ESPN senior writer Rob Neyer discovered a great little nugget adding to the bizarreness that is the Washington Nationals baseball team in his latest Monday Mendozas blog. Apparently, Nats outfielder Elijah Dukes -- who has been one of the few players doing anything remotely good on the ball field for the team this season -- was benched, fined $500 and threatened with a demotion to the minor leagues after he showed up to the park a mere five minutes late after the team's usual reporting time. Fine, teams have rules. But here's the kicker - Dukes was doing charity work for the Nats at a local Little League. The worst manager in the major leagues, Manny Acta, gave this explanation:
"He was late for work, he broke a team rule, and we are going to change the culture here — regardless of how well a guy is playing," Acta said. "And it was a bizarre situation, because he was doing something that we encourage our players to do: He was out in the community doing something for some Little League program and just showed up late to work. He was very remorseful about it. He felt bad, but we have to lay the law on whoever."
This just seems utterly ridiculous to me. Dude, you're already in a season full of embarassment, you're probably going to get fired in a few months, and you decide to bench a guy for doing something YOUR OWN TEAM INSTRUCTED HIM TO DO, and subject your team to another PR disaster that you didn't need. Listen, I know you want to lay down the law, but there are exceptions... like, you can bench and fine a guy if he comes into the clubhouse drunk, but not if he was being a good, tardy samaritan.
Wow, great find Andrew. This story seems a little messed up and leads me to question the common sense of this baseball manager. Why not focus on the players out there who are doing much worse things. Why not highlight the good deeds that Dukes was participating in? MESSED UP.
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