Daniel Murphy is a professional baseball player, currently playing second base for the New York Mets in the Major League Baseball (MLB). Murphy was center point of media attention after his wife Victoria gave birth to their son Noah on 31 March 2014.
MLB Paternity Leave
The collective bargaining agreement of the Major League Baseball allows players to take a 3 day paternity leave and that’s why Daniel Murphy missed the first two New York Mets games of the MLB season. A lot of people understood that the player wanted to be with his wife, but two New York sport talk radio hosts, Boomer Esiason and Mike Francesa, criticized Murphy’s decision to stay with his wife after the birth, although he was not breaking any MLB rules.
Boomer Esiason and Mike Francesca Criticism
Esiason said that Victoria Murphy should have had a C-section before the season started, while Francesca felt that Murphy could have hired a nurse. “What are you gonna do, sit there and look at your wife in the hospital bed for two days?” he wondered.
The comments from the radio hosts led to a storm of criticism, especially on social media and websites and a lot of people did not agree with the opinion of Boomer Esiasion and Mike Francesca. Listeners dialed up and tried to explain that some fathers actually like to be with their wife and newborn child, but they were actually shouted down by Mike Francesca.
New York Mets: Criticism Unfair
New York Mets manager Terry Collins thought the criticism was unfair, while Mets’ General Manager Sandy Alderson added: “the paternity-leave policy was introduced not just for the players’ benefit, but recognition by clubs in contemporary times that this is an appropriate time for parents to be together. So I’ve got absolutely no problem whatsoever with Murph being away.”
Apology
Following all sharp criticism, Boomer Esiason issued a lengthy apology at the start of his radio show.
“I just want to say again on this radio show that in no way, shape or form was I advocating anything for anybody to do. I was not telling women what to do with their bodies. I would never do that,” he said. “That’s their decision, that’s their life and they know their bodies better than I do. And the other thing, too, that I really felt bad about is that Daniel Murphy and Tori Murphy were dragged into a conversation, and their whole life was exposed. And it shouldn’t have been.“
