TAMPA: A group of professional athletes who take a serious problem seriously.
Sounds pretty basic, right? However, in the case of the Yankees and Domingo German, it has felt discordant. We’re not used to teammates turning on each other, as there are now several Yankees in German, the pitcher who wants to return from an 81-game suspension for violating the domestic violence protocols of the Major League Baseball.
Many of you don’t like this, based on emails from readers. Like it or not, though, it’s real and it’s not over.
As he tries to rehabilitate his baseball career, German will operate with a lack of confidence – “skating on thin ice,” as Luke Voit said Wednesday, with the people he needs most.
German took the next step on Wednesday speaking at a Zoom press conference and the 28-year-old handled the task smoothly. Through an interpreter, the native of the Dominican Republic took responsibility for his actions on September 16, 2019 and acknowledged that he must “prove that I can definitely become a better person and let my actions speak for myself ”.
This session lasted more than 30 minutes, ending around 1:40 p.m. Less than an hour later, Voit uttered his German quote from the day he made headlines, saying, “We have our backs, but he’s skating on thin ice and needs his life together.” For good measure, Voit added, “It messed up. Now there are a lot of guys who look at it differently, but I believe in second chances and they deserve a second chance. ”
Giancarlo Stanton, more diplomatic despite defending his opinion, added: “At the clubhouse, we all have difficult things, some much worse than others. But it is our job to support in the right way when given the opportunity. “
Write down Zack Britton’s words from last week – “Sometimes you can’t control who your teammates are and that’s the situation” – and you have a clear picture that the German is facing an upward climb.
It’s not impossible, though. Voit and Stanton expressed their criticism in words of support, and on Wednesday German, who apologized to his teammates on Tuesday, praised Britton for offering “very good advice on how I can improve” and expressed his understanding of the rhetoric. Britton’s sudden.
“He’s done enough to win the opportunity to be here, compete and be part of that team,” manager Aaron Boone said of German. “Now the test is in the daily life he leads.
In general, we don’t hear this severity from teammates when a player returns from a long suspension, either domestic violence or illegal drugs to improve performance. When the Mets re-signed Jose Reyes in 2016, after Reyes had withdrawn a 52-game suspension for a domestic violence penalty while with the Rockies, team captain David Wright described Reyes’ actions as ” terrible, terrible ”, but fully, unconditionally supported by the decision. He loved the sinner and hated sin, the normal game in these situations.
When the Astros switched to Roberto Osuna from the Blue Jays in 2018, amid Osuna’s 75-game domestic violence suspension, Houston veteran pitcher Justin Verlander, who didn’t seem excited, told reporters, “It’s a difficult situation. I think what we need to remember here is that the details have not come to light. We don’t know the whole story. “
To reiterate a recent point, the Yankees know most, if not all, of German history. They lived it in real time. That it happened a couple of weeks before the postseason, which surely hurt the team’s chances of the Astros surviving in the American League (they didn’t), shouldn’t matter on the big picture, though German felt compelled to say: at his press conference: “When my team needed me most in 2019, before the playoffs started, I wasn’t there. And for that, I apologize.
Yankee players seem willing to forgive without forgetting. To try and run without pressing the reset button.
They take it seriously. Good for them. If they can take advantage of this seriousness to help German reunite his life and restore his professional viability? Even better.