Citizen Sports: Angelo Cataldi...Feminist?

Aug. 09, 2019

It's 1999, the NFL Typhoon. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue receives the pick. Eagles fans await anxiously. "With the 2nd pick, the Philadelphia Eagles select Donovan McNabb." And just as planned, Eagles fans unleash thunderous boos.

Philly fans, the tired saying goes, are the worst in sports.

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So it was no surprise that SportsRadio 94.ane WIP host Angelo Cataldi had organized the "Dirty 30," a coiffure that travelled to the NFL Draft to boo any pick that wasn't running back Ricky Williams. That booing is just one of many incidents that give u.s. the "worst fans in sports" title.

We throw snowballs at Santa Claus.
We take a jail in our stadium.
We boo our own players.

And over Cataldi'southward thirty year career, top-rated SportsRadio 94.1 WIP has become the domicile of our bawdiest fans. Loud-mouthed and opinionated, Cataldi has challenged quondam Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel to a fist-fight, asked female callers what they're wearing, and called a new team staff person each week to be fired. Equally Cataldi mused on a recent evidence, "The nature of sports talk is to focus on the negative and pound on it."

SportsRadio 94.1 WIP is the blackness center of Philadelphia sports.

Fans excoriate him on Twitter. Fans call into the show to tell him, in so many words, to shut upwardly.

What most of his listeners don't know is that Cataldi has a journalist's pedigree: Armed with a masters in journalism from Columbia University, he was recruited from his hometown, Providence, to work at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Before long later he was offered a full-fourth dimension radio co-hosting position at WIP. And on his beginning twenty-four hour period, Cataldi, in his own words, "took myself very seriously." He thought he nailed it. After the prove, Cataldi was called into the program director's office, who said "If you exercise that once again, you won't work here very long. Terminate pontificating and first entertaining. This is not journalism."

"That's a lesson I never forgot," remembers Cataldi. "The offset goal is to entertain, not inform. To get people to mind, because information technology might give someone a pleasant trip into work. That lesson sunk in on day one. "

But these days, Cataldi eschews that advice. Later Phillies Center Fielder Odubel Herrera's arrest on May 27, Cataldi tweeted "As presently as the Phillies know for certain that the domestic-abuse charges are truthful, they MUST release Odubel Herrera." One week subsequently, Cataldi published an op-ed titled I won't finish talking about Odubel Herrera, no thing how mad fans become. And they practice go mad. Fans excoriate him on Twitter. Fans call into the show to tell him, in and then many words, to shut upwardly. "I think it'south a byproduct of the fact that we have a largely male audience — and about of the guys, a lot of the guys, would rather the issue would go away," says Cataldi. "Tell me who volition pitch tomorrow, and if we'll win the game. Sports is an escape from reality, and the result plunges ane back into reality . "

But Cataldi won't let up so like shooting fish in a barrel.

"This issue is probably the beginning time in thirty years, something that is non going to serve the best interests of the audience. It'due south not entertaining," Cataldi says. "I imagine some people don't want to hear it. But if y'all practice this long enough, you have to take a stance for something."

How does Cataldi, co-founder of the Wing Bowl and the "Miss WIP" beauty contest, become an uncompromising critic against domestic abusers? "Brett Myers," says Cataldi. "That's when it all started."

On June 23, 2006, Phillies pitcher Brett Myers was arrested and charged with assault. Courtney Knight, a witness to the June 22 altercation, told The Boston Globe: "He was dragging her by the hair and slapping her across the face. She was yelling, 'I'm non going to let y'all do this to me anymore.'" Myers was released on bail, and pitched the very adjacent day. Cataldi remembers, "That'due south when I started to care. Even when they won the championship [in 2008], I hated Brett Myers. I never embraced him." (Likewise, he continued, "terrible country singer.")

"Information technology'south about damn time I stood upward for something," Cataldi says.

Due to a growing listing of incidents, the MLB adopted a new domestic violence policy in 2015. One twenty-four hour period after Herrera's arrest, MLB placed him on administrative get out. At a July 3 court hearing, Herrera'southward girlfriend dropped the charges (as often happens in these cases), but MLB still suspended Herrera for the remaining 85 regular-season games of the 2022 season. The Phillies arrangement has supported MLB'due south conclusion, just has as well not released Herrera. Phillies President Andy MacPhail explained,"Our agreement requires that a role player comes back, subject to him being evaluated based on what happens on the baseball game field."

Cataldi isn't impressed. "The team is taking cues from the league. The league is well-nigh concerned about protecting the brand. The league's first priority is not to take a social stand. About of it is impairment control, and making a public display of something to get them out of the electric current crisis." Cataldi continues, "These guys have an able-bodied superiority, and at the first sign of adversity, they strike a woman? Odubel Herrera should never play in this city again. Anyone that strikes a woman should never play in sports again." While Herrera's banners were removed from Citizens Bank Park, today he remains a Phillie.

