First off–and most importantly, congratulations to Trevor Rosenthal and his family on the arrival of their daughter Adalyn Grace, who was welcomed into this world on Friday evening.
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As for those hard-liners who are taking offense that the St. Louis Cardinals closer is taking three days on the paternity list to be with his family for the occasion, get over it.
Yes, this wouldn’t have happened 20 years ago. Yes, the “old-school” players missed these events and many more. So too have others in countless professions that require time away from their family and missed those kind of moments. Graduation. That first home run. A recital. Even just reading a story before bed.
Ask any of them if they were happy about it.
More than one has expressed regret over “not being there” for some of the life moments that a son or daughter experienced.
They did what they had to do. Understood. Respectable. It was what was required at the time, but now some are taking steps to change that so others don’t have to make the same sacrifice.
The St. Louis Cardinals are one of those teams. Rosenthal isn’t the first player to spend time on the paternity list this season, both Peter Bourjos and Tony Cruz have been excused to witness the birth of a child. Mike Matheny has been adamant about that.
And similar to other workplaces, Rosenthal’s teammates–or co-workers, are happy to step up for a couple days to help out. The talk about family is more than just conversation around the team. There’s rarely a day that a handful of them are not in the clubhouse during homestands–little Hollidays, Lackeys, Molinas, Broxtons, Mabrys, Martinez, and more playing ping pong before or after they head out to shag flies.
The paternity leave wasn’t just sprung on the team either, before it went public it had long been planned for. In fact, Rosenthal likely wouldn’t have been available on Friday after throwing a combined 39 pitches over his last two outings the days before.
That leaves two potential save situations he could’ve missed. The Cardinals bullpen entered Saturday with a 2.33 ERA. 78 holds on the season. Steve Cishek and Jonathan Broxton both have extensive save experience and have been pitching well for the team. Kevin Siegrist is already working high leverage spots at the back end of the bullpen and Sam Tuivailala was recalled from Memphis for extra reinforcement.
But this is his second child…what?? So that means the love or desire to be there is any less?? Ridiculous.
Take the money out of it…the whole argument is about the human element not cash.
Things have changed for the better, instead of being bitter trying being happy that someone else doesn’t have to miss what you did.
Just because you walked up hill both ways to school in 12 feet of snow, do you want your family to do so??
The Cardinals have instead pulled out a snow blower and told their teammate, no worries–we got this.
Congratulations to Trevor Rosenthal and family as they welcomed Adalyn Grace at 10:10 pm. Mother and baby doing well. pic.twitter.com/dmPOau0prK
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 29, 2015
photo credit: Jeff Curry, Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
