Shut Up Bro...We Stand With Ketel!

The Arizona sports scene continues to just dig its own hole deeper and deeper. First, a little background on the situation. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ star player, and last week's National League starting 2B...Ketel Marte had his home robbed while out of town for the All-Star festivities. The robbery has been estimated to be around half a million dollars in various items, and presumably left damage on the break in.

So that already adds to what's been a tough month or so personally for Marte, who also, remember, last month had fans heckling him with vulgar comments about his mother, who died tragically eight years ago. That fan, by the way, has since been reprimanded for their actions. But today it’s not the fans I’m addressing, it's the media. LOCAL media, in fact.

As the story continued to unfold after All-Star week, Marte was placed on the inactive list, missing the weekend series against the Cardinals. (Which I believe needs to be added for context, the Dbacks shockingly and easily swept St. Louis.) Alright, then comes long-time AZ talk show radio host Dan Bickley. He’s been a fixture in the Valley for as long as I can remember, giving his takes on local sports and our athletes.

Before I get into the meat of this: on-field performances, good or bad, I agree can be fair game for discussion. It’s the job of the media to cover it all, sometimes praise, other times downright shit posts. It’s their job, and it’s the athlete’s job to understand that their play is open to scrutiny. Today is very different. We’re talking about a personal, off-field situation that we still don’t fully know the details of. But that didn’t stop Bickley from taking to the airwaves this morning to basically call out and bash Marte for missing the weekend series. calling him quote "supersoft" yep, that is what he used. Out of touch much bud....I’ll attach some of the soundbites floating around on social media today.

This is horrible on so many levels. First off, it’s just flat-out unfair to call out Marte when you don’t know exactly what occurred, what he had to do, whether his home is even safe or livable yet, and lastly, was it even his decision?!? If you truly followed Dbacks baseball, you’d know this sit-out was probably a move led by Torey Lovullo, who always puts his players first.

But no, no, no, you gotta get your clicks don't you and take down one of the most well-known Arizona sports figures of the 21st century. This man is arguably one of the only reasons we even got to celebrate a NL pennant & World Series run two years ago. He’s also stuck with us through some real shit seasons, re-signing and still always publicly praising the organization, the fans, and the state. But apparently, none of that matters to Arizona’s big boy media mogul, Bickley.

Which brings me to my second point...from a Dbacks perspective they gotta be pissed in so many ways not just his teammates and coaches but also management. We’re already not considered a top “destination” team. So we need every advantage possible to keep and attract top-tier players. So how do we think this kind of tongue-lashing that Marte received, over a personal matter, is going to help in a recruiting pitch to, say, a Suárez, a Naylor, or even convincing Gallen to re-sign? Not to mention free agents around the league. These guys already have the pressure of performing for 162 games a year. Now you add in the fact that a dude...who by the way skipped the one extended break they get all season to represent our team at the All-Star Game, comes home to a robbery and then gets dragged by HIS OWN MEDIA for dealing with this personal matter?

What’s next, Bickley? If guys miss a series for their child’s birth, are you gonna send out the Bat-Signal on them too?

I’m embarrassed for Arizona sports yet again today, because now this is what the rest of the country is seeing on their timelines, how our local media calls out our starting All-Star, Ketel Marte... who might be on his way to being a top 3 all-time D'back. Cool. Thanks a lot, Bickley...yet again. It's time we give him the BOOT outta Arizona!

Ketel, Dbacks, and the rest of America scrolling by...we denounce this rhetoric, and we stand with Ketel Marte!