Major League Baseball implements a paternity leave policy for players … of only 72 hours. A good start? Or the price of playing pro ball?
It is only 72 hours, but it’s a step in the right direction. Baseball’s policy, unique among major sports, represents a formal endorsement of the concept of paternity leave.
Prior to this policy, players were often excused for a day or two by their teams—but it was totally at management’s discretion, and the team would have to play with the disadvantage of one fewer player on the roster until the new dad returned.
Now, teams can call up a player from their minor league system to replace the new dad on the roster for the 2-3 games he misses and the team cannot deny up to a 72-hour leave.
… and, of course, congratulations to Brandon Moss and his wife!
The details, from Hardball Talk:
Brandon Moss will be away from the A’s for 2-3 days on paternity leave, so the team called up Shane Peterson from Triple-A to take his spot on the roster.
Moss has been playing almost every day after platooning last season and is off to a nice start, hitting .283 with two homers and an .844 OPS in 13 games. Peterson is a 25-year-old career minor leaguer who was off to a huge start in his third crack at Triple-A, hitting .410 in 11 games.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeMoss can remain on paternity leave for a maximum of 72 hours.
What do you think about MLB’s Paternity Leave Policy? Any paternity leave stories to share? Let’s discuss in the comments section.
This was previously published at Fathers, Work and Family.
Read more on Work/Life Balance on The Good Life.
If it’s paid paternity leave, I think it’s great especially if they’ll be making what their contract says they would make if they were on the roster. If that were the case, it would be nice if they gave them up to a week. I don’t think you can go too much more than that with this being major pro sports. If it’s unpaid or a reduced pay like the major league minimum then they should definitely allow them to take at least a week. I wonder what would happen if the fill in player does well and he loses… Read more »
This might be slippery slop into suppression of personal freedoms for men by enforcing paternity leave on fathers in the near future as the ultimate goal, the whole idea behind it is not the will being of father’s so they can spend some time with their offspring but to eliminate obvious differences between sexes, the reason I suspect that is that enforcing paternity leave on fathers is one of the stated suggestions by advocates of feminism adherents to eliminate obvious income capacity & potential on part of males.