Phillies Strike Out On And Off The Field

By now you’ve undoubtedly heard that Phillies pitcher Brett Myers, arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife, has taken a two-and-a-half week absence from the team.

The story goes that the pitcher asked for a leave of absence himself, rather than be told by the team to take one. Phil Sheridan has a very nice column today about how the Phillies’ front office managed to handle Myers’ arrest even worse than anything else:

The Phillies failed miserably. Montgomery attempts to explain why in his statement.

“We have been engaged in a difficult balancing of concerns for the rights of our employee, the presumption of innocence, the rights of his spouse, and the legitimate public concern about allegations of spousal abuse by a Phillies ballplayer,” Montgomery’s statement reads.

And it’s true. These matters are complicated. Everyone involved has rights. This is a matter for the courts to handle. That’s why no one has reasonably suggested the Phillies handcuff Myers to the bumper of the team bus, or beat him with fungo bats or do anything else that would trample his rights.

But holding him out of one turn in the rotation - 36 hours after he was fingerprinted and booked on felony criminal charges - would have been an obvious and benign and even charitable thing to do.

Sheridan’s right. (Overall. Honestly, I think beating Brett Myers with fungo bats would be kinda reasonable. And cool.) The Phillies had a chance to show that they were competent in at least one area, and they blew it big time. Putting the obvious things aside, what exactly did the Phillies think was going to be the reaction to letting Myers start the day after he allegedly beat up his wife?

Hopefully, no one needs to be told that hitting a man hitting his wife is wrong. Really wrong. And I don’t think the Phillies think it’s right. But by not saying anything, they looked like they simply don’t care. Oh, one of our players beat up his wife, oh well, let’s move on, there’s a game to be played. And they didn’t even really do everything right yesterday, either. Among other things, could either prez Dave Montgomery or GM Pat Gillick have made themselves for comment, instead of leaving it up to Charlie Manuel? (CHARLIE MANUEL!!)

Hopefully, the Phillies will get Kim and Brett the help they need, whatever they need and hopefully this story can have some sort of happy ending. But with their track record, well…

The Phils, though, have done one thing that at least makes sense. Brett Myers Back to School Pack Day is now:

See? That’s a start.

Myers granted leave of absence [Phillies.com]
Phil Sheridan | After stumbling, it’s too late for Phils to wipe slate clean [Inquirer]
Archives: Brett Myers