Does a major league player deserve paternity leave?

/ April 3, 2014
(Public Domain from wiki.commons.com)

(Public Domain from wiki.commons.com)

Daniel Murphy missed the first two games of the New York Mets baseball season.

He took paternity leave because his wife delivered their first child early on opening day.

He gets three days off to share in the joyful family milestone. It’s written into the agreement between management and the players union.

And yet there’s a controversy circling my Mets already.

Loudmouth media types are screaming into their microphones. Listeners are pitching in with phone calls. Some shake their verbal fists and declare that the second baseman owes more loyalty to the team and that he should never have left at all.

The slightly more enlightened are arguing that Murphy at the most should have stayed with his wife that first day and the day after, because the Mets were off, and returned for yesterday’s second game of the season.

Bull.

I hope you enjoyed the first three days of your baby’s life, Daniel Murphy.

There are 160 games left to this baseball season.

And you have, what, one, two, three, four (five, six, seven if you wish) more births ahead in your young and successful life.

Me? I think the Mets controversy ought to be because their most important relief pitcher, the closer, went out in the ninth inning on opening day and blew the save.

You could say that his arm fell off after the very first inning he pitched. The next day Bobby Parnell was diagnosed with a torn something in his pitching elbow.

Parnell joins Matt Harvey and Jonathan Neise and Jeremy Hefner on a list of pitchers who’s work-based arms have blown out in way way or another in the last calendar year. And before that, star pitcher Johan Santana found his Mets career ended when he hurt his arm around the time he earned the franchise’s first no-hitter ever.

Hey, what are the Mets doing wrong in the way they’re using their pitchers?

That’s a topic worth squawking about.

Do you think Daniel Murphy should have left his team to be with his wife and newborn child, or stayed with the squad to play? Do you think the huge salary they earn means professional athletes less deserve to honor important family milestones?

Here’s the source for New York Mets logo.

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51 thoughts on “Does a major league player deserve paternity leave?”

  2. Ugh, I always forget that you’re a NY person, Mark. It totally blows me away that you’re a Mets fan because the Mets and all that they stand for is crap. Lol, sorry, I was raised during the Mets are pondscum years as a cards fan when Wally Bachman and Howard Johnson were bashing the ball around. Plus, Keith Hernandez should have died a Cardinal, cocaine or not. Anyway, great post and great point. I broke down and wrote about this too a little bit. I can’t believe it’s an issue. People forget that even though it’s baseball or football or whatever, it’s still a job. Just like you can’t act like Richie Incognito did, employee players have rights as well! Good for Dan Murphy for exercising his.

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    • Oh, Don, my Mets should have to get one hell of a lot better for you to despise us once again, Cardinals fan. You have what we want: titles, baby. Yes, I do believe that those 1986 fellas named Wally and HoJo were only loved in the greater New York area, and I would have lamented trading Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen, too. Keith is one of the Mets TV broadcasters now, teamed with Ron Darling and a third, non-player, and they’re very good. And, yes, go Daniel Murphy! I agreed with you by commenting on your post, too.

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  3. i absolutely agree with him taking the leave, they have contracts to play, but not to control their lives. you child and wife are much more important than the game. i know many disagree, but i feel strongly about it. bravo murphy )

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  4. I always marvel at how things that should be expected, never are accepted! Oh well! What a shame for the backwards element of society, they aren’t only in the sports world, either! Smiles, Robin

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  6. I agree with you, Mark. There are plenty of games left in the season of an unpredictable game. His time spent with family should not be poo-pooed. A team is a team, and there are plenty of players getting paid big bucks to step up to the plate (pun intended) when needed. That’s the point of having a team and athletes with the ability to play multiple positions. If the athletes are not allowed to spend time with family during such an important time, it should be written in the contract…. the no babies clause…. Pfft.

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  8. i do think he should have gotten the 3 days off, in fact, probably even more than 3 days! That little baby (and wife) is a million times more important than that game. You are right Mark, the pitchers arms getting blown out IS IN FACT something to SQAUWK ABOUT!

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  12. God, Family, and Country. Then baseball. These knuckleheads should revisit the Ted Williams of the world who gave up several years of his prime serving our country. As young lads you and I experienced Sandy Koufax not pitching on Jewish Holidays. That seems to have turned out OK.

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  13. Child’s arrival and bonding or baseball? This is really a question? In real life? Anyone who questions this has serious issues that need discussed. Not the point that a man chose to spend the first three days of his child’s life with his child and wife.

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  14. I think it’s great that he spent 3 days with his wife and baby. I vaguely remember one man who left his wife in active labor to go out on the farm with his brother/partner, telling her if she still had to go to the hospital when he got finished cutting hay that night he would take her then. The second one comes a lot faster than the first one. She called a neighbor to take her to the hospital, and take care of the first until the old man noticed they were MIA. He met his new born son for the first time 18 hours after he was born.

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  15. I could understand there being squabbling by old school fans if this were something new, but paternity leave has been in the MLB agreement now for a few years…. long enough to have bitten me in the fantasy baseball butt a few times already (Along with bereavement leave, which I believe was added to the labor agreement at the same time). Some baseball fans are so stuck in the 19th century….

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  16. What’s the average time a player spends with one baseball team before he gets traded or a new contract or whatnot? I bet it’s shorter than eighteen years!

    I know it’s not the NHL, not the same level of play, but I remember a story a few years back about a Crunch player being told his wife had gone into labor in the middle of the game. He got off the ice and got to the hospital, and I can’t imagine anyone thinking he was less of a man or hockey player for it.

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    • I agree with you whole-heartedly, Lisa. Unless you are in a job situation where you have somebody else’s life in your hands — doctor, fire fighter, police officer — you leave and get to the hospital.

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  18. It’s obvious the way you feel. And I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t care how much the guy makes, family always comes first! Especially the birth of your first child.

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  20. Wow. Really? I can’t believe this is arguable. Fortunately Erik spent 3 weeks at home with Oliva and I as we figured out together how to care for her. Three days of paternity leave is nothing. But good for Mr. Murphy for taking what he could.

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