I can’t summarize it better than Craig Calcattera, so let’s start there:
Trevor Bauer had his introductory press conference / Zoom meeting yesterday with the Dodgers and the baseball media gathered. And we have to give them a small amount of credit (the exact amount, to quote Alan Arkin from the film Argo, would be the buffalo shit for a nickel) that even bothered to ask Bauer about his previous behavior on social media. To review, Bauer was a misogynistic, transphobic, harass pig in the past. But previously, people like Bauer didn’t even ask that question. Take Tom Brady and Antonio Brown in the past Super Bowl, for example.
So Bauer took care of that. For very little. And not really. It was the most superficial review you could imagine.
“All the conversations I’ve had with people from all walks of life in the past two years and all the things I’ve learned – I can say that I learned from them,” said Bauer after receiving his number. 27 shirt during a virtual press conference at Dodger Stadium. “I spent a lot of time talking to other people to try to understand other perspectives and I am doing my best to be better, as I do in all spheres of my life. I don’t think it makes sense to dive into specific issues in this forum, but I am committed to being better on social media, being better on the field, being better at the clubhouse, being better in life in general. “
And that cliché, the answer without address did not generate a follow-up question, a note of caution, criticism, nothing. What did Bauer learn? Who did he talk to? What perspectives? It makes sense to delve into the details, but the reason he doesn’t want to is probably because he didn’t do shit about it. Why would he go? He just signed for $ 40 million this year. Where are the consequences? You can be sure that he’ll be back in his bullshit the next time any woman sneezes at him on Twitter. And that check will still be charged.
And yet you can headlines like this on ESPN, as if he had turned a new page. Or this on MLB.com, as if that was enough. At least that piece mentioned his actions in the past, while including his non-apology. Here it is puppet ready Jon Heyman to defend the participants at the press conference, although again, Bauer said nothing, there were no follow-up questions, Bauer took no responsibility and the article Heyman is retweeting says so. It seems that the slightest effort to question someone about this type of behavior is treated like William Wallace conquering the English, just so that the baseball press doesn’t have to do it again.
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And GM Andrew Friedman was no better.
“The most important thing is that each teammate we spoke to, all the feedback we received from each organization he was with, was not only incredibly positive in terms of the type of teammate he is, but also in terms of the impact that he causes each organization, ”Friedman said when asked if he believes he may have pushed some of the team’s fans away by signing Bauer. “I think the talent is quite obvious. But I also think that from a cultural point of view, continuing to strive to improve everything we do, I really think he will be a great asset in that. It is not for me to speak for Trevor, but in our conversations he alluded to the mistakes of the past he made. And you know what, we’re all going to make mistakes. What is important to me is how people – including myself, when I make mistakes – is how we internalize it and what our thoughts about the future are. From our point of view, it was important to have this conversation. And we came out of it feeling good. Now, obviously, time will tell. But I feel that it will be a great addition, not just on the field, but at the clubhouse, in the community, and that is obviously why we are sitting here. “
Friedman, like Bauer, says nothing on here. Did he speak to the women Bauer harassed? Fuck no, he didn’t. Did he speak to any woman about Bauer? No. But did he talk to Bauer’s former teammates? What will they tell you? Are they the ones whose lives he made hell with?
As for the thoughts going forward, to repeat myself ad nauseum, Bauer said nothing about what he will do going forward other than “be better”. Hell, thatIt is a timid step towards Melania’s senseless “Be Best” campaign against cyberbullying, when her husband was her poster boy. “Be better” can mean anything. And because of that, it means nothing.
But hey, he really had to sort this out with a hamburger for nothing, so everyone in baseball media suddenly thinks they are the Woodward and Bernstein of sexism.