Where the Cleveland Indians went wrong with Mickey Callaway – Terry Pluto

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Mickey Callaway’s plight reveals a failure by the Cleveland Indians to create an environment where women could feel free to report sexual harassment.

The former Indian pitching coach was accused of inappropriate and rude behavior by five different women, according to an article in The Athletic.

Not everything happened with the Indians, where Callaway was the pitching coach from 2013 to 2017. Some went with Mets (where he managed in 2018-19) and as pitching coach for the Angels (2020).

But the Indians now know that some women who received sexual texts and comments from Callaway were reluctant to report him to the team. This is a key point.

As The Athletic’s story related: “None of the women who interacted with Callaway during their time in Cleveland reported these interactions through any official channel.”

This also happened when Callaway was managing Mets. He highlights a problem in professional sports, where some men with rights believe that they are a gift from God to women and should be treated as such.

Meanwhile, women want to show that they are tough enough to handle work in the male world. They also fear being interrupted by other people in baseball if they complain.

This can create a toxic environment to be explored by characters like Callaway. He counted on the fact that women did not say anything.

And remember, the biggest culprit in this story is Callaway.

DELIVERY BEHAVIOR

It is said that Callaway had several cases while he was with the Indians, who must have known about some of them. The indiscretions were “consensual”, at least as far as the Indians say they know.

In 2017, the husband of a woman who had a long affair with Callaway contacted the Indians through the fan relations department. The team discussed the matter with President Chris Antonetti, GM Mike Chernoff and manager Terry Francona. The human relations department and the legal department were involved.

That is why Francona said that there were no efforts to cover up the problem.

Callaway was confronted by the team. He supposedly stopped that case.

What makes Indians look bad is Antonetti saying this at a press conference on February 4: “There was never any complaint against Mickey in his time with us, either for me or for our human resources department or other leaders.”

Antonetti was talking about accusations of sexual harassment. But the team knew of at least one case that led to a complaint.

TENSION OUTSIDE THE FIELD

It also created tension between the wives of the players, who knew that Callaway was married, but took other women with him on the road. This guy was spending a lot of time and energy with women, something that reflects poorly on a member of the coaching staff and his team.

Athletic’s story reported: “Some wives shared these concerns with their husbands, and these concerns were communicated to at least one department head and another employee, although no formal complaints have been filed with human resources or any other department, a source said. . ”

Apart from that, it was a bad idea to have Francona as the only member of the organization to speak today, when it was clear that Callaway would be the main subject. Francona, of course, didn’t say much about it. As I mentioned at the press conference, this should have been dealt with by someone above the manager.

WHERE INDIANS WERE

The Indians have been one of baseball’s model organizations in terms of how they treat their people. That is why so many of its top executives remain with the team.

But something went wrong here.

Did the Indians ignore the rumors about Callaway, even though there were no formal complaints? I do not know the answer. It is something that the team must investigate and discover. Major League Baseball is also investigating Callaway.

Second question: Why didn’t the women (the majority not affiliated with the team) want to complain? As Atlético reported, none did.

Did they think Callaway was in such a favorable position with the team that their complaints would be ignored? In the future, the Indians promised to change that.

They talked to the employees to make sure they know the team is going to listen and created stronger communication channels. They seem dedicated and sincere when it comes to doing what else is needed. They must be open to change, or another situation like Mickey Callaway could happen again.

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