Do better, Joe. Way better.

Seemed innocent enough, right? 

It was just Joe Buck and John Smoltz covering the World Series, talking about the amazing Braves and all the adversity they faced on their way to glory. As it happened I was on my way out of the room on an urgent matter when Buck said what he said, so it didn’t quite register as anything more than normal between-pitches blather.

Matter of fact it was this blather right here: season of hardship for the Braves, blah blah here they are poised to win the World Series, blah blah lost this guy to injury, blah blah then Marcel Ozuna suspended for domestic violence, but the hits just kept on coming…

That last bit — Joe Buck actually said that — came to me from down the hall as I shut the bathroom door. Still, it didn’t really register.

And by the time I got back to the action, they’d quit talking about Ozuna. Of course. And that’s the problem. Also the problem is that large white males like myself still drive the train on what’s normalized for sportscasters to say on the air. 

So when Joe Buck talked about domestic violence, he went directly to the hardship that the perpetrator’s suspension put on the team. And straight on to the depth of roster that allowed the hits — yes, dammit, the segue away from domestic violence was to casually just fucking say hits — to just keep on coming. 

And it didn’t register. It should have. Heading off to take a piss is no excuse. 

Then the next morning, catching a daily dose of the Twitter, somehow the blessed algorithm stuck a post in my face from someone I don’t know, don’t follow, never heard of, someone named @EireannDolan who wrote:

“I get that broadcasting is very hard, but I really don’t like the framing of domestic violence suspensions being a hardship for a team’s performance, and I really really really don’t like when it’s followed by, ‘and the hits kept coming.’”

So it turns out Ms. Dolan is married to major league pitcher and erstwhile one-month Mariner Sean Doolittle. Turns out according to the Wikipedia that Eireann is a “writer, philanthropist, religious studies academic…well known for her work around charities and social issues in collaboration with her husband, Seattle Mariners pitcher Sean Doolittle.”

 

The Wikipedia has not caught up with the fact that Sean was granted free agency yesterday. But that’s not the point.

The point is that Ms. Dolan is smarter than I am. She’s a better person than I am. And it sure registered with her. 

Her words slapped this large white male right in the head. Namely…

Where was Buck’s outrage? Why couldn’t he at a very minimum point out that it was Ozuna’s behavior that led to the suspension, his violence that hosed his teammates, his selfish choice that put his team’s success at risk? 

I mean, that’s the least a guy could do as a broadcaster with a microphone in his hand and millions of fans listening. Millions of men, I bet. Millions of men who need a different message. And millions of women who need to know they’re seen, they mean something. 

Joe, you could at least take a stab at letting your female viewers know that what means something to them, means something to you too, up there on the screen with a mic in your hand.

Better yet, instead of treating the Braves like they’re the victims of Ozuna’s abuse, because that’s pretty much what Joe Buck said, instead maybe Buck and Smoltz could save a life if they veer away for a few seconds into what really went wrong, what the real human consequences are. Why do they smear us with this slimy vanilla pudding that obscures the whole issue, when they have a chance to use their platform and their voices and those big microphones to make a real point about a real thing? 

It’s two days too late, but what about this script:

Buck: Boy John, you know, with just 88 wins, it’s amazing the Braves got this far. Between injuries, distractions, Ozuna…

Smoltz: You’re right, Joe, and as a former Brave myself I gotta say Ozuna should be utterly remorseful, he should be ashamed of himself for what he did. Allegedly, of course, we gotta say allegedly because who knows what the DA and his attorney will work out, and we don’t wanna get Fox Sports in trouble. But c’mon, the league did its own investigation and chose to suspend him, so he better take accountability for his choice to harm another person. 

Buck: That is exactly the point, and if the listening audience takes anything from this, we hope the lesson is that you better make the right choice. Fellas, you millions of fellas listening to me right now, you may not want to hear this, but listen up. It is a choice, to choose violence or not. Your choice. It’s on you. 

Smoltz: That’s a pretty clear take, Joe. Right on. And again, even as a Brave alum who lives and dies for my old squad I tell you that this isn’t about what Ozuna did to the Braves. This is about what he did to another human being. It’s about the harm he did to her, the terrible trauma he inflicted, the years of struggle she may well face to get over it. And that’s the story we want to tell tonight.

Now wouldn’t that be refreshing, right in the middle of a ball game? Maybe.

But y’know right here in my little Navy town we still have people making jokes about Tailhook, people who still belittle those women who went to Tailhook when they shoulda known better, people still pissed about the fine Navy careers destroyed over Tailhook when superiors were held accountable. OK, those are all the same people. But anyway my town’s had thirty years since Tailhook to learn that abuse isn’t funny, that abuse and harassment aren’t the victims’ fault, that there are consequences for misogyny. And yet…

Thirty years. And yet here we are, in my town. And here we’ll stay for a while longer as a nation, if guys like Joe Buck keep vanilla-washing the problem.