Sandy Alderson admitted the Mets didn't talk to any women during the vetting processGETTY IMAGES
Mets President Sandy Alderson said that he "will look for ways to ensure the team does a better job vetting potential hires" in the wake of firing GM Jared Porter, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com. Alderson acknowledged that the team did "not talk to any women during the vetting process, an avenue that he said wasn't readily available due to the lack of female executives in the game." Alderson: "There was not one single recommendation from a woman and that's a reflection of the demographics of the game today in the front offices. That says something very loudly." More Alderson: "This is a wake-up call. It clearly suggests something like this can be out there in connection with almost anyone. We have to do our best to make sure we know about that information, but there are limits to what we can actually get." He added, "I don't think this reflects a fundamental flaw in the process. I think this is a very unfortunate circumstance that we wish we knew about, but didn't" (ESPN.com, 1/19).
MORE MUST BE DONE: In Boston, Peter Abraham writes while Porter "bears full responsibility for his actions," Alderson’s admission "underscores that while an increasing number of women are working in and around baseball, more are needed and at higher levels within baseball operations departments for the atmosphere around the game to further evolve." Abraham: "It would be naïve to believe Porter’s actions were an isolated incident. They weren’t" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/20). THE ATHLETIC's Ken Rosenthal wrote misconduct of the Porter variety is "all too common, and it needs to be confronted" by MLB and other sports organizations, "not just in obvious examples such as Porter’s, but also in more subtle cases where solutions are more difficult to achieve." Porter’s "mere dismissal will not end the indignities women in our business endure." The "relatively small percentage of women in sports -- in part due to behavior like Porter’s -- is perhaps one reason fewer examples like this are brought to light, but no one should doubt the existence of the problem" (THEATHLETIC.com, 1/19). MLB Network’s Tom Verducci said there should be a “lot of soul-searching going on” in baseball and “institutionally, chains of command, the reporting system, the workplace culture, all of those things.” Yahoo Sports’ Hannah Keyser said to baseball, “Don’t just hire women, promote them. I don’t want this industry to be one where the power dynamic breaks along gender lines" (“MLB Now,” MLB Network, 1/19).
FIGHT FOR PROGRESS CONTINUES: In N.Y., Tyler Kepner writes, "This is really not a Mets story." The "truly disturbing part of this saga is how it graphically illustrates the garbage many women endure while working in and around baseball." Keeping Porter "would have been a tacit endorsement of the often hostile work environment for women in baseball" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/20). SI.com's Michael Rosenberg writes the "lesson that franchises should share with their employees today" is that "everybody from general managers to players to interns should show women and nonbinary reporters the same professional respect as they do men." The woman that Porter harassed "did not work for Porter, but he held power over her and he used it." Rosenberg: "Progress has been made. Not enough, but some" (SI.com, 1/20).
