MLB: No action for Brad Ausmus’ “I beat my wife” comment

Jun 8, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus (7) in the dugout before the game against the Boston Red Sox at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY SportsQuestion: “What’s your mood like when you return home after games during your club’s recent slump?”Brad Ausmus: “I beat my wife.”

Reporter laughter–split second goes by…

Ausmus: “I’m just kidding. Luckily my wife and kids are fantastic. I do get a little mopey at home, but my wife and kids are good. They’ve seen me in a bad mood after a loss. They’ve been great.”

A minute or so later, Ausmus returned to the failed attempt at humor on his own, without being prompted by a reporter.

“I didn’t want to make light of battered women,” Ausmus said. “I didn’t mean to make light of it, so I apologize if that offended anyone. Next question. Sorry.”

This was what transpired Wednesday afternoon after the Detroit Tigers lost 2-1 to the Kansas City Royals to fall to 9-19 over the past month. The Tigers’ rookie manager committed an error in judgement with the bad joke that he beats up his wife to blow off steam. But he apologized within the same sentence, apologized again a minute later, and apologized again this morning.

Are the multiple apologies enough for you? It is for his employers.

“We did discuss his insensitive remarks that he certainly regretted making, and we stand by his apology.” -Dave Dombrowski, Tigers’ GM and President, prior to Thursday’s 2-1 Tigers’ win over the Royals.

During the game, Major League Baseball also weighed in.

“Based on Brad Ausmus’ immediate acknowledgement that he had made a mistake and his multiple apologies for his insensitive remark, we do not plan to look into this matter further,” a MLB spokesperson informed MLive.com.

If Ausmus has apologized multiple times and his employers have accepted his apology, isn’t it time for this to be dropped?

It’s a hot topic in the sports world today. One prominent ESPN.com columnist, whom I will not name to give him exactly what he wants (attention for himself), likened Ausmus to a “psychopath” for his lousy joke. That’s a bit of a stretch, no?

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Ausmus has a wife and two daughters and has never been known as a “wife beater” before. Postgame coach and manager interviews are usually filling with cliché after cliché, and it often seems the interview subject is on autopilot, especially after yet another loss. While that doesn’t excuse what he said, it can kind of be understood why he let his guard down for a split second.

For the record, I am not a woman, so perhaps I don’t have the right to give Ausmus a free pass despite his multiple apologies.

Full disclosure, I have said plenty of off-color jokes over my life, although I can’t for the life of me remember one involving beating my wife–nonetheless, “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

Have you accepted Brad Ausmus’ apology and is it time to move on? If not, what else should he do or what should happen to him?