Bob CollinsA professional baseball player for the New York Mets — insert obvious New York Mets joke here — missed opening day this week because his wife had a baby.
Honk if you don’t see what’s coming next. Hint: It involves only men and sports talk radio.
Daniel Murphy, the second baseman, took paternity leave after learning Sunday night that his wife’s water had broken. He made it home in time to see the birth of his son.
He missed the opening day game, which began an hour later, but he also missed the second game of the season, which sent the guys in the sportswriting business into a tizzy.
Murphy deflected the criticism.
“It’s going to be tough for her to get up to New York for a month. I can only speak from my experience — a father seeing his wife — she was completely finished, he told ESPN. “I mean, she was done. She had surgery and she was wiped. Having me there helped a lot, and vice versa, to take some of the load off … It felt, for us, like the right decision to make.”
Murphy was back in the lineup for this afternoon’s game, singling, popping out, and walking in his first three plate appearances.
It’s all about values and priorities.
