Read Sports Geek’s argument that a player has the right to call out a general manager, and Bleacher Fan’s argument that a player does not have the right.
Now that the Major League Baseball All-Star festivities are over, it is time to concentrate on the second half of the season. Teams are jockeying for position as they chase that elusive division title or wild card berth. Before we look ahead, The Sports Debates will take a quick look back at something that happened last week. Something that may, or may not, affect the rest of the season.
Earlier this month, Milwaukee Brewers left field slugger, and one of Loyal Homer’s boys, Ryan Braun, started a mini-firestorm when he openly called out the Brewers starting rotation and publicly called on Brewers general manager Doug Melvin to “make the ball club better.” Melvin responded by saying he was “ticked off” about Braun’s comments.
Braun made his colorful comments after losing three out of four games to the division rival Chicago Cubs. The Brewers are currently right in the thick of things in the National League Central only 2.5 games back of the leading division leading St. Louis Cardinals. I do not want to focus specifically on the Braun-Melvin situation though. And, I really do not want to focus on the fact that Braun specifically called out his pitching staff. Often times, a player will say things like that in the media. It happens, folks.
The issue at hand is whether or not a player ever has the right to openly call on a general manager to make a trade to improve the club. That is where the debate lies!
Sports Geek will argue that a player does have a right to call out his general manager and ask them publicly to make a move that will improve the ball club. After all, he just wants to win, right?
Bleacher Fan will argue that the player has no right to call out his boss publicly in a situation like that.
This should be an interesting debate, so I am publicly asking you to present your case!
