I have always liked baseball and I married a man who counts baseball as his religion. We don't like the same teams - I won't get into that here - but every once in a while we imagine what it would be like if he were in the Majors (sadly, his promising pitching career ended in eighth grade). Okay, what we really imagine is what it would be like if we lived like a Major League family - mostly the cash part...and the jets (can you tell which team I love?). We're not young or inexperienced enough to think that all that money would buy happiness, but a jet would be nice. On the flip side, the schedule would stink. I have trouble with BH's travel schedule now. Baseball players play 162 games a year, half on the road, and that's not counting spring training or play-offs.
The one detail I had never thought about before now was paternity leave - and how they basically don't get it. In Baby On Deck, an op-ed (yes, another op-ed) by a former major leaguer in the NY Times today, I learned that the unwritten policy in baseball - and I'm guessing all professional team sports - is that if you have a baby during season you get to make sure everything is okay and then go back to work. I know a lot of professions and jobs do not have paternity leave and a lot of those dads make a lot less money and have a lot fewer perks at work and in life than professional athletes, and I think that is criminal too, probably more so. The piece made me feel bad for the ball players though, because while I think there's hope in changing laws to help the other dads out there, it's highly unlikely it'll ever be okay for a baseball player to take time off unless they simultaneously get suspended or go on the disabled list. Maybe some angry major league dads will spit at an ump or break their own finger just to spend more time with their new babies. Luckily, I'll never have to find out if BH would have been that dedicated crazy.
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