Redemption, Si – – Redemption, No …

I read recently that Thom Brennaman will be returning to the sports world after a banishment of about 4 years.  Brennaman was the play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds in MLB and he held down a play-by-play slot for FOX Sports’ coverage of MLB games and for their college football telecasts.  In 2020, he did not realize that a microphone was on in the booth, and he was caught on-air making a homophobic comment:

• [San Francisco is] “one of the fag capitals of the world”.

Naturally, he apologized for that remark; but 2020 was a time when the “cancel culture” was going strong.  No apology would be sufficient, and Thom Brennaman lost both of his play-by-play jobs; he was deemed to be unworthy of public interaction.

Brennaman has continued as best he can at his profession over the last 4 years broadcasting games for the Roberto Clemente League in Puerto Rico for a year and for an audio streaming platform called Chatterbox Sports after that.  Chatterbox Sports does high school games in the Cincinnati area.  Meaning no disregard to Chatterbox Sports or to high school sports, that represents quite a come down from doing MLB games on radio and TV.

The story has an element of redemption to it now.  It seems that Thom Brennaman has been hired by The CW to be their leading play-by-play announcer for coverage of ACC football starting this Fall.  His first appearance on the national airwaves will be on August 31^st when Idaho State visits Oregon State in Corvalis, OR.  [Aside:  Yes, I know that Idaho State and Oregon State being telecast as part of the Atlantic Coast Conference is a bit of a stretch…]  He will also do some ACC basketball games this winter after the football season is over.

I liked Thom Brennaman as an announcer; I remember him teamed with Joe Girardi as the color analyst and thought that pairing was very good.  I am glad he has the opportunity to take this job and resume what was a productive career.  To be sure, his comment was wrong and not justified; to be equally sure, his 4-year sentence to the hinterlands of US sports seems sufficient punishment.

Moving on …  There was another element of “cancel culture” back about the time Thom Brennaman was deemed to be a non-person.  In 2021, a woman accused Trevor Bauer of sexual assault.  Police began an investigation and the LA Dodgers backed away from him very quickly removing any merchandise linked to Bauer from their team store at the stadium and online.  Subsequently, two other women made similar allegations and Bauer was suspended from baseball for a year and a half.  [Aside:  That suspension was reduced on appeal, but you get the idea that MLB was not pleased about this in the least.]  And just for icing on the cake, a fourth woman accused Bauer of impregnating her as a result of yet another sexual assault.

Bauer denied all these accusations; but like Brennaman he was not welcome to continue with his employment.  However, the police investigation never led to any charges against Bauer let alone any convictions at trial.  He sued the woman who made the original claim against him for defamation, and she sued him for sexual battery in a civil action.

As these and other related cases made their way through the legal system, Bauer continued to play baseball but in Japan for a year and then in a Mexican League.  Recall that Bauer won a Cy Young Award while still involved with MLB, so it should not be a surprise that he pitched well in Japan and again in Mexico.  As of today, it seems that all the legal entanglements are over; Bauer and the woman suing him for sexual battery both dropped their suits prejudicially; investigations led to no charges in the other cases and for the woman who accused him of impregnating her, charges were levied against her for defrauding Bauer with her claims and collecting money from him that was unwarranted.

But there is no element of redemption in this saga.  Notwithstanding Trevor Bauer’s Cy Young Award and his pitching success since being banished from MLB, no team has found a way to bring him back to MLB.  Indeed, the allegations against Bauer are stark; at the same time, none of those allegations have been shown to be based on facts that can be independently corroborated.  And it is not as if there is a surfeit of starting pitching talent in MLB today.  Just to pick one team looking to make the playoffs this year who have “starting pitcher question marks”, look at the Atlanta Braves:

• Spencer Strider has missed all of 2024 with an elbow injury.
• Max Fried is on IL now and will miss at least another week.
• Arguably, those two pitchers were the “top of the rotation” for the Braves in April.

So, why the big difference in the two situations mentioned here?  Both men demonstrated high capability in their professions.  Brennaman did something that was clearly wrong; he apologized and spent about 4 years shunned by the national sports world; he now has a path to return to some level of prominence and recognition in his field.  None of the allegations against Bauer have been proven; in the legal sense, he has done nothing wrong although one must recall the adage about smoke and fire.

The logical conclusion I can draw here is that Trevor Bauer is not seen as a positive addition to an MLB team other than on those days when he is the starting pitcher.  Remember, he was once so frustrated by the circumstances of a game that he took a ball, turned to center field and threw the ball over the center field wall.  Managers and coaches seek to “limit distractions”; that act cannot be described as anything but a “distraction”.

Like I said, it is only a conclusion on my part completely unsupported by evidence…

Finally, today has been about redemption so let me close with this comment by New England Pats’ owner, Robert Kraft:

“While I believe in second chances and giving players an opportunity for redemption, I also believe that playing in the NFL is a privilege, not a right.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………