If I have learned one thing writing Ethics Alarms since 2009 is that I don’t know anything, particularly regarding which posts will spark the most interest or the most lively debates. I never expect the usual volume of commentary on my baseball ethics posts (the first ethics post I ever wrote, on the old Ethics Scoreboard, was on baseball: Pete Rose), but yesterday’s quiz regarding Red Sox pitcher Peyton Tolle’s impulsive hug of an opposing player as he applied an inning ending tag spawned commentary that raised some aspects of the incident that I never considered.
Best of all was this Comment of the Day by AM Golden, on “Baseball Ethics Quiz: The Hug.”
[Oh: I’m from Old School Boston. I have always been uncomfortable with hugs of any kind, from any one, for any reason. I have learned over the years when to submit and also when taking the initiative in a hug is expected of me and therefore only polite.]
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For transparency purposes, I have to disclose that I am a big fan of hugging.
It took a very long time for me to realize that not everyone likes to be hugged, though. Also, that there is a time and a place to hug people.
A workplace setting, for example, that wants to be taken seriously might want to discourage hugging among colleagues and, especially, between superiors and subordinates. An employee that wants to be taken seriously might decide that hugging people in the office undermines that goal. One never knows how another person may react to spontaneous hugging, after all. It might be welcomes, it might be spurned, it might give you an unwanted love interest or it might get you reprimanded by HR.
During a baseball game, a player is expected to be professional. Is it any different from being in a boardroom, a classroom or an examining room?
In reference to the showboating, isn’t the problem with The Hug, the slippery slope, not the professionalism score of the hug? Next up, every player will have their signature goof and all of baseball become Banana Ball.
However, if America were ruled by ethics, I would hate it. It would be like my Jim-crow-racist Granny nagging me to tuck my shirt in. Who defines what “professional” is anyway?
Ethics can sometimes take a breather and have a sense of humor and maybe a hug. It’s men playing a game for fun and lots of money. Every once in a while something like The Hug stands out against the backdrop of mortal enemies waiting for the opportunity to clear the bench respecting each other’s dignity with a show of kindness in a position of domination.
If The Hug violates ethics, ethical must be having a slow day or perhaps it is something that is both ethical and unethical with the ethical positivity winning with fireworks.
Just make sure it’s not the historic first “woman” or female MLB darlin’ that you are hugging. That would be crossing a line for sure.
I know you’re not a fan, but I just watched a pre-season NFL game and even discounting the celebratory dancing after a TD, there is a lot more touching in football – pats, slaps, head butts, high fives, hip bumps ….. and it’s all just part of the fun.
A repeat from yesterday … it was hardly a hug, leave it be.