Recently, I wrote a blog about some prominent examples of credible abuse in sports in recent months. The main point of the blog was to highlight what was happening with Trever Bauer, who was a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The link to that blog is a part of this post.
After fairly brutal pictures surfaced of a woman who is claiming Bauer sexually-assaulted her, the 2020 Cy Young Award winner was placed on leave from the team. It became obvious that the Dodgers were working with Major League Baseball, and most likely the Major League Baseball Players Association to get out the contract owed to Bauer. Still, the Los Angeles organization stuck to its guns, and did not allow Bauer back on the team for the rest of the season.
The Dodgers could have used the incredible hurler, to be honest. For the first time since 2012, Los Angeles did not win the National League West Division, despite posting 106 wins in the regular season. The San Francisco Giants, who share the division, put up 107 victories. You don’t have to be an expert to know that Bauer could have helped them win at least one more game.
Well, last night, the Dodgers pulled off a minor upset, by eliminating the Giants from the Playoffs with a two-to-one win in San Francisco.
What makes this so significant?
The pitcher who took the mound to get the final three outs of that game was Max Scherzer. For years, Scherzer has been many things. He has been a dominating right-handed starting pitcher. He has been a “workhorse” who was incredibly durable, and pitched a lot of innings. The one thing he most certainly wasn’t over the past few years was a Los Angeles Dodger. The organization went out and made a blockbuster trade to acquire Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals; specifically, to fill the hole vacated by Bauer.
Turner won the National League Batting Title, and Scherzer pitched the most important inning the team has had to this point in the season. It really said something about the team’s commitment to not accepting violence against women to not bend under the pressure to earn more victories. That is why, it was a little poetic justice to see Scherzer in that spot last night; during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Any athlete would love to be in that situation. Trevor Bauer wasn’t, and it was because of his actions.
