At this point, MLB’s slogan should be ‘another day, another domestic violence accusation.’
In the latest episode of “MLB: the Domestic Violence Show,” free-agent pitcher Sam Dyson has been accused of domestic violence by his now-former girlfriend Alexis Blackburn. On Instagram, she alleged, with some pretty disturbing photographic evidence, that he has been abusing her and their cat, Snuckles, and says that she had to remove herself and her beloved pet from an environment that was no longer a “safe space.”
Ms. Blackburn is not the first significant other of a player to speak out on social media about being abused. Over the last three seasons, MLB has suspended former catcher Derek Norris and Cubs shortstop Addison Russell after their ex’s wrote blog posts and social media posts detailing their ordeals. Since enacting their policy in 2015, MLB has investigated 14 players, and suspended 13 of them. Dyson will be the 15th, as The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal and Katie Strang reported today that MLB is now investigating him.
I won’t tell you Dyson’s stats, or anything about his career, because that is not what’s important right now. And I’m not going to get on the soapbox again about domestic violence; there are only so many times and different ways I can say that it is wrong and disgusting, and that sports leagues need to be infinity-times better about punishing people who do it. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the last time I’ll have to write about a terrible situation like this, but I hope it is. I hope we all can be better and kinder to each other.
I’ll leave you with the words of Alexis Blackburn herself:
“It takes strength and courage to speak and stand up for what’s right. Strong people seek help. Strong people encourage others to seek help… Weak people make excuses for their behavior. Weak people bully others.”
That’s really all there is to say.
Photos and quotes: Instagram
It is a joke for these so called “professionals” to believe any of this is okay. I would never even raise my voice to mine, and you can bet I would be more than pleased to meet the “professionals”