A Little Knowledge
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. We’ve watched the Houston Astros for the last few years. For the most part, we’ve just watched the games, not paying any attention to any news stories or learning anything about the players. Then that whole controversy with one of the managers made it through the news filter. And now I know Roberto Osuna assaulted the mother of his child. And that people in the Astros management care more about his baseball performance than his personal behavior.
This realization clouded my enjoyment of the World Series. He didn’t play in many of the games and fortunately, game 7 wasn’t decided based on his pitching. But it was still there. On one hand, I was annoyed that I didn’t need to know this. I just wanted to watch some baseball. But that’s exactly the kind of attitude that allows people to get away with this kind of shit.
People should not be excused their poor behavior just because they are good at something else. That attitude is why shitty people keep doing shitty things. This has to stop. Society is starting to make progress here but we still have a long way to go.
Now, in Osuna case, he was never actually convicted of anything. The argument could be made that we shouldn’t judge forever based on one accusation. Maybe if he never does anything like that again, MLB’s suspension should be punishment enough. But then… the woman fled back home to Mexico so never testified. That’s not a ringing endorsement of him being a stand up guy.
I honestly don’t know what the appropriate response is for stuff like this. I’m a firm believer that people can change and should be given the chance too. But I’m also of the belief that there need to be consequences for being a shitty person.
Should doing something shitty at home translate to consequences at work? At some level. If you’re a shitty person people shouldn’t want to associate with you. But how does someone correct that behavior? If we just write off people that’ll just lead to worse things. That’s what we do with criminals now. Lock them up and make their life even harder. That doesn’t help them learn from their mistakes.
And that should be the goal. Learning from your mistakes. But to often people only think of consequences as punishment. That’s an element but only one part. The goal shouldn’t be punishment. It should be improvement.
On a high note, the fact that Trump got booed when he attended Game 5 at the National stadium suggests we’re getting better about holding shitty people accountable for being shitty. Plus, Nationals Pitcher Sean Doolittle refused to go the White House because Trump. Go Nationals fans. Go Doolittle. Go Nationals.
