Giants’ Mike Krukow says Pablo Sandoval has “an eating disorder”, ESPN’s Amin Elhassan mocks Sandoval

This week’s already seen a couple of potentially-problematic comments from media members on Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval and his weight, starting with San Francisco Giants’ (Sandoval’s former team) broadcaster Mike Krukow. Krukow appeared on San Francisco radio station KNBR 680 Monday morning, and, according to CSN Bay Area’s transcription, said Sandoval has “an eating disorder”:

“It’s unfortunate,” Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow said on KNBR 680 on Monday morning. “We love the guy. He was amazing in our uniform and amazing for our city … there’s no more charismatic guy that I’ve ever met than this guy. You can’t help but love this guy.

“He’s just one of those people that you want to be around. And it’s unfortunate. I mean, he has an eating disorder. It’s plain and simple. He can’t control himself.”

Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky then wrote about Krukow’s comments Tuesday, and made some good points on why they’re troubling:

It’s not best practices to diagnose mental disorders from some photos (and, to be fair, from a track record of weight fluctuations). But it’s also a huge leap: an actually telling sign of a possible disorder would be if Sandoval’s weight affects his ability to do his job, and I’m not sure you can say that as fact. He’s a big dude, always going to be big, and some of his best seasons in San Francisco notoriously came in his bigger years. Maybe Sandoval will have trouble holding up if he avoids conditioning, and that’s a legitimate issue (as is the issue over whether Sandoval was supposed to lose weight, something management claimed repeatedly in the offseason but Sandoval denies he was told). But for now he’s merely a big chubby fellow in the exact wrong market to be that.

However, ESPN NBA insider Amin Elhassan then weighed in on Deadspin’s tweet about Petchesky’s story with something perhaps even more problematic:

He does; he's eating dis order, dat order, everybody order https://t.co/MR3kh8OaZw

— Chillin in my Bacta (@DarthAmin) February 23, 2016

Nobody looks particularly good here. For one thing, this isn’t the first poorly-considered comment Krukow’s made about Sandoval’s weight, as his tactful discussion of the subject last month included “At some point in time, he’s gotta quit eating like he’s a 12-year old.” A non-medical professional like Krukow diagnosing Sandoval with an eating disorder is worse, though, and it’s an awfully light take on the serious subject of eating disorders.

The tired joke about eating disorders from Elhassan (whose Twitter bio includes “#HateHard King” and pinned tweet is “Your tears are like PEDs to me,” and who’s also known for an ESPN Radio walkoff earlier this month) is maybe even more frivolous and problematic. It goes to shows the problems with broadcasters and writers talking about athletes’ weight and appearance and criticizing their eating habits. (Of course, it’s not much better when coaches return the favor.)

This whole conversation’s silly, and it goes to show that maybe we shouldn’t spend so much time talking about how an athlete appears in a photo. If Sandoval shows a lack of conditioning during games, or if team officials publicly call him out for his weight, that’s one thing, but it’s notable that Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski has said he’s not concerned about Sandoval’s weight. Why is the rest of the world so inclined to weigh in? In the cases of Krukow and Elhassan, they’re only creating potential problems for themselves.

[Deadspin]