Skill and patience

Tonight’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in San Diego shows that sport, happily, is still a sphere of American life where skill trumps political correctness and talent is more important than time served.

Exhibit A: second baseman Daniel Murphy of the Washington Nationals, who is leading the major leagues with a .348 batting average.

Since March 2015, Murphy’s been on a roller coaster. Sixteen months ago Major League Baseball sent to spring training camps Billy Bean, a retired outfielder who is gay. His task: Communicate to players that they should not say (or think?) anything critical of homosexuality.

But Murphy, then with the New York Mets, had the temerity to say this when a reporter asked him about Bean: “I do disagree with the fact that Billy is a homosexual. That doesn’t mean I can’t still invest in him and get to know him … but I do disagree with the lifestyle, 100 percent.”

The Mets promptly told Murphy to shut up 100 percent, and he obeyed. Fans did not shut up. Come October, boos turned to cheers when Murphy set an all-time post-season record by hitting home runs in six straight games during the playoffs. Cheers turned to boos in the World Series when two crucial Murphy errors led to a Kansas City victory over New York.

Attacks on Murphy included a vitriolic article posted at Slate: “I’m thrilled that the Mets (former) fan favorite and fomenter of homophobia played a crucial role in bringing his team to an embarrassing defeat. … Murphy’s horrifying performance, his downfall on the field, likely had nothing to do with his noxious personal prejudice. And yet, in some small way, it felt like justice.”

Is it justice now that Murphy, on a new team, is an All-Star? Maybe, but it’s also baseball. The late great Ty Cobb was apparently a nasty guy. Murphy is apparently a nice guy. What was and is important on the field: their hitting, because actions in sports speak louder than words.

Murphy won’t start at second base tonight—Ben Zobrist of the resurgent Chicago Cubs will—so I want to mention three young American League starters from the Boston Red Sox. Outfielders Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. and shortstop Xander Bogaerts are 23, 26, and 23, respectively. The three B’s all came up through the Red Sox minor league system. That they are still in Boston, rather than traded for some aging pitcher, reflects a philosophy WORLD also shares: Bring in young people and give them time to develop.

That was particularly important in Bradley’s case: He makes spectacular catches in center field, but in several previous major league tryouts he batted under .200. Several sportswriters said he’d never be an adequate hitter, so it would be best to trade him for whatever the Red Sox could get. Happily for Boston fans, the team’s management had patience—and we’ll see if Bradley makes a spectacular play tonight.