Trevor Bauer discussion thread

[Abomination]

Why did you just remove part of my post?

 

It wasn't important so I didn't want to create walls of text, but fine. The very headline starts by saying that Bauer won the hearing but lost anyway. How exactly? Apparently because the information in the hearing, which he had already freely made public before, was made public again . It then talks extensively about the Dodgers and how they can terminate his contract. This is an article about a legal proceeding for a restraining order. The rest is designed to focus the reader on his guilt by assuming it before any future proceedings addressing that even occur.

 

For the few parts that were actually on topic, the criticism of the petitioner seems mostly fair.

 

The criticism of the judge does not. While I'm not an attorney, the matter of what the limits were and what can and can't be consented to seems like it should be fundamentally different when it comes to considering a restraining order vs a civil or criminal suit. The entire argument made in the article seems targeted to the latter rather than the former. It's basically interspersing two different things in the same article, hoping that no one notices imo. Back to the point, the restraining order, I believe, is primarily considering what physical or perhaps emotional risk Bauer poses in the immediate future to the petitioner. It seems like he made it pretty clear in communications that he never wanted to see or speak to her again, and that was before any talk of legal proceedings. Someone may wish to correct me, but I suspect the main effect it would have would be to allow the petitioner's side to say whatever the hell they wanted on social media without fear of Bauer's side posting contradictory texts or otherwise being able to directly defend themselves. I may be wrong about that.

 

The criticism of Bauer's side doesn't really make sense. It's mostly centered on already established facts being stated again and complaining that Bauer's attorney attacked the credibility of the petitioner...

[King]

It wasn't important so I didn't want to create walls of text, but fine. The very headline starts by saying that Bauer won the hearing but lost anyway. How exactly? Apparently because the information in the hearing, which he had already freely made public before, was made public again . It then talks extensively about the Dodgers and how they can terminate his contract. This is an article about a legal proceeding for a restraining order. The rest is designed to focus the reader on his guilt by assuming it before any future proceedings addressing that even occur.

 

For the few parts that were actually on topic, the criticism of the petitioner seems mostly fair.

 

The criticism of the judge does not. While I'm not an attorney, the matter of what the limits were and what can and can't be consented to seems like it should be fundamentally different when it comes to considering a restraining order vs a civil or criminal suit. The entire argument made in the article seems targeted to the latter rather than the former. It's basically interspersing two different things in the same article, hoping that no one notices imo. Back to the point, the restraining order, I believe, is primarily considering what physical or perhaps emotional risk Bauer poses in the immediate future to the petitioner. It seems like he made it pretty clear in communications that he never wanted to see or speak to her again, and that was before any talk of legal proceedings. Someone may wish to correct me, but I suspect the main effect it would have would be to allow the petitioner's side to say whatever the hell they wanted on social media without fear of Bauer's side posting contradictory texts or otherwise being able to directly defend themselves. I may be wrong about that.

 

The criticism of Bauer's side doesn't really make sense. It's mostly centered on already established facts being stated again and complaining that Bauer's attorney attacked the credibility of the petitioner...

Fair enough. I respect what you said.

[King]

 

Holy s***! Bauer vs Ring?

[John_Havok]

 

Holy s***! Bauer vs Ring?

 

Attention whoring from Sheryl Ring, who would've thought?

[BTS]

Seems very unprofessional to cover this story as a member of the media and then complain when Bauer’s representation contacts you.

 

Sheryl Ring is terrible at her job.

[Laika]

 

Holy s***! Bauer vs Ring?

 

Her tweet is legitimate crazy person stuff. Off the rails.

 

From what I can tell she mostly LARPs as a serious lawyer. She does like, social services / poverty law last time I looked... It's bottom of the barrel stuff.

 

Maybe some Dunning-Kruger effect at play

[John_Havok]

Her tweet is legitimate crazy person stuff. Off the rails.

 

From what I can tell she mostly LARPs as a serious lawyer. She does like, social services / poverty law last time I looked... It's bottom of the barrel stuff.

 

Maybe some Dunning-Kruger effect at play

 

Nah, like I said its just good ol' fashioned attention whoring.

[Jimcanuck]

Nah, like I said its just good ol' fashioned attention whoring.

 

Attention whoring clearly pays.

[Terminator]

Her tweet is legitimate crazy person stuff. Off the rails.

 

From what I can tell she mostly LARPs as a serious lawyer. She does like, social services / poverty law last time I looked... It's bottom of the barrel stuff.

 

Maybe some Dunning-Kruger effect at play

 

She's a classic example of someone going to law school without having any sort of real plan to find a job that actually pays. Most of these people eventually end up in family law because it actually pays something and most people don't want to do it. But she is still acting like she's some sort of civil rights crusader. I still cannot believe that Fangraphs used to employ her lol.

[King]

 

Holy s***! Bauer's grave is just getting deeper and deeper.

