The ridiculous-ity has reached a limit

This post will be brief, simply because it is so ridiculous that it warrants very little writing on my part, but a lot of soul searching on a major league baseball skipper’s part.

On Sunday, Washington Nationals outfielder Elijah Dukes was benched and fined by manager Manny Acta for reporting to practice a mere five minutes late. Acta insists rules are rules, and he could not make exceptions, even for a short span of tardiness.

But what was Dukes up to that caused him to be late?

Was he at the strip club? No.

Was he purchasing drugs? Negative.

Perhaps he was involved in a high speed chase with the police?

Strike three.

Dukes, who has had off the field problems throughout his career, was doing charity work with a local little league…on the Nationals behalf.

Instead of being applauded for his efforts to straighten himself out, and in addition gain some much needed good publicity for his team (which as of this writing are 1-10, good enough (by far) for the worst record in MLB), Dukes has become the epicenter of a media field day, due in large part to the asinine antics of Acta.

As if benching Dukes was not enough, Acta has upped the ante, threatening his best player at the moment with a demotion to the minors, and fining him $500.

Ok Manny, I understand that you’re going to be fired any day because you clearly have no right being a major league baseball manager. But to penalize Dukes for trying to earn a place in people’s hearts instead of their punchlines is downright disgusting.

Rarely do I really get this animated about a situation, but this truly struck a nerve with me.

Shame on you Manny Acta, you have no business being at the helm of a professional sports team.

-Haas