And so what can nosotros, as fans, do? The wins and losses for team staff determine job security, earnings, and careers. Just information technology's sports fans that behave the emotional loftier of an exhilarating win, and the brutal despair of a close loss, all without any say in team operations. And so fans brand signs, buy billboards, trying to influence the decisions of their team. Over his thirty years as a sports reporter, Cataldi has a unique agreement of this relationship. He orchestrated the "Dingy 30." And "Honk for Herschel," to compel the Eagles to acquire running back Herschel Walker (they did). And voting Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell into the 2008 MLB All-Star Game (he wasn't).

"Information technology'southward funny to hear them listed like that," Cataldi told me. "How frivolous the other things were, and how serious this is."

Information technology's time for fans to send a clear message to ownership that nosotros will not expect away until domestic abuse is not tolerated. It's time that we fix our culture. Information technology's time that we value women's lives over men'southward careers.

I asked Cataldi if the situation volition change only if partners press charges. "They should practise whatsoever they feel comfy with," he answered. "We should do what justice is. The law should still go afterwards the person. They should discover another way to become them. I'grand not going to blame them. It's not going to alter the way I look at the state of affairs."

Partners call the constabulary when they feel their lives are in danger. Merely in the courts and back at home, the power reverts back to the players, whose millions of dollars of income creates a power imbalance in the relationship, and must weigh on legal proceedings. Fixing this issue is not the sole responsibility of the partners. It's our responsibility as a civilization that values men'south careers over women's lives. Unless there is video proof or eyewitnesses, information technology'south easier to await away from the state of affairs. Forgive, forget, redeem, repeat. It'south fourth dimension to intermission that cycle. And it'southward significant that Cataldi, the ringleader of the circus that is WIP Sports Radio, won't close up about holding abusers accountable. His recent plough alone won't atone for the last xxx years of morning radio antics. Simply in the 3rd act of Cataldi's career, information technology's the sign of an entertainer reviving his journalism credentials.

Returning to what fans tin can do to agree teams answerable for domestic violence, Cataldi offers 1 suggestion: "Sentry these stadiums. Make information technology and so uncomfortable for the MLB, that they won't tolerate it." It would be satisfying as a mob of fans to demand that the Phillies release Herrera immediately. But I'm not then sure it addresses a trouble this complex.

"Anyone that strikes a woman should never play in sports again," Cataldi says.

Psychiatrist James Gilligan once wrote , "The purpose of violence is to diminish the intensity of shame and supervene upon it equally far every bit possible with its opposite, pride, thus preventing the individual from existence overwhelmed past the feeling of shame." To accept this explanation is to also acknowledge that a actor losing his career over abuse charges will only exacerbate that shame, and intensify the circumstances that created the abuse. More alarmingly, a leader with the National Network To End Domestic Violence said , "If we would say that the start fourth dimension your partner calls 911 your career is over, her hazard of homicide shoots through the roof." To have these statements is to acknowledge that a actor ban, while actionable and satisfying, doesn't address the root crusade.

And so, how does MLB address a trouble as complex as domestic violence? Perhaps the league could treat this issue with the same gravitas it treats the apply of operation enhancing drugs. Players found guilty of domestic violence should immediately receive a one-year suspension. An outside counsel should immediately brainstorm treatments. And yes, players should be offered a pathway back to playing. This is not because all players deserve a second chance—I, for one, do non ever want to see Odubel Herrera in a Phillies uniform again. No, this pathway is out of concern for the abused, who may avert calling the constabulary at all. It besides mandates rehabilitation and education, to address the root causes of corruption, so that if and when we see a histrion back on the field (and that'southward a big IF), fans know an independent therapist has guided their recovery.

Maybe we join Cataldi'south phone call for a picket, or maybe we hogtie the league to accept these measures. The league and the team are smart plenty to protect their brand by acting just plenty to gratify the public relations—it's fourth dimension for fans to send a clear message to ownership that we will not wait away until domestic corruption is non tolerated. If nothing changes, and then it'due south fourth dimension that fans begin boycotting games to let empty stadiums exercise the talking.

"After 26 years of Wing Bowl, the virtually politically incorrect consequence in sports history, [this effect has] become more important to me every solar day, even though I know some people don't want to hear it," says Cataldi. "It's about damn time I stood upward for something."

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Phillie Pat Burrell's position. He was an outfielder.

Photograph via Philadelphia Urban center Quango

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/citizen-sports-angelo-cataldi-feminist/

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