[5ToolPhenom]

no one cares

[King]

no one cares

Wrong.

[Jimcanuck]

no one cares

 

MLB and MLBPA care very much.

[Laika]

What does that article say? One sentence summary please

[Boxcar]

Attention whoring clearly pays.

 

Does it? She needed a GoFundMe to chop her dick off.

[Krylian]

Does it? She needed a GoFundMe to chop her dick off.

 

You said 'her'

[Boxcar]

You said 'her'

 

I know. I followed the rules.

[Grant77]

Who erased MLB pitcher Devin Williams' tribute to Black Lives Matter?

 

Bradford William Davis

 

23 hours ago

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devin Williams throws a pitch at Wrigley Field on August 16, 2020. Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images

 

• Brewers pitcher Devin Williams etched "BLM" into the pitcher's mound a day after Kenosha, Wisconsin police shot Jacob Blake.

 

• Someone erased the inscription only minutes after Williams left the mound.

 

• Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, who took the mound after Williams, says he can't remember whether he erased the letters.

 

August 24, 2020, was never going to be a normal day for Devin Williams.

 

A rookie pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, Williams was at Miller Park for the 27th game of the Brewers' regular season — a matchup against the Cincinnati Reds and their ace pitcher, Trevor Bauer. Because of the pandemic, the game unfolded in front of an audience of cardboard cutouts. It was also the day after a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, paralyzing the 29-year-old Black man from the waist down. A video of the shooting soon went viral, drawing fresh outrage across the US.

 

Williams was the sole Black player on the Brewers' roster, and Kenosha is less than a hour's drive south of Milwaukee. So when Williams took the mound at the top of the seventh inning to preserve his team's 4-2 lead over Cincinnati, he was thinking of Blake. In a moment of spontaneity, Williams paused, removed his cap, and etched the letters B, L, and M — short for Black Lives Matter — into the mound dirt with his cleat.

 

—SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 25, 2020

 

"My emotions were kind of running high that day and the day prior to that," Williams later told me, and I understood what he meant. I was working as a sports columnist at the time, and my evenings were typically booked with some form of sports programming. But those evenings were becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the dread of knowing that police had nearly killed another Black person. On video. Again.

 

The next thing Williams did was what earned him the National League Rookie of the Year award last year — he dominated. Williams hurled a high-90s fastball and changeup that fans eventually nicknamed "The Airbender" for its mind-melting movement, striking out the next three batters in quick succession and helping the Brewers eke out a crucial win.

 

Again, a video went viral. Fans and the media promptly picked up on the poignancy of Williams' performance and his statement on the mound. His quiet, spur-of-the-moment demonstration anticipated a wave of Black Lives Matter walkouts across American sports leagues, with the most vivid being the local Milwaukee Bucks triggering a series of strikes throughout the NBA's playoff bubble, demanding their league and ownership play an active role in pursuing racial equality.

 

After Williams returned to the Brewers dugout, the broadcast cut to a commercial break. When television coverage resumed for the rest of the seventh inning, Bauer took his place on the mound for the Reds. But this time, Williams' "BLM" was missing, the thick inscription faded into the dirt. Williams' signature moment, one that inaugurated a wave of athlete protests, had been wiped away just minutes after it appeared.

 

What happened to the inscription?

 

Trevor Bauer's well-documented racist statements preceded the BLM allegations

 

A handful of fans immediately accused Bauer of erasing Williams' inscription:

 

—Nick (@Nickmaul19) August 25, 2020

 

 

 

—Jarrod Bifulk (@MNsportsGuRu78) August 25, 2020

 

But how would they know? None of them were at Miller Park. And the people who were there—the two teams, stadium staff, and local press—didn't seem to know who had done it, either. Furthermore, Bauer wasn't the only person in the vicinity of the pitching mound. There were other players, and a grounds crew that kept the field tidy.

 

At the same time, it wasn't difficult to understand why some fans suspected Bauer in the first place. In the past several years, he had developed a reputation for seeking conflict and gleefully offending the sensibilities of people who care about race and privilege. In 2016, for example, he endorsed an anti-Black and anti-semitic conspiracy theory; in 2017, he suggested Barack Obama was not actually born in the United States; in 2019, he sold shirts featuring the likeness of Chief Wahoo, a racist caricature that once served as the official logo of the Cleveland Indians.

 

Sports reporters have focused more recently on Bauer's alleged treatment of women. In 2017, an Ohio woman accused him of physical assault and later sought a restraining order against him in 2020. Bauer denied her allegations and said she had in fact harassed and assaulted him. In June 2021, a different woman in California accused Bauer of abuse and sexual assault, prompting his current suspension from Major League Baseball. Bauer denied her claims too, and said she had requested "rough sex." Both sets of allegations became public this year.

