WASHINGTON – A Mets player’s decision to take his league-granted paternity leave, and miss two games the first week of the season, is stirring up controversy in Mudville.
Second baseman Daniel Murphy missed the games this week to be with his wife and newborn baby, using his one to three days of paternity leave granted in the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the New York Daily News report.
His decision to put his family before work was lambasted by several sports talkshow hosts in New York but supported by his manager, who noted that in 2014 the birth of a child is an “appropriate” time for parents to be together, according to the paper.
“What are you going to do? I mean you are going to sit there and look at your wife in a hospital bed for two days?” Mike Francesa said during his afternoon show on WFAN, the paper reports.
Murphy is expected to be back at second base when the Mets face the Nationals Thursday in New York.
What do you think? Should professional baseball players be allowed to spend time with their families for the birth of a child? Or is their place on the field with their teammates? Call WTOP’s Talkback line at 1-877-222-1035, post a comment in this story, comment on WTOP’s Facebook Page or use #WTOP on Twitter.
Listen to Francesa’s comments from the show here:
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