The Boston Red Sox last season participated in a first-of-its-kind docuseries following their entire season, "The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox," by Netflix. The series won an Emmy on May 20 for its look into players' real lives from a human standpoint.
Jarren Duran opened up about his mental health struggles and battle with suicidal thoughts. Brayan Bello's wife and child can't get green cards to live with him in the United States during the season. Tyler O'Neill and his wife showed how difficult family life can be with one parent constantly on the road. Yet, some Red Sox fans continue to show a baffling lack of empathy toward members of the team.
The most recent controversy has come around manager Alex Cora's decision to attend his daughter's college graduation. His attendance at the event was dissected on Boston sports radio — the Boston College graduation ceremony was held in the morning, which should've given Cora plenty of time to celebrate before managing the game in the evening.
Instead, Cora took the whole day off to spend it with his daughter and family after one of the greatest achievements of her life to date. Plenty of Sox fans had something to say about it.
Red Sox fans need to learn to treat athletes and management like people
Cora has repeatedly defended his choice to take time off for the ceremony. His daughter has sacrificed enough time with him already, as a former big leaguer and current manager who spends three-quarters of the year on the road. If she wanted him there, he did the right thing by leaving the Red Sox for one night.
Many Red Sox fans have also been especially cruel to Rafael Devers since he refused to play first base. The former third baseman has been in multiple disagreements with management this year, which is uncharacteristic of him, a usually reserved player.
There's no arguing that Craig Breslow and the rest of Red Sox management completely bungled Devers' first position change, and Devers could've been more open to the possibility of moving to help his team win. His defense has never been great, but baseball is his life's work, and it makes sense for him to be proud of his status as Boston's everyday third baseman.
Red Sox fans across the internet called for the team to trade Devers, or in some extreme cases, designate him for assignment. One tiff with the men in charge caused some Boston fans to forget Devers is the most loyal player from the 2018 World Series-winning team and the Red Sox's longest-tenured player.
Not enough Red Sox fans learned from the team's documentary. Duran shared his experiences with being in the public eye and dealing with comments from disgruntled "fans" telling him to kill himself, and he's far from the only athlete or celebrity to experience such poor treatment. Social media gives people the impression that they can say whatever they want to other people with no consequence, and few would dare say their critical comments to Duran, Devers or Cora's faces.
Athletes, managers and coaches are people. They have families and lives that don't revolve around fans' enjoyment of the sport they play or arbitrary guidelines for their jobs.