Sports media now targeting low minor-leaguer for not liking female broadcasters

You know what's not news? Any sort of social commentary by a minor league baseball player. Whether he makes a brilliant statement or an idiotic one, it matters not a hill of beans. Because individuals expressing opinions about things are not news stories. And in the parlance of professional sports, a minor league ballplayer's tweets on social matters are not news - even when they pertain to sports - because we're talking about individuals who are neither in positions of influence nor are they able to claim any sort of expertise whatsoever. That is not to say he can't say what he thinks. It's a free country. It's not to say you shouldn't engage him if you want to. Have at it. But to treat such an individual's opinion as worthy of national news coverage is absurd.

---

Yet here we are. Minor league second baseman Brooks Marlow, who plays in the Houston Astros organization, is not a fan of female baseball broadcasters - particularly ESPN's Jessica Mendoza, who works the Sunday night games and various other broadcasts, including last night's Giants-Mets National League wild card game. OK, you say. A player in the low minors thinks that. Even said it on Twitter. Who cares? Who's he? But remember, all of news reporting these days is about the forwarding of narratives. And the media desperately wants you to believe that all of America is filled with racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. So if a quickly deleted tweet by a low minor leaguer can be turned into a big national news story, it can bring media pressure on the Astros to apologize while uppity liberals declare that we have found ourselves at a "teachable moment" that they will use to lecture the rest of us on fairness, equality and whatever else.

---

---

So Brooks Marlow must die:

Because gritty minor league second basemen are the best media critics. An Astros farmhand named Brooks Marlow decided to courageously tell the world (via Twitter) Wednesday night that ESPN's Jessica Mendoza, and females in general, are not qualified to broadcast major league baseball. Marlow's courage lasted right up until the time he was caught. His feed is now private. Anyway, consider the source: Marlow, 23, was drafted by the Astros in the 29th round in 2015 out of the University of Texas. The 5-8, 185-pounder has played the equivalent of a full season in the low minors, and while he has 14 home runs in 554 at-bats, he also has a .680 OPS, which is . . . not good. That OPS is especially brutal when you consider Marlow played half a season in the offense-happy Single-A California League and barely crossed the . . . Mendoza (no relation) Line, with a .205 average. If Mr. Marlow makes the Show someday, maybe Mendoza will be breaking down that swing some Sunday night. No doubt she'll keep it professional, unlike a certain gritty 29th-round second baseman. UPDATE: The Astros responded later Wednesday:

---

---

Notice the language the Sporting News uses in its story. Marlow, it says, was "caught" - as if expressing an opinion, however unpopular or ill-informed, is a crime. Notice too how the writer takes the occasion to rip into Marlow's baseball skills, much as cockroach Bob Nightengale did a few weeks ago to Seattle Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger after he also expressed an opinion not approved by official approvers of opinions. Why does it matter how good or bad a player Marlow is for the purpose of discussing this comment? It doesn't. But this is the new pile-on technique of the media. When someone commits the unforgivable sin of expressing a disallowed point of view, you simply take the gloves off and attack every conceivable thing about that person until it becomes far too much trouble for their employers to keep them around. For my part, I think Jessica Mendoza does a decent job on the broadcasts. She does know the game pretty well and she's able to offer reasonably knowledgeable analysis about what's going on. What I don't like so much is the fact that they gave her the job after taking it away from Curt Schilling for - guess what! - expressing conservative political opinions on social media. It was almost as if they went double-political on us: Not only will we get rid of Schilling, but we'll really irritate those awful right-wingers by replacing him with a woman! Whatever. ESPN can put anyone they want on these games if they would just start them at 7 p.m. so I could see the whole thing. But you have to understand why they make an example of such a relatively obscure athlete like Brooks Marlow. It's to send a message that no dissent whatsoever from their orthodoxy will be tolerated. I personally have no problem with female baseball announcers - as long as they can do the job competently, and as far as I can see Jessica Mendoza can - but I also have no problem with a person who disagrees saying so. It doesn't make him right. It just makes him a person exercising his freedom. The left has a curious aversion to anyone dissenting from their orthodoxy, and their usual response is to mock, scold and seek the destruction of such people. They either think it's beneath them to engage in discussion, or they're afraid they wouldn't do well if they did, so they just want to make sure anyone who disagrees with them fears for their life and career if they dare speak up and say so. Stifling dissent is not the same thing as winning the argument. And it's especially absurd in this case because the opinion being expressed is unlikely to influence anyone, and the person expressing it was completely anonymous until others reacted to his tweet. But that's not the point. The point is to make an example of him so others will know to get in line. They will not tolerate your insolence!

---