Trevor Bauer won the Cy Young Award in 2020, but he hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2021. He is 34 years old now, but he won ten games and lost none and had a 2.48 ERA in the Mexican League last year, and would likely still do well against major league hitters. Yet he is not being given a chance. Now a Republican congressman has written to MLB’s woke top dog Rob Manfred, suggesting that the major-league freezeout of Trevor Bauer has to do for his support of a certain Orange Man who currently lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
OutKick reported Thursday that Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote to Manfred: “Mr. Bauer was suspended for 324 games; the longest non-lifetime suspension in the history of the league – despite the fact that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to pursue criminal charges against him, citing insufficient evidence.” Burlison also “noted that the league eventually reduced the suspension to 194 games, after Bauer was cleared by the judicial system, but suggested that Manfred and MLB are trying to keep him out of the league, ‘effectively making his 194-game suspension a lifetime one.’”
Bauer was suspended because four women accused him of sexual assault. The pitcher denied it all and contended in one woman’s case, he and the woman had a “single, consensual sexual encounter,” after which she claimed she was pregnant and said she would get an abortion if he paid her $1.6 million. Bauer paid her $8,000 for the abortion, and alleges that the woman “fabricated her pregnancy to try and extort him for money.” Tawdry, yes. But baseball players are not chosen for their sterling moral character. Is this behavior worth a lifetime suspension from baseball?
Bauer’s principal accuser’s case went down in flames when it was revealed that she wrote to a friend: “Next victim. Star pitcher for the Dodgers.” She detailed her enthusiasm about getting a substantial share of Bauer’s fortune, explaining that she was “being an absolute whore to try to get in on his $51 million.”
The icing on the cake was that she claimed he had beaten her, but Bauer pointed out that in a video she made on the morning she left Bauer’s house, she appears happy and unhurt. Yet Manfred and MLB appear determined to throw Bauer to the wolves despite the spectacular discrediting of one of his accusers. Burlison suggested what could be behind it: “In 2016, Mr. Bauer publicly expressed positive views about then-candidate Donald J. Trump, including comments on social media praising Trump’s campaign rhetoric and outsider status.”
Bauer had even dared to decline to burn incense to the left’s most cherished gods: “Additionally, Mr. Bauer, in responding to a social media post, noted his belief that disrespecting fellow human beings should not be tolerated, which was taken as an opposition to MLB’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.”
Related: RFK Jr. Enjoys a Burger and Fries at a Steak ‘n Shake, and It’s a Significant Cultural Moment
Could that be it? Of course it could be it. Leftists are notoriously intolerant of dissent, and Manfred is a doctrinaire leftist. It would be nice to think that baseball decisions were made on baseball terms alone, but that’s not the way things work in the real world. Curt Schilling, one of the premier pitchers of the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first, is not in the Hall of Fame today, not because he is unworthy of induction, but because he has been an outspoken patriot whose high-profile dissent from the left’s agenda have enraged baseball’s woke powers that be. Schilling was a six-time All Star who won 216 games during his storied career. He became a hero in Boston by winning game six of the American League Championship Series against the hated New York Yankees in 2004, despite a serious ankle injury that was bleeding as he pitched: his bloody sock became the stuff of legend.
If Curt Schilling, despite all his accomplishments, can be kept out of the Hall of Fame for being a dissident from the left’s agenda, can MLB keep Trevor Bauer from signing with a team because he supports Trump? You know the answer.
Bauer himself wants another chance, saying: “Anyone that’s willing to sit down with me and listen: I’d like to play the second half of my career in a better way than I played the first half. I’d like to be an example that you can make mistakes, recognize them, adjust and then be better in the future. I think that’s something us as humans have to do and should be doing constantly.” Yes. But he is dealing with leftists, and so his chances are slim.
If you ask me, I’d like all MLB pitchers to be milk-drinking farmboys who respect women and are courteous to their elders, but I’m a relic from a different age. In today’s world, the left’s influence is all-pervasive, but at PJ Media, we are determined to fight it, and to keep telling the truth where the left lies. Join us: become a VIP member today. You’ll get all the good stuff: exclusive articles, thought-provoking podcasts, and a distractionless ad-free environment. Use code FIGHT for an America-First 60% off!
