NEWSLETTER
Starting at the start and working up to the horrible …
Then-Cubs closer Wade Davis gave up the game-losing homer in the 10th inning of last year’s All-Star Game. It was a bummer, but there was absolutely zero percent of me that had any concerns about what it foreshadowed for the rest of the year. It was a nothing sample against the best of the best in an exhibition game.
I won’t entirely say, then, that Brewers ace reliever Josh Hader’s blowup performance last night in the All-Star Game – he recorded just one out, gave up four hits, including a three-run homer – is a signifier that worse performances are ahead. But the truth is, I already suspected the way he’d been leaned on so heavily for multi-inning performances again and again in the first half was going to catch up to him eventually. So whether the All-Star Game proves to be a line of demarcation or not, the Brewers already should have been concerned, given how disproportionately important he’d been to their early success.
But the thing is, the blowup performance was the least of Hader’s worries last night during the All-Star Game, and the least of what is going to follow him going forward.
During the game – essentially during his performance – old tweets re-surfaced from Hader that were unquestionably horrific. Racist. Homophobic. Misogynistic. You can see the tweets here, but even if you don’t look, suffice to say that you can just imagine every horrible thing a guy could put on social media, and it was in there somewhere.
Hader locked his Twitter account mid-game, and then addressed the media after the game.
Josh Hader addresses the tweets that surfaced during the game pic.twitter.com/Zzh6uS2frH
— Ryan Fagan (@ryanfagan) July 18, 2018
Josh Hader, part 2 of his comments addressing the tweets pic.twitter.com/tWs2zBmukS
— Ryan Fagan (@ryanfagan) July 18, 2018
There will be more on this as Hader will have to address his teammates, and will have to speak to MLB.
On the one hand, I understand the explanation that it was seven years ago when he was 17, and people can change from 17 to 24. On the other hand, the level of vileness in the messages he chose to send out – even at 17 – is really sticking with me. Tough to get past, and Hader will deserve almost all of what he gets for this.
Hopefully the lesson that comes out of this is not “be better at deleting your old racist, homophobic, misogynistic messages,” though. Hopefully the lesson is more tolerance, understanding, and empathy for groups of people who are different than you, and a greater sense that young people STILL need to be taught those very basic things, even here in 2018.
