The Los Angeles Dodgers have a problem. His name is Trevor Bauer who pitches for them. Or did before he was suspended.
Trevor Bauer seems to like rough sex. And it’s now a matter of public record.
Now while I am about as kinky as tapioca pudding, I understand that this kind of stuff goes on between consenting adults. Indeed, a realtor friend of mine once told me years ago that occasionally she stumbled across romantic hardware when she showed houses. Her personal favorite was a trapeze in the spare bedroom of a home she was showing. “You would be surprised,” she said.
Undoubtedly I would given the rather boring life that I lead. But to each their own between consenting adults. The renowned sexologist Joan Armatrading put it best in her song “I Love It When You Call Me Names.”
“It’s their way of lovin’ not mine,” That pretty much sums it up for me.
Back to Trevor Bauer. He spent 3 days in Court last week defending against a former lover’s Petition to ripen a Temporary Restraining Order (or Order of Protection) to a permanent one. The woman testified that she feared Bauer after he allegedly assaulted her during “rough sex.” Bauer’s defense was to the effect that he choked her into unconsciousness and punched while she was unconscious because she “didn’t say no.”
The Judge ruled in Bauer’s favor. She held that Bauer was not a future threat to the woman because he respected her boundaries-such as they evidently were-while they engaged in what everybody agreed was consensual sex.
I didn’t think you could consent to anything while unconscious. But that’s why appellate courts are part of God’s plan.
Now this is all pretty unseemly stuff. Is it grounds to terminate his contract? I don’t know. And as I tell folks all the time, I don’t know is a good answer when I don’t know.
The standard Major League Baseball player’s contract states that a club may terminate a contract, among other things, if a player shall at any time “fail refuse or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good conduct…”
Is this sufficient grounds for the Dodgers to get rid of him? I don’t know. Probably not. He wasn’t accused of domestic violence which has gotten numerous players suspended in the past. The sex, however revolting it may be to you and me, was consensual. And the Judge-a female judge- ruled against the victim.
But wait. There’s more.
The Washington Post has reported that Bauer was also under an Order of Protection in Ohio back when he played for Cleveland. The alleged victim in that case alleged that although Bauer allegedly punched her and choked her without her consent, she didn’t become afraid until he had allegedly sent her two text messages.
One allegedly said, “ I don’t feel like spending time in jail for killing someone. And that’s what would happen if I saw you again.”
The second one allegedly sent to her-and heavily edited for this space- is even more charming. “Like the only reason I would consider seeing you again is to choke you unconscious punch you in the face shove my first(sic) up your a**… and kick you out naked. And obviously I would never do that to anyone. So I can’t even enjoy the one thing that I sometimes enjoyed with you.”
Bauer’s lawyer denied that these messages are authentic. The authorities in Ohio are investigating as are the authorities in California. He’s entitled to the presumption of innocence just like you and me.
But the standard in the player’s contract is not as high as that in the criminal law. We know the allegations against him in California are true. If he really did beat the other woman up and then send her menacing text messages do these behaviors in the aggregate add up to a failure of Trevor Bauer to “conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good conduct?” You can make a case for it being in the same zip code. It’s one thing-I suppose-to have a harmless taste for rough trade. Bauer’s likely a sociopath. What he’s alleged to have done ain’t exactly a frolic on a trapeze in a bedroom in west Little Rock.
Bauer is radioactive for business. The Dodgers most likely can’t get rid of him because no team in their right mind would touch him. I say “most likely.” Because we are talking baseball here where the front offices are not typically composed of highly evolved beings.
He’s suspended until the end of the month. I say-at the minimum-suspend him for the rest of the season. Make his return contingent on psychiatric treatment. Dare the Player’s Union to grieve it.
But you can also make the case that he needs to be terminated if both allegations are true. There’s the argument that he violated the conduct clause of the player’s contract. If for no other reason than women make a lot of money in our society. And a good number of them are sports fans. Or enjoy going out to the game. How many women or parents of daughters are going to shell out good money to watch Trevor Bauer take the mound?
Does Major League Baseball and the Player’s Union want to die on that hill?
I guess we’ll see.
Oh. I forgot to mention this. His own teammates? They don’t want him back.
If you’re too freaky for a locker room of baseball players you need to be gone.
