The latest details of the toxic atmosphere in the Mets organization, as reported on Friday by The Athletic, are plenty gross, and certainly sound an alarm that the current front office, led by Sandy Alderson, is ill-equipped for the moment, to put it generously.
Alderson and the Mets deserve all the heat they’re getting, absolutely, but it would be a huge mistake to believe that this is an issue that starts and ends with the Mets. Yeah, Mickey Callaway was the manager in New York, but how’s that investigation by his current employer, the Angels, going? Seemed pretty open and shut, what with the text messages the public has seen, yet they still seem to be hoping in Anaheim that it’ll all just go away quietly.
What happened on Friday night, though, has no connection to the Mets whatsoever. Just a tweet, from the Dodgers, showing how little thought baseball gives to addressing its institutional misogyny.
The Dodgers are promoting a series of glass Coca-Cola bottles to celebrate their world championship. A Dodgers fan tweeted a picture of a couple of six-packs, saying, “My husband acquired them for me along with some flowers lol” … and the club responded, “Best husband ever.”
With a GIF of Julio Urías…
…which they soon after deleted. Aces, guys.
Urías, the Dodgers should not have forgotten, served a 20-game suspension in 2019 for domestic violence.
Is it a simple mistake made by somebody who was just looking for a nice GIF to reply to a fan? Sure. It’s also not the kind of mistake that happens in a culture that gives a shit.
That should be simple, too. So should completing the Callaway investigation instead of waiting for the most opportune time for a news dump that you discovered the obvious and he’s fired — or worse, that the Angels are keeping him on. So should the Mets telling Alderson that all the work he’s done for the team over the years is appreciated, but now it’s time to go. So should a lot of things.
If only Baseball cared.