Derek Lowe charged with DUI while racing; Roger McDowell suspended for two weeks for "homophobic and threatening" comments to fans

[Baldkin]

It's a tricky issue. Players are private citizens with personal rights just like anybody else. Is there really any legal reason that a person should be disallowed from doing their job for a first time DUI/DWI? However, players are also public figures and role models for our children (whether they want to be or not), so I understand wanting to be very strict in matters like this.

Most places where you drive for a living have it written into their contracts/hiring policies if you get a DUI -- even not on the job -- you will lose your job. This is mostly due to insurance concerns of the employer.

As for the team, I am sure they have the right to suspend the player for "conduct detrimental" or something along those lines.

[endaround]

And here is a big reason why the Brewers have a dry clubhouse

[homer]

How many people get suspended from work for getting a DUI? Unless you have a company car or drive for a living of course.

[RockCoCougars]

How many people get suspended from work for getting a DUI? Unless you have a company car or drive for a living of course.

I don't want to make this a political epidemic, but DWI is an epidemic in this society. Just check the news, almost every day you either have a death attributable to it or someone getting arrested for their gazillionth time. I think we need to start making the penalties (legal and other) more severe. I would guess that the McDowell incident (deplorable if true) has gotten 10 times the coverage the Lowe arrest received.

[homer]

How many people get suspended from work for getting a DUI? Unless you have a company car or drive for a living of course.

I don't want to make this a political epidemic, but DWI is an epidemic in this society. Just check the news, almost every day you either have a death attributable to it or someone getting arrested for their gazillionth time. I think we need to start making the penalties (legal and other) more severe.

Deaths due to drunk driving have dropped by 1/2 in the last 20 years. It is definitely a problem but a guy threatening someone with a bat in front of little kids is just as bad.

[reillymcshane]

What really annoys me was McDowell in his 'apology' said, "I am deeply sorry that I responded to the heckling fans in San Francisco."

 

As if it's the 'hecklers' fault that he made homophobic slurs in front of kids. As if it's the 'hecklers' fault he threatened to bash a fan with a bat.

 

This guy isn't contrite. His apology forces the blame back on to someone else.

 

Other witnesses have confirmed that McDowell said these things too. Perhaps someone said something that set McDowell off - we don't know that - although the witnesses that have come forward said there wasn't any 'heckling' going on.

 

Finally, if I went to a customer of mine and said the things McDowell said - including threatening to bash someone's teeth in - I'd be out of work in a second.

 

But most of all, it's this evasion of responsibility that pisses me off. Blaming others for things. Athletes saying, "I made a mistake". A mistake is saying 2+2=5. A mistake is going left instead of right at a corner. These guys are voluntarily making WRONG decisions. Not 'mistakes'. No one wants to take responsibility any more. They want to blame it on someone else.

 

McDowell should have come out, apologized without blaming others, and acknowledged what he did was wrong (which he didn't do). Instead, he's just 'sorry'. Sorry for what? Probably getting caught. Probably for being an idiot in front of others that could report him.

 

The guy is a tool. MLB's 14 day suspension is a joke.

[logan82]

How many people get suspended from work for getting a DUI? Unless you have a company car or drive for a living of course.

People who can make or lose money for their company based on public perception.

[owbc]

If the players knew there were real consequences for DUIs, they wouldn't happen nearly as much. I thought MLB would take it more seriously after the Adenhart tragedy, but I guess alcohol is just too much a part of the sport, players, fans, sponsors, etc. that it is going to take a serious incident caused by an MLB player for it to happen.

 

I do not understand why it is not considered a violation of MLB's substance-abuse policy. The players take in too much of a substance and then engage in an illegal activity that risks their life and the lives of others. We suspend players 50 games for smoking pot, so why not suspend Lowe and Choo 50 games for a first-offense substance abuse violation?

 

They are baseball players. They make millions of dollars and they can't pay $50 for a cab? Completely intolerable.

 

In the inevitable event that one of these players ends up injuring or killing someone, I hope the player, team, and MLB are ready to face the multi-million dollar lawsuit. If they permit an organizational culture where DUIs are barely punished, then they are absolutely legally liable when someone gets hurt because of it as they should be.

 

Maybe it's not as much MLB's problem if it happens in the offseason, but it most definitely is their problem if these guys are doing it on company time--which you could argue includes all road trips, which are really just glorified business trips. Even if a company doesn't punish you for a DUI on your own time, you bet they would if you got a DUI while representing your company on the road.

 

I applaud the Brewers for being one of the most progressive teams in addressing this serious matter.