Am I an asshole for not wanting the Seattle Mariner’s CEO’s head on a spike?
Over the weekend news broke about the CEO of the Seattle Mariners, Kevin Mather. A video of him speaking to the Bellevre Breakfast Rotary Club about the state of the team has him in hot water for some remarks. Here are the heavy hitters: He admitted to manipulating Minor league player’s service time. He said one player did not speak English very well, and said he does not want to have to pay interpreters $75,000 a year for an Asian Coach on the team who was once a player for them. He also called a player overpaid.
Now before getting into these particular comments it’s important to note that this guy has been in trouble for work place misconduct with women a handful of times and in some circles built a reputation of being sexist and racist. So, he very well may be an asshole who should have his head on a spike. That being said there are way too many people jumping at this 1 video that has gone viral to “cancel” him. And that is more to my point. The “gotcha” media and “cancel culture” is just gross and way out of hand.
I mean you literally can’t fart in 2021 with having your job held over your head. But, should he really be forced to resign for these specific comments? He is the CEO. He is in charge of the business side of the Mariners. He’s making financial decisions in a time where his business is hemorrhaging money because of Covid and lack of ticket sales. I get we don’t feel bad for Billionaires, but the business did lose $2.9 billion last year. You can’t win World Series’ if your team is Oklahoma City. The goal is to make money. That money is in part used to pay the Millionaire players. Who we are supposed to feel bad for?
Now look, if there is a history of this guy being disparaging towards his foreign players and this is part of a pattern then fuck him. Just spare me on the “over paid” remarks, spare me on the service time shit, and spare me on the Mariners missing the playoffs for 20 years and how that has to do with these specific comments. Are you pissed your team sucks or do you really care about the internal struggles of the Mariners employees? He’s a penny pushing financial nerd who has sucked at running a MLB franchise should probably be let go for lack of performance on the field, but if you were winning World Series’ with his strategies would we hear the backlash?
You want to talk about how manipulating service time isn’t fair to the players? That’s fair, but literally everyone does it. Let’s have the conversation about stopping it. You want to fire one guy over it? How is that is going to change things? And he did offer his player a six year deal with 10’s on millions guaranteed and multiple opt outs. The player declined and bet on himself. His choice.
You want to question this guy on stupid remarks around the language thing, totally fine. But Hey, maybe Iwakuma can speak good enough English. You don’t know. It’s just way too touchy a topic to question anything right now. He has been playing in the states for 10 years. I understand how an interpreter really helps these guys when they first get in the Bigs working with teammates and the media. After 10 year has nothing improved? Is it possible the interpreter is collecting a check? Should teams pay $75,000 for an interpreter for every player their whole career who doesn’t speak English well? Just Sayin’.
Take their #2 prospect Julio Rodriguez who was brought up in this video. He demanded that all interviews be in English and committed to learning the language to better his craft. Two schools of thought I guess. Which is why it’s in my opinion the worst thing Mather said in the video. Unprompted Mather said that Rodriguez’s English wasn’t great. The kid is 20 and has worked hard at it. Shut the fuck up Kevin.
So, sounds like he thinks people should have to speak English. Dumb, short sighted, too Nationalistic for my taste but it doesn’t put a tiki torch in his hand waiving a NAZI banner. And I’m not saying he isn’t that guy, the odds are an old super rich white guy chatting it up with old white rotatory club members is a little racist, but this video specifically doesn’t prove that.
I’m sure there will be photos of this asshole in black face at Princeton in some Satanic ritual that pops up in the next week and then I can be the asshole. As for this video, lets question the guys motives and not completely dismantle his life just yet, eh? If the Mariners miss the playoffs again? Ah fuck it, string him up.
P.S. If these comments seem to be riding the fence, they should. People are talking about forcing a guy to resign based on some stupid comments mostly taken out of context. Get the whole picture before you past judgment. Enough with the “Gotcha” media. You want my opinion? Looks like he is running the Mariners like a two bit sweat shop.