As vile and repugnant as Josh Hader’s tweets were, being that they were from seven years ago, long before he was part of professional baseball, I do not disagree with MLB’s decision not to directly punish Hader:
MLB issued the following statement today regarding @Brewers pitcher Josh Hader: pic.twitter.com/cFyyCjlF7h
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) July 18, 2018
Whether the required sensitivity training or participation in diversity initiatives will do anything to help him further understand the impact of racist, homophobic, and misogynistic ideas and messages, I don’t really know. I know that the real punishment for Hader is going to be the crap he’ll receive for months/years after this, and it won’t all be undeserved.
More important to me is the conversation that comes out of this incident, and the reminder to parents everywhere that these ideas are still pervasive, and the first level of impact about right and wrong will always come from parents. What Hader said and thought is extremely wrong. It was hateful of large groups of people who did nothing except exist. Let that message carry the day, not “he was only 17 and he’s changed, so it’s OK now.” He was, and maybe he is, but that’s not the message we should be sending today. The message is that what he did was abhorrent.
On the whole, then, I think this is a fine statement from the Brewers on the matter:
A statement from Brewers GM David Stearns: pic.twitter.com/Whxhnt2P1Q
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 18, 2018