Mitch Williams

The sad saga of Mitch Williams, angry baseball parent, has taken another step – he’s taking a leave of absence from MLB Network.

On Saturday, MLB Network announced the leave, telling the New York Daily News that “Mitch Williams has decided to take a leave of absence from his role at MLB Network at this time. We are continuing to look into the matter.”

This is probably the right course of action for everyone involved, especially when you consider what Williams allegedly did. Getting into a confrontation with an umpire and swearing at him is one thing, but ordering beanballs and talking crap to ten-year olds in a Little League game is something completely different. There’s a pretty solid line between being an overly emotional coach and a potentially psychopathic coach, and Williams’ actions last weekend were dangerously toeing that line.

I’m not sure what the end game will be here. Going away for a week or so isn’t going to suddenly make the allegation that Williams ordered beanballs in a Little League game disappear, and it probably won’t dissuade the ultra-competitive Williams from going crazy at other games and tournaments in the future for the sake of a victory.

So what can MLB Network even do? It’s a completely embarrassing situation, but analysts have done worse things and kept their jobs.

[New York Daily News]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

Comments are closed.