sentence that needs to be written. ...
In case you missed it, on Tuesday MLB Commissioner Manfred said of Trout's lack of broad recognizability:
Mike has made decisions on what he wants to do, doesn't want to do, how he wants to spend his free time or not spend his free time. I think we could help him make his brand very big. But he has to make a decision to engage. It takes time and effort.Mike Trout does not owe this league anything. ...
Being an incredible baseball player does not naturally lead someone to also want to be an incredible public personality, or to want to plunge their life into the spotlight even further. ... The league has known this about him for going on seven years, and to just now decide that their marketing efforts begin and end with whether Trout wants to be a top-tier celebrity is a joke. ...
MLB pretending as if they have no other options ... is nothing more than using a person's decision to spend his time off the field privately with his family and causes he cares about as a shield for their other shortcomings. ...
Adding mound visits restrictions and a pitch clock to games won't reverse the effects of the league limiting the way fans can watch or share fun moments from the sport. Or fix the very real race issues some teams have either internally or with their fans. ...
Baseball needs to fix its shit, in multiple areas. ...
Josh Hader And America's Willingness To Absolve White Athletes
Old tweets surfaced after his performance in the MLB All-Star Game. Some are a spattering of what can make up a white teenager's infancy: appropriating black rap songs, assumed jokes about white power, and lines referencing cocaine. Others are audacious rebukes of anyone without power, laced with adult impudence and scornful diatribe. Hader spews homophobia. Hader emits noticeable misogyny. Hader enjoys his slurs. This is not miscast American idiocy, but rather, a window into a rite of passage.
Yet cursory statements are not a bridge to exoneration. Racism cannot be used as a ritual befitting maturation. Because, notably, it is harnessed by the state and used to kill black people. It is unrelenting in its power when it attacks those without the shield of whiteness in front of their worth. History has shown us that actions without consequences are only for the privileged.
We cannot accept what transpired as the normalcy of childhood nor infantilize his statements. A mistake for Hader results in a highly publicized media tour where mostly white people, whose job it is to hold his feet to fire, are merely a checkbox on the path toward clemency. ...
Hader, fully remorseful that he was caught by internet watchdogs, apologized. The baseball community has accepted it. ... It's vile that the American athletic system can take odious circumstances and regard them with normalcy. What has been laid out is a copy-paste script for some to be forgiven, but forgiveness is always offered too quickly to the undeserving and most powerful.
2 comments:
Why should something someone said years ago as an immature teen be the center of controversy. He is a grown man , hopefully mature. People say and do things we regret all the time. It shouldn't be made into national headlines
"It's vile that the American athletic system can take odious circumstances and regard them with normalcy."
Or, consider the circumstances, his recent behavior and reputation with teammates, and accept that it was a young man acting incredibly dumb. Would Mr. Tynes like someone to comb through everything he said when he was 17?
"Forgiveness is always offered too quickly to the undeserving and most powerful."
What, a pretentious, pompous jerk that Tyler Tynes is.
I am guessing he imagines himself the self-appointed arbiter of forgiveness for thought crimes against the oppressed. I didn't vote for him and don't know anyone that did, but then again, Pauline Kael claimed she didn't know any Nixon voters either.
I'm sure Hader offered a half-hearted, passive, faux apology about how he's sorry "people were offended."
No, wait, he said, "No excuses. I was dumb and stupid."
Holy cow, clearly someone not taking responsibility for his behavior.
I like what Selma Blair said regarding James Gunn's firing for his old tweets:
"Because if people are punished despite changing, then what does that teach people about owning mistakes and evolving?"
Well, clearly, Tynes is part of the pound-of-flesh culture that has arisen from the ashes of oppression. Such an attitude will not end well for anyone. Let's hope he learns that sooner rather than later.
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