Often times in the world of sport, there are personalities that are less than savory, but no matter how much of an asshole these guys can be, they always have a job because they’re exceptionally good at playing children’s games in front of large crowds without crumbling to the pressure of performing.
Roger Clemens had an affair with a minor. Kobe Bryant allegedly raped a woman. Ray Lewis stabbed a guy to death. And all went on to have hall of fame careers, with nary a punishment in sight. Far too often, professional athletes can be shitheads but still have jobs because of the fact that they’re good at sports.
Anthony Bass is no stranger to the brog, in fact showing up just a few weeks ago when I had an opinion on his last escapade with United Airlines, involving his wife and kids on a flight, and her being asked to clean up after her kids in spite of being pregnant. But no matter how divisive and viral their story went, when the day was over, Anthony Bass was continuing to pitch for the Toronto Blue Jays and making a lot of money.
I apparently missed it because I hardly pay much attention to anything beyond my kids these days, but apparently Bass is not a fan of the team he plays for’s support of the LGBTQ+ community and the team’s participation in hosting a Pride Night. No surprise there, the players themselves are not beholden to the beliefs and supports (genuine or corporately forced) of the organizations they play for. And a large portion of professional athletes are often times a bunch of rednecks whom shouldn’t be any surprise to not be a fan of woke culture and anything remotely leaning left.
But most players are typically smart enough to keep their opinions to themselves, because anyone with a brain knows that the activities and matters that pertain to the people in the stands has no bearing of what happens on the field. Just because it’s a Pride Night at the Rogers Centre or Dodger Stadium or Wrigley Field doesn’t mean that the gays are allowed to get on the field and try to tackle base runners as they’re rounding third, but that doesn’t stop less-intelligent players from mouthing off and jeopardizing their livelihoods in the process.
So it’s no surprise that a guy like Anthony Bass isn’t a fan of the gays, in spite of the extremely likely jock behavior he’s probably done in a locker room that would easily constitute gay shit, and considering his bright idea to spout off on social media about his wife’s United Airlines escapades, he didn’t miss the opportunity to be quoted for speaking against the team’s intention of hosting a Pride Night.
At first, he was kind of expected to apologize and retract, and the team decided to try and have him be the catcher of the ceremonial first pitch, which undoubtedly would have been thrown by someone from the LGBTQ+ community, to which Bass flat out refused to participate in. I imagine a bozo like him refused not because of the defiance of being told what to do, but probably because he didn’t want to be the literal and metaphorical catcher with a gay person.
Either way, the Blue Jays designated Bass for assignment which is baseball speak for cutting him. The team remains responsible for the remainder of his $3 million dollar salary, but they were clearly over the bullshit baggage that he brought to the team, that it was decided that he was worth eating the cost over, than have him remain on the team as a distraction of negative press.
Make no mistake though, although it’s easy to point the narrative that Anthony Bass was DFA’d because of his stance on LGBTQ+ matters, the fact remains that Anthony Bass just wasn’t a really good pitcher this year. Across the board, his numbers are not good, and there’s no real redeemable statistic that backs up him maybe being unlucky or just in a rough patch. None more easily digestible than his poor 4.95 ERA, which as a reliever is especially bad.
His fWAR is 0.0, which literally means that he is the equivalent of a blank canvas create-a-player, which isn’t bad in the sense that he doesn’t have a negative WAR, but the guy is making four times the league minimum, so he is expected to provide some modicum of talent. With a 0.0 WAR, the belief is that any relief pitcher from the minor leagues is capable of performing to his level, but at a fraction of the cost.
The point is, it’s refreshing to have a story of an asshole professional athlete actually get some degree of comeuppance, and suddenly find himself cut and unemployed. I’m sure some team will quietly pick him up out of the unemployment line, but they’ll try to be as quiet as possible about doing it, because more teams are woke these days, and the baggage he has rapidly become known for this year might not be worth his ability to throw a baseball mediocrely.
