Addison Russell, Theo Epstein, and the responsibility of DV

Baseball is a cyclical game in many ways: it begins and ends at home plate, it springs to life along with the plants and fades into darkness simultaneous with them. On Friday, we saw yet another cyclical element as both Addison Russell and Theo Epstein released statements concerning the accusations of domestic violence against Russell and the Cubs’ decision to tender him.

It’s no secret that Major League Baseball has a massive problem with how it chooses to handle accusations of domestic violence. We’ve seen the cycle time and again. Accusations come out, the organization talks about how the player is a great teammate and asset to the team, the accusers are dragged through the mud, the team issues a statement asserting how seriously they take DV, and then the player continues on with his career as though the accusations never existed.

People were quick to applaud Theo Epstein for his statement which was viewed as breaking this cycle. It was probably the longest team statement released on the subject matter, which has got to count for something, right? He said multiple times that the organization would hold Russell accountable for his actions, because this is an organization that Takes Domestic Violence Seriously.

Of course, both Russell’s and Epstein’s statements are nothing but platitudes whose aim is to assuage the slight guilt some fans might feel in continuing to root for the team. And many people fell for it, as is always the case, because it’s far easier to perpetuate these lies than do the difficult task of investigating them. If you’re not directly involved, or if you have something to gain from obscuring the truth, it’s easy to front for the thing you love, the thing in which you see yourself reflected, which panders to your existence. The rest of us are left angry and exhausted and wondering how many more cycles it will take to finally be able to walk away from the game.

For over a decade, Theo Epstein has presented himself as a liberal bastion within the conservative world of Major League Baseball. He’s released countless statements about the importance of acquiring “character players,” statements that have allowed his image to remain intact even while acquiring Aroldis Chapman and tendering Addison Russell.

This cultivation of image is central to MLB’s nature. It cultivated an image of purity and gentlemanliness in its inception, then it projected itself as integral to democracy, and then it became a leading force in the civil rights movement. Each rebranding was strategic, designed to appeal to a wide audience while continuing to serve a much smaller one. Each one has enabled Theo to claim to be a solution to DV on the same day he re-signed an abuser and people to blindly accept this claim.

Bad enough on their own, the true depravity of Theo’s comments were exacerbated by news of the Kansas City Chiefs releasing running back Kareem Hunt ​for assaulting a woman and lying about it. When compared, the difference between these two actions is stark: one is inherently right, while the other is not. There is absolutely no reason Epstein could not have taken the same course of action today or yesterday or a year ago, and we should not be so quick to invent them.

Addressing issues of domestic violence is incredibly complex, and it might seem fanciful to believe that a professional baseball team could have a sizeable impact. But even just one organization centering the victim and teaching its players to view non-cis men as human beings worthy of respect could go a long way toward dismantling the systemic factors that laid the groundwork for Theo’s statement.

Ending this DV cycle will take an infinite number of instances of holding people accountable for their actions. Let’s start now, with Addison Russell, Theo Epstein, and all those who carry water for them.