Another head-scratcher

It's not just about your child, either. This is your wife, going through sometimes 40 hours of a painful labor process to give birth to YOUR child. Is it really appropriate to say "Sorry honey, you're on your own, I need to pitch 5 solid innings against the Rangers."

Where's the perspective?

 

Is Whitt divorced? Big shocker if so.

 

That was the Jazz, not the Nuggets. And some Utah fans are pissed at the guy for having the gall to ask for his release after the season. I would not be surprised if a column or two blasting his decision are floating around out there.

 

I don't really think that's fair, though. What's important to you might not be how someone else sees it. We can all agree that the writer is a douche, but I don't think you can really condemn someone because they felt they had an obligation to do their job.

 

I can't think of one job that should take priority in a man's life over the birth of his child. To think otherwise is to have your priorities completely ass-backwards.

If that's the way you feel about your career, you shouldn't be getting married and having kids to begin with.

 

Since you said you couldn't think of one job:

What about a surgeon who is in the middle of a surgery to save someone's life, or keep them from becoming a vegetable, when his wife goes into labor?

 

Or how about a firefighter who is summoned to put out a blaze and save a family's life? Just because your job isn't more important than your child's birth doesn't mean that none are. It all depends on the person. For you, that was the right choice to make. For someone else, maybe it wouldn't be. All I'm saying is I don't think you can judge another person's decision there unless you're his wife.

 

We've hit the sanctimony portion of the thread now.

 

Yes, and I think more than once (don't hold me to that last part).

 

The what ifs are nice and all from the peanut gallery, but playing a sport doesn't come close. Those hypotheticals don't happen too often in real life. There is usually another surgeon available and another firefighter who can work a shift, as with any of our jobs.

 

Look, I'm going to stretch this and say this: If a pitcher and his wife have decided that, for whatever reason, he needs to pitch in a game instead off attend the birth of a child, so be it. Maybe he's squeamish. Maybe he's a nervous wreck, and she'll be more relaxed with him elsewhere. It's not for me to say.

The point, though, is RW isn't the one to be judging that call, one way or another.

 

I know my father, a firefighter, rushed to the hospital during his shift for the birth of at least one of my siblings. You show up for your children; it starts at birth.