New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, left, throws to first base for the out on Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout after forcing out J.B. Shuck during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif. Murphy was criticized on sports talk radio this month for taking three days, which is provided for in baseball’s rules, to spend time with his wife and newborn son Noah. But in the days that followed, Murphy received wide support from players and coaches who say the times have changed.Tony Perez was on the road with the Cincinnati Reds in 1966 when he got the call that his first child was on the way. There was no discussion about leaving the team to attend Victor’s birth, no such thing as paternity leave.
“They didn’t give you any time off when I was playing,” the Hall of Fame slugger said, recalling that he got the news about noon before going to the ballpark. “We played that night. We got a day off in Chicago the next day and I flew home on my own.”
These days, more pro athletes are taking time off to be with their families in the delivery room. Yet Major League Baseball remains the only one of the four major professional leagues in North America to have a standardized paternity leave policy. The NFL, NBA and NHL leave the matter up to individual players and their teams.
“There is stress on both sides,” said Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg, who watched shortstop Jimmy Rollins miss a game against Texas this season to fly home to be there for the birth of his second child. “Job stress and stress from the family side. So I think this being in place takes care of that, just makes it’s a done deal for the player, and the team deals with it. It takes the pressure off the player.”
New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy was criticized on sports talk radio this month for taking three days, which is provided for in baseball’s rules, to spend time with his wife and newborn son Noah. But in the days that followed, Murphy received wide support from players and coaches who say the times have changed.