 

All of which is to say: Blaming Bauer for the missing inscription would be relatively easy. But I still wanted proof.

 

If Bauer didn't erase Williams' inscription, who did?

 

To better understand the timeline of events on August 24, 2020, I reviewed the broadcast archives of MLB.TV, the league's streaming platform. This process did not produce a smoking gun. When Williams pounds his fist into his glove after striking out Phillip Ervin to close out the top of the seventh, the "BLM" is visible and intact on the mound, to the immediate left of the Brewers glove logo. The camera cuts away as Williams trots off at the one hour and 58 minutes mark. It's the last moment at which the inscription is visible in the publicly available archives.

 

 

 

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Devin Williams inscribed "BLM" into the pitcher's mound during an August 24, 2020 game against the Cincinnati Reds. Public broadcast

 

The Fox broadcast resumes just under two minutes later with an angle from the perspective of deep right field looking out toward the baseball diamond. Unfortunately, Miller Park's right-field foul pole obstructs a clear view of the mound.

 

 

 

Miller Park's right-field foul pole obscured the part of the pitchers' mound where Devin Williams had inscribed "BLM" MLB.TV

 

As does the Fox Sports Milwaukee score graphic:

 

 

 

 

The on-screen graphic obscures the entire inner field. MLB.TV

 

When Bauer is shown taking the hill roughly two minutes after the inscription is last seen, the camera captures him pausing to stare down at the mound at a clean patch of dirt where Williams' "BLM" had just been:

 

 

 

Bauer stands in front of the part of the pitchers' mound where Williams had inscribed "BLM." MLB.TV

 

Then, he kicks dirt off his cleat before getting ready to deliver his next pitch:

 

 

 

MLB.TV

 

What exactly is going on here? Was Bauer simply, as his representative claimed, preparing himself for the next throw? Was he admiring his handiwork? Or something else?

 

Personal inscriptions like Williams' are rarely erased from pitcher's mounds

 

Williams is far from the only pitcher to etch a memorial into the dirt with his toe. Professional pitchers do this pretty commonly, for both commercial and sentimental reasons. Indeed, during the second inning of the same August 24 game, Bauer himself etched his own message in the mound—"BUDS"—as part of a planned promotion with Budweiser. A representative for Bauer said the grounds crew removed the message by the 4th inning.

 

This naturally raises the question of whether a member of the grounds crew, not Bauer, removed Williams' inscription. But this is unlikely, because Bauer's message promoted a corporate beer brand, while Williams' referred to a social movement with personal meaning to the pitcher himself. And professional baseball customs treat promotional and personal messages on the pitchers' mound very differently.

 

Six players — four current pitchers and two former players working as big-league coaches — all told me they'd never seen a pitcher's sentimental statement or tribute wiped off the mound, by the grounds crew or anyone else. The pitchers avoided commenting on Bauer specifically, but they all agreed that a grounds crew worker might clean up a promotional message like Bauer's, but would be highly unlikely to erase a meaningful inscription like Williams'.

 

The St. Louis Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller, a well-traveled two-time All-Star and 2013 World Series champion, told me that he'd seen teammates write inscriptions for years without the grounds crew interfering. "First that comes to mind is Flaherty and his 'TS 45' memorial," Miller said, referring to Jack Flaherty's inscription honoring Tyler Skaggs, an Angels pitcher who died of a drug overdose in 2019. "I think he still does it every game."

 

"I've never seen a grounds crew come work on the mound unless called upon by the pitcher," one National League pitcher, to whom Insider granted anonymity so he could speak freely, said. "I've never seen them fix a mound midgame that nobody asked for." The pitcher added: "I've only seen the grounds crew work on a mound midgame when it's raining." (There was no rain in Milwaukee that evening.)

 

Two-time All-Star Sean Doolittle told me that sentimental tributes "are thought to be somewhat sacred" and that pitchers abided by an unwritten code to leave them be. "If you didn't write them, you don't touch them — they're really important to someone," he said. "I've never heard of anyone erasing anything someone's written on the back of the mound." He added: "For someone, anyone, to erase [Williams'] inscription, in that moment against the backdrop of what happened in Kenosha, is pretty infuriating."

 

"Whatever somebody puts behind the mound in the dirt doesn't affect your ability to pitch, so if it means something to them, go ahead and leave it," Miller said. While he did not want to comment on Bauer, who was his teammate from 2016 to 2019, he added: "That's not to say people pitching are always thinking super clearly."

 

And what about a player besides Bauer? Both Doolittle and the National League vet said if the culprit wasn't on the ground crew, then it had to be a pitcher. "No one else really comes close to the mound," the latter said.

 

Bauer's explanation of the missing BLM is even harder to believe.

 

When I put the question to Bauer directly, his representative offered a strange non-denial, in the style of O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It," that contradicted Bauer's previous statements. The representative said Bauer didn't see B-L-M on the mound, but rather B-U-M. The rep also said Bauer isn't sure whether he erased, or didn't erase, whatever he saw.

