Memo to Bud Selig: Suspend Ryan Dempster
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by DNL
[I imagine riding on the New York City subway] next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing. [. . .] As if that wasn't bad enough, Rocker added that, "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country? --- John Rocker, in Sports Illustraded
For that, Bud Selig suspended John Rocker for the first month of the 2000 baseball season. While the suspension was controversial -- indeed, the Players Association successfully sliced it in half -- in retrospect, most would agree that some suspension was probably just.
On Friday, Deadspin reported that Ryan Dempster sexually harrassed a female fan.
That picture comes from the linked-to article. Also from that article comes this story:
Christine (the lady in the picture) asked Dempster for the ball he was long tossing with. After she first asked, his response was something along the lines of "what am I going to long toss with if I give you this ball?" After Christine pleaded for the ball again (in that semi-annoying way only girls can pull off), Dempster responded back "I'll give you the ball if you take your top off." [. . .] Christine, now relishing her role as "that girl" in the stands, goes and gets Dempster to sign the ball he gave her. He throws it back up, and this is when the magical picture was taken.
For those with can't make out the inscription on the ball, it says:
"To Christine
Take Your Damn Top Off
/s/ Ryan Dempster"
This behavior is patently unacceptable, and Bud Selig must take action. A five game suspension -- minimum -- is in order.
"But wait!," you say, "there's nothing wrong here. No different than A-Rod cheating on his wife, or Paul Lo Duca and David Wright getting plastered at a bar and 'hanging out' with 20-something women."
And to that, I say, simply this: you're wrong. This isn't a personal marital matter, or an off-field infraction. This isn't some overpaid, undereducated egotist going down to Mardi Gras and throwing beads everywhere yelling "show me your t*ts." It's not just debauchery. This was on the field, in uniform, and twice harrased a paying customer. This was an act which, had it occured in any other industry, would have ended up with the harasser -- asking a customer to take off her top! -- on the wrong end of a pink slip.
If Rocker is due a month-long suspension for month for his words, certainly Dempster should take a one week unpaid vacation. Selig needs to send the right message: Don't harrass the customers.
