MLB investigating Pillar for gay slur

[Craig Arko]

Remind me again why people think professional athletes are good role models?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Ugly situation but it's refreshing to see an actual apology instead of a sorry-not-sorry.

 

Everyone makes mistakes. What matters is that he apologized and hopefully learned something from the situation.

[ashbury]

Ugly situation but it's refreshing to see an actual apology instead of a sorry-not-sorry.

That is true. In my skepticism over the corporate-speak, I failed to mention that there was none of that "I'm sorry _{^{(if any snowflakes were offended)}}" junk.

[biggentleben]

The situation of the game (the Braves superstar severely injured, Bautista bat flipping a home run down 4 runs) added to this as well. There was high agitation in that game already, and Pillar just pushed it forward further, hence the punishment.

[DaveW]

Remind me again why people think professional athletes are good role models?

I think this is a good example of not a "role model" but a young man who made a really really stupid mistake, but owned up to it, was punished, apologized and is going to better himself.

 

Everyone makes mistakes, it's refreshing to see someone own it. Maybe not a role model, but a good lesson for everyone (myself included) when they make mistakes.

[PseudoSABR]

 

Remind me again why people think professional athletes are good role models?

It's not because athletes really are great role models.  It's that super star athletes have so much exposure, if they happen to be a good role model perhaps it has a widespread effect.  People want to believe in the goodness of the players they root for everyday (perhaps desperately so).  I see it as naive rather than willfully blind.  

 

[kab21]

I think people need to step away from the 'so you have never said anything' criticism of this criticism.

This type of language (about numerous groups) was extremely common back in the 90's (and even now) and I shake my head at myself some saying the things that I did as a teen and young adult. The key here is that some of us are able to realize that this is completely not okay and have chosen to correct that in ourselves. And pro sports are doing the same thing. I think the suspension is a little steep but I am glad that they are taking a step to remove these slurs from the game.

And this isn't to say that any of us are perfect in this regard. But if we say something then we can expect to get called on it.

[Shaitan]

Frankly, it's irrelevant what any of us have ever done. This is about an MLB player. The rest is just ad hominem.

[gunnarthor]

Some of these arguments came up in a discussion of Red Sox fan behavior. Someone gets really mad and uses a racially charged word or, in this case, a gay slur. I don't think we're wrong to point out how truly awful that type of behavior is and, in reality, it's not that common. We shouldn't excuse it. We've all been furious and probably all of us have refrained from using those sorts of words. MLB did the right thing by giving Pillar a two game suspension. The Red Sox were right to ban that racist fan from Fenway.