The Problem with Jose Reyes Playing Baseball

At this point, everyone knows that on October 31, 2015 Jose Reyes was arrested and later charged with abuse of a family member. The police report states Reyes grabbed his wife by the throat and shoved her into a sliding glass door. Hotel security called the police and Reyes' wife was taken to a local hospital. While the charges were later dropped when his wife stopped cooperating with authorities, Major League Baseball continued looking into these allegation via the Joint Domestic Violence Policy.

Reyes was suspended by Major League Baseball until May 31, 2016. He forfeited almost $7 million in salary and lost his starting job to Trevor Story. He was eventually released by the Colorado Rockies, leading many to believe that maybe his playing days were over.

Then, the New York Mets signed him. I'm a HUGE New York Mets fan, I was a big Jose Reyes fan back in the day. Not so much when he requested to sit out his last few at bats as a Met to insure he won the batting title and then when he up and left for Miami. Forgive and forget I guess. Unfortunately, that's much easier to do with a guy who's ego is too big than when it involves domestic violence.

I'm fully aware that everyone makes mistake, I've made enough to last me a lifetime. I also firmly believe that people deserve second chances. I'm just not sure those second chances should come so freely. Jose Reyes was welcomed back to the Mets with open arms by the fan base. While the organization made public statements saying they don't condone what Reyes did, they believe he does regret his actions and deserve a second chance, Met fans don't seem to care what happened on the night of October 31, 2015. His first game back, all of Citi Field was back to doing the Jose chants of years past, as if not time has past, and no charged had been filed. I went to a Mets/Nationals game shortly after Reyes made his season debut, there were a group of female Mets fans cheering like crazy for him, sitting right next to me. Reyes hit a homerun that night, Citi Field went nuts and it brought every Met fan to their feet. Everyone it seemed, except me.

Again, I do absolutely believe that Jose Reyes deserves a second chance. I also know that I just can't root for the guy. Too much has happened and too little has been made of this whole story. There are so many blog commenters, fans at the games and friends of mine who don't believe that was Reyes did in his private life should have an effect on what happens in a baseball game. My only response to that is, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Professional athletes are public figures and role models, it's a responsibility they should take seriously. Just because someone is a professional athlete or public figure does NOT mean they deserve special treatment. So many young children, adults young and old, look up to these people. If it is okay for them to drive drunk, carry unauthorized weapons, assault someone, then what does it look like to the people who look up to them? When we, even for a second, try to make excuses for actions like domestic violence, we are doing such harm to our society. When we put people on pedestals and forget to hold them to a set of standards, the strength of those standards weaken.

We hear stories like the one from Stanford University when star swimmer Brock Turner was charged with raping a fellow student. The judge gave him six months probation because any further punishment for a moment of bad judgement could harm his very bright future. We are furious over these stories, as we should be. These are awful stories that happen a lot more frequently than the news media reports them. Why aren't we wondering more why these things are happening? When star athletes and public figures don't understand there are consequences to their actions because "what matters most is what they can do on the field," we here stories like this. Not all athletes are bad, that's not the point of this. The point is, there's a reason why there are rules/regulations/laws in place, and everyone should follow them. It's true, Jose Reyes was never convicted of anything, but he was still suspended by Major League Baseball and never appealed his suspension. That doesn't sound like the actions of an innocent man to me.

Major League Baseball created that Joint Domestic Violence Policy in recent years after there were major controversies in sports regarding domestic violence. The stories of Ray Rice and Greg Hardy made me sit back and wonder how much the NFL actually cares about it's female fan base. From the actions of Goodell, I have a decent idea. It's hard enough on female sports fans, having everyone question why they're fans, how big of a fan they are. It's annoying that the way Leagues market to women is by giving us recipes to make for tailgating, and pink, bedazzled uniforms. It is completely unacceptable for Leagues to show women that they don't take things like domestic violence and rape seriously. Scratch that, it is unacceptable to show ANYONE that topics like domestic violence and rape should be taken lightly.