 

"He remembers the other team f***ing with him, which as a troll himself, he appreciates," the representative said. "Someone wrote … 'B-U-M' on the mound. But he doesn't remember ever seeing 'BLM,' nor kicking anything off the mound." But if Bauer believed someone had written "BUM" to mess with him, wouldn't he erase it? The rep allowed that he might have. "It's possible" that he did, the rep said, but Bauer doesn't recall either way.

 

The first problem with this explanation is that Bauer previously denied erasing whatever message he saw on the mound, after a Twitter user accused him of wiping "BLM off the mound" this past January. When a different user asked if he really did that, Bauer himself weighed in: "No." The second problem is that Bauer's new explanation undermines itself. How does he remember the exact inscription he read (or misread) — but not whether he erased it?

 

Williams says he isn't sure what happened, but he's certain something happened.

 

I caught up with Williams in July ahead of a game against the Mets to see what the author himself thought about what happened to his missing tribute. When I asked him whether he noticed that his statement was wiped away, a smile crossed his face. Williams declined to offer any speculation, but he said he knew something happened. (And, no, he doesn't think it was the grounds crew.)

 

"I didn't see who did it, but I know that [the inscription] wasn't on the mound," he said. "I don't know if someone's got that footage, but I don't know for sure." The current lack of said footage is remarkable, given the amount of attention Williams drew that day.

 

Which leaves us with the statements of Bauer's representative and the six players who spoke to Insider. Taken together, they suggest — but do not prove — that Bauer encountered Williams' BLM inscription, interpreted it in one way or another, and then erased it. Bauer admitted seeing a message on the mound, and anyone can see the same message disappeared before he returned to the dugout. Like Williams said, without footage, the mystery may not be solved. But the writing is on the wall — unless the grounds crew wiped that off, too.

[Spanky99]

Fluff...

[connorp]

I had said Bauer should’ve found a wife for this stuff but have since changed my mind.

I read an article yesterday where a lady is suing her ex-husband, an semi-famous musician

Apparently he groomed and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. They met on MySpace when she was 16, they met for the first time in person when she was 18 and he apparently sexually assaulted her. This is believable to this point as you can see a girl trying to distinguish herself from a groupie (sorry for the slur) but the guy doesn’t take the “soft no” for a no…

 

But the article continues: “they met regularly for the next year and the victim was sexually assaulted each time”… lol, like what in the even fudge is that? I guess some people honestly just take that without questioning it and keep reading

[Carlos Danger]

What I don’t get is that Bauer is/was an SP correct? Williams an RP, who pitched in the 7th, what was Bauer doing coming in after him in the 8th? Am I missing that Bauer was one time an RP?

[Spanky99]

What I don’t get is that Bauer is/was an SP correct? Williams an RP, who pitched in the 7th, what was Bauer doing coming in after him in the 8th? Am I missing that Bauer was one time an RP?

 

Bauer was likely deep in the game. Whatever man, just a witch-hunt.

[King]

What I don’t get is that Bauer is/was an SP correct? Williams an RP, who pitched in the 7th, what was Bauer doing coming in after him in the 8th? Am I missing that Bauer was one time an RP?

They are on different teams.

[Spanky99]

They are on different teams.

 

lol... oh man. CD's on fire!

[Krylian]

I had said Bauer should’ve found a wife for this stuff but have since changed my mind.

I read an article yesterday where a lady is suing her ex-husband, an semi-famous musician

Apparently he groomed and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. They met on MySpace when she was 16, they met for the first time in person when she was 18 and he apparently sexually assaulted her. This is believable to this point as you can see a girl trying to distinguish herself from a groupie (sorry for the slur) but the guy doesn’t take the “soft no” for a no…

 

But the article continues: “they met regularly for the next year and the victim was sexually assaulted each time”… lol, like what in the even fudge is that? I guess some people honestly just take that without questioning it and keep reading

 

Is 'groupie' considered a slur now?

[connorp]

Is 'groupie' considered a slur now?

 

Here? Definitely but I was hoping in wasn’t quite ban worthy

[Carlos Danger]

They are on different teams.

 

Doi, yea. I forgot Bauer was on Cinci last year and Williams Brewers.. My bad

 

Thanks

[Deadpool]

Here? Definitely but I was hoping in wasn’t quite ban worthy

 

I certainly don't consider it one. I have many, many fond memories of groupies.

[connorp]

I certainly don't consider it one. I have many, many fond memories of groupies.

 

I believe it would be proper to say “girls that happen to be particularly fond of band members”

[Boxcar]

I believe it would be proper to say “girls that happen to be particularly fond of band members”

 

Don't worry, I reported it so that we can move closer to more inclusive and diverse language.