As I discussed in August, the case of Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer presents a dilemma for baseball: Bauer roughed up a woman, but it appeared that the violence was part of a consensual agreement to rough, violent sex. He has now been cleared by a criminal investigation. That means that baseball, and the Dodgers, have no easy out. If Bauer was criminally prosecuted, it’s easy: The game can walk away from a criminal. If he was cleared of any violence with a woman, that is easy too: He goes back to his job. What we have instead is a morally problematic area. As a Christian moralist, I have no problem condemning Bauer on two grounds: A man should not have sex with a woman who is not his wife, and a man should never use force against a woman. But the workplace laws of sports are all built around the idea that consent is the only moral standard; to start punishing professional athletes for sexual misconduct that is entirely consensual goes to a place the leagues do not want to go. Sports media will call for Bauer to be treated harshly anyway, because he is a jerk with some right-wing opinions. But that is not a standard. The problem is, what is the standard?
This article was originally published by Nationalreview.com. Read the original article here.