No doubt all of those championing the right of Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players to disrespect the national anthem will rush out to defend this Major League Baseball player’s right to free speech, right?
The other shoe has dropped in the Steve Clevenger saga: The Seattle Mariners have suspended the injured catcher for the rest of the season because of racially-charged tweets about the Charlotte protests, the Black Lives Matter movement and President Obama.
General manager Jerry Dipoto said in a statement:
“As soon as we became aware of the tweets posted by Steve yesterday we began to examine all of our options in regard to his standing on the team. Today we have informed him that he is suspended for the remainder of the season without pay.”
Clevenger was already on the 60-day disabled list and wasn’t going to play this season anyway. This isn’t about playing time, rather they’re punishing him in his wallet. He’ll now forfeit the remainder of his $516,500 salary for this season. That comes out to about $31,900 for the final 10 games.
This is why the NFL’s position on the Black Lives Matter protesters is so transparently hypocritical. The professional sports leagues don’t respect free speech in the slightest. They regularly crack down on white players while excusing black players anything short of physically beating women and children.
I’d stop watching Major League Baseball in protest, but I don’t watch it anyhow.