Scapegoating Ethics

GFBB Note: If ever a losing team was in need of a scapegoat, the SF Giants would surely be in the race. I mean, there’s really no reasoning why pretty much the same guys on last year’s World Series Championship team, and are the starters for this year’s team, are ending up with such disastrous results. Thankfully the head honcho’s in the Giants organization are not prone to reacting to such drivel and have managed to maintain a period of status quo. So be it. We’ll see what the trade deadline will bring, but no matter what happens, I don’t see management firing just for the sake of firing. Hang in there fellows, and that goes for all the MLB teams that are struggling this season. At least that’s one fan’s opinion.

Ethics Alarms

As it does predictably and constantly, the daily drip-drip-drama of baseball has given us another ethics quandary to ponder, arising in the context of the sport but with far more significant applications. The issue: is it ethical for an organization to deal with a crisis by firing someone for symbolic value, rather than for cause?

I have written about this traditional phenomenon in baseball before, but the current example is far less defensible on either tactical or public relations grounds. Last season, the Washington Nationals accumulated the best record in the sport, and though they flopped in the play-offs, were almost unanimously expected to be strong pennant contenders in 2013 by baseball prognosticators and more importantly, their fans. So far, at least, those expectations have been dashed. The season is almost two-thirds done, and the Nationals have been uninspiring at best. They have won fewer games than they have…

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