On July 29 Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb lost a no-hitter bid in the eighth inning. And while he ended up getting his eighth win of the season that night, he also posted an “L” on Twitter and with baseball fans across the continent.
Moments after his no-hitter close call, Newcomb apologized for offensive Tweets he sent years ago that had resurfaced during the game. Twitter user @NatsSquid reproduced three tweets from 2011 and 2012 — when Newcomb, was an 18-year-old high school student.
His Braves employers called the comments, “hurtful and incredibly disappointing.”
Unfortunately for MLB, Newcomb’s ugly tweets aren’t the only recent social media black eye for the league, a league that openly acknowledges its need to connect with new and younger demographics.
With four very similar incidents occurring in just over a month (see: Trae Turner, Josh Hader, Ryan Rolison), MLB has a major problem on its hands.
The challenges now lie in how, if at all, MLB can prevent future similar incidents from occurring and whether the punishment handed out to date will serve as an appropriate deterrent for such behaviour going forward.
In Hader’s case, MLB ordered him to undergo sensitivity training and work with their diversity and inclusion initiatives, but he wasn’t suspended or fined. In the cases of the others, their apologies seemed to be enough for MLB as no additional punishment was handed down.
So now we know MLB’s bar.
When the Newcomb and Turner news broke, my initial thought was that was teams and agents should immediately begin scrubbing accounts. Here’s a free tip: there is even a paid service called Tweet Deleter that will get rid of your heinous tweets for a nominal fee.
But if baseball is truly serious about curbing this behaviour, what they need to do is provide the players with a more serious deterrent.
MLB’s current social media policy, put in place in 2012, states: “No racial, sexist, homophobic, anti-religious, etc. comments.” It includes an enforcement clause that states “anyone who violates the rules is subject to discipline from the commissioner.”
But so far there has been no “discipline” beyond some sensitivity training and club issued apologies.
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To date, this has been an opportunity lost for MLB to demonstrate how serious they are about becoming a more inclusive game.
Had any of these players published the tweets in question while active members of MLB, they likely would have been suspended. It says here the duration of any suspension for such behaviour should coincide with however long it takes the individuals to complete their sensitivity training.
Regardless of when a comment was posted, if you tweet something, and it remains on your social page, it can be implied that you still endorse that sentiment. It’s not as if these were screen caps of previously deleted tweets or things that were retrieved from a cloud. They were still publicly accessible.
Also, age of the offender shouldn’t be factor. If you’re old enough to drive or go to war, you should be old enough to be held accountable for spewing hateful rhetoric.
These incidents reinforce negative stereotypes about baseball culture MLB is trying to change as it fights the decline in popularity of the sport and low participation rates among minority groups, especially African-Americans.
MLB’s TV audiences, based on Nielsen ratings, are not only shrinking, but skewing overwhelmingly old, white and male.
In 1981, 18.7 per cent of the league’s players, and 22 per cent of the All-Star game rosters, were African-American. On Opening Day this year, African-American players made up just 8.4 per cent of the league which was actually an improvement from recent years. In 2016, just 6.7 per cent of MLB players were African-American. That’s the same percentage playing 60 years ago in 1957.
When Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones, was asked why baseball players didn’t kneel for the national anthem he said: “we already have two strikes against us already, so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can’t kick them out. You need those players. In baseball, they don’t need us. Baseball is a white man’s sport.”
Jones is right about baseball’s leadership. All of the CEO’s in baseball but Derek Jeter are white and Angels owner Arturo Moreno who is Latino, is the only minority who is a majority owner of a club. The only black manager is Dave Roberts and there are only three other minorities running MLB benches.
Baseball now, more than ever, needs to step up and prove that it is in fact an inclusive game. And in fairness, there are some initiatives underway at the club and league levels.
In 1989, MLB created the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program. It’s goal is to reintroduce the game in urban communities. The program is in place in more than 200 cities and has produced players such as Justin Upton and CC Sabathia.
The Cincinnati Reds have instituted an African American Community Night and have hired Phylicia McCorkle, as diversity relations coordinator.
MLB has promoted Billy Bean, an openly gay former player, to vice-president for social responsibility and inclusion and added Curtis Pride, a hearing impaired former player, as an ambassador for inclusion.
Bean reports to MLB Chief Communications Officer Pat Courtney and has direct access to comississioner Rob Manfred. Bean’s mandate is to provide guidance, training and support of the LGBTQ community in baseball.
This season, every club – with the exception of the New York Yankees— have a Pride Night on their calendar.
But given the events of the past month, there is much work still to do. But today’s embarrassment can represent tomorrow’s opportunity. MLB should begin by leveraging players such as Sean Dolittle, who have thought long and hard about this issue.
What they don’t need is a generic, cookie-cutter response to what is looking more and more like a systemic problem.
