SAN FRANCISCO — As a player, fans got to know Buster Posey as a tremendous leader. In the clubhouse. Of a pitching staff. As the most important player on three World Series winners.
They must be wondering where that guy was as Posey, now the team’s top baseball executive, clammed up during a heated 15-minute news conference inside the home dugout Tuesday.
Confronted with questions about the Giants’ LGBTQ+ Pride Night controversy, Posey had nothing to say. He didn’t offer his support to the four players who objected to wearing the rainbow caps over their Christian faith. He didn’t come out against their actions.
Commissioner Rob Manfred rebuked the organization for its “inadequate and not clear” communication to its players regarding the night, but Posey had no response to that, either.
He had no answers at all.
It was an embarrassing waste of time from one of the franchise’s most beloved players, who might be at risk of losing that title with the way the team has performed under his watch.
Posey began by saying he was “happy to take baseball questions” but the impromptu news conference, in front of a crowd of some 30 reporters and a half-dozen television cameras, devolved to such a degree that a team PR official had to intervene multiple times as the former franchise legend sat there, visibly uncomfortable.
“I’d like to recognize that the organization has shared its response to Pride Night, and I understand that there’s strong feelings on this topic,” Posey said in a prepared statement. “There’s differing perspectives, and out of respect to everybody involved, it’s not something that I’m going to revisit.”
Posey was offered opportunity after opportunity to revisit the way the team handled Pride Night and the decisions by three pitchers to write a Bible verse on their hats in violation of MLB uniform policy. A fourth opted out entirely and wore the Giants’ normal hat.
“I can promise you this is something that we’ve talked a lot about internally and will continue to do so,” Posey said. “Our focus is on the team right now, the upcoming draft, the trade deadline and trying to win games.”
But the questions kept coming. Posey squirmed and looked to the PR official behind the scrum of reporters. There was never a situation between the lines that made him sweat this much.
Literally, Posey was perspiring.
Then again, there hasn’t been a moment where he has looked as comfortable running a baseball team as he did playing on one.
It’s been dysfunction from the top down, one miserable misstep after another.
The shortstop he signed to the largest free-agent contract in franchise history forgot the number of outs while hobnobbing with the opponent. The superstar slugger he acquired to anchor their lineup blatantly undercut the rookie manager Posey hired, who has also looked like a fish out of water at times.
He invested $32 million in two starting pitchers and almost nothing in the bullpen, where one of those starters now resides nevertheless. He traded his starting catcher six weeks after Opening Day and now pitchers are having to call their own games.
“It’s been a rough year,” Posey said, happy to answer a baseball question.
The latest incident, when Rafael Devers tried to shoo-away a pinch-runner called for by Tony Vitello as the would-be tying run in the ninth inning of Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Marlins, was just another example of the empty chair in which Posey is supposedly sitting.
Posey acknowledged it would be important for him to sit down with Devers, even after the first baseman cleared the air with Vitello on the flight back from Miami.
But two days had passed and Posey still hadn’t spoken with the highly paid superstar whose basket he put so many of his eggs in when he committed to paying him more than $30 million per season through 2033.
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That’s not the sense of urgency Posey showed when leading the Giants to three World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
“Sometimes it’s not fun,” Posey said. “It’s not fun to stand in front of a camera or a microphone, but that’s something he’s going to need to work on.”
No, he wasn’t talking about himself. He was talking about Devers.
The same way Devers’ refusal to answer questions after Sunday’s game put the burden on the shoulders of his teammates, such as Matt Chapman, Posey’s silence on the Pride Night controversy forced Vitello to answer more uncomfortable questions.
Likewise, the organization issued one milquetoast statement and refused to make any other officials available, despite the scandal growing so large that the Department of Justice launched an investigation into MLB on the grounds of religious discrimination.
“I know Buster had words and spoke with some people earlier today about it,” Vitello said.
No, Tony, actually, he didn’t.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
