By Josh:
The New York Mets season began on Monday and after three games they are 0-3. It is a disappointing start to the season, but their first opponent of the season, the Washington Nationals, isn’t just any team.
However, the biggest news for the Mets to start the year is that their 2nd baseman, Daniel Murphy, missed two games so that he could be present for the birth of his first child and spend two days with his wife and new baby boy.
Mike Francesca, a sports radio host in New York City, loudly criticized Murphy for not coming back to the team immediately after the child was born. Even radio show host and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason criticized Murphy for missing a game for the birth of his son and stated that Murphy’s wife should have had a C-section before the season.
Let me say this as nice as I possibly can, Francesca and Esiason may be two of the dumbest people I’ve ever heard in my life.
First, according to the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players’ association allows for up to a three-day absence after being placed on paternity leave. Murphy has every right to take the three days agreed upon to go be with his family.
Second, the major league baseball season is 162 games long. Missing two games during the regular season, especially the first two games of the regular season is nothing. You don’t see a lot of Cal Ripken Jr’s out there today not missing a single game during the season. A lot of regular starters only play 140 to 150 games and that doesn’t even count if they get injured.
Third, it wasn’t the playoffs. I bet if it was the playoffs or World Series that Murphy’s wife would have told him to get back as fast as possible and win a championship. It isn’t October though, it is April and once again I revert to reason #2.
Fourth, it is the freaking birth of his FIRST CHILD. When my daughter was born I didn’t sleep the first 36 hours. Even if he would have made it back to the 2nd game of the season he probably would have been a wreck physically and mentally and would have been best served sitting the game out on the bench.
I know that there will always be idiots in the world who think that baseball, and other sports, are more important than anything else. They think that playing a game is of the same importance as any other job, but let’s be honest, there are 1,000 jobs that I can think of that are far more important in this world than playing a sport professionally.
For anyone thinking that Murphy should have given up time with his new born son the first days of his life so he could go play a game is out of their mind. Murphy made the right decision and as a father and baseball fan I will always root for fathers who put family first.