Broadcasters get fussy over paternity leave
New York Mets third baseman Daniel Murphy drew criticism from local sports talk radio hosts this week for taking time off to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.
As Molly Friedman of the New York Daily News wrote, the radio hosts are now catching their fair share of criticism.
“Furious baseball fans - fathers and mothers alike - were crying ‘foul’ after three New York sportscasters mocked [New York] Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy for skipping two games this week to be with his newborn baby and wife,” Friedman wrote.
“Murphy missed Opening Day on Monday, plus the second game of the series against the [Washington] Nationals on Wednesday after his wife Tori delivered the couple’s first son, Noah.
“On separate WFAN shows, broadcasters Mike Francesa, Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton said Murphy should have sucked it up to support his teammates, not his wife.
“Esiason, on his WFAN morning show on Wednesday, went further, saying Murphy should have made his wife ‘have a C-section before the season starts. I need to be at Opening Day, I’m sorry.’
“Francesa, a father of three, seemed to take personal umbrage at Murphy’s leave of absence.
“‘I was at the birth and was back to work the next day,’ he said. ‘I didn’t see any reason not to be working.’
“Later, he doubled down on his dad-bashing:
“ ‘What are you going to do?
I mean you are going to sit there and look at your wife in a hospital bed for two days?’ he mocked.
‘Your wife doesn’t need your help the first couple of days; you know that you’re not doing much the first couple days with the baby that was just born.’
“Esiason’s radio partner Carton offered a similar assessment: ‘Assuming the birth went well, the wife is fine, the baby is fine, 24 hours and then you get your [expletive] back to your team and you play baseball.’
“As a point of fact, the broadcasters are wrong. Under Major League Baseball’s contract, players get paid paternity leave.
And experts said there’s a reason for the policy.
“ ‘There are guys who try to do basic things to help care for their children,’ said journalist and father of three Josh Levs, who filed a discrimination charge against Time Warner over its parental leave policy in October.
“Companies that don’t give paternity leaves help reinforce ‘the lingering stereotype that dads are nincompoops who don’t understand what women are going through after birth,’ Levs added. ‘[The broadcasters’ comments] don’t make any sense. It’s so out of touch with reality.’ ”
Protect the blind side
Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald recently wrote that former New York Giants defensive end turned morning show host Michael Strahan went from one competitive industry to another.
“Michael Strahan has been hired by ABC’s Good Morning America,” Dickson wrote. “You thought the morning wars were competitive before? Next week at this time, [Today host] Matt Lauer could be sacked live on the air.”
Quote of the day
“It’s a very unfortunate situation. It’s not good for baseball. It’s not what our institutions condone.”
UALR Athletic Director Chris Peterson on the brawl that broke out between the UALR and UCA baseball teams Wednesday night in Conway
Sports, Pages 20 on 04/04/2014