My Thoughts on Core Jackson

Oppenheimer believes the swastika affected his draft status:

“I think that his tool set, his athleticism, his performance was definitely something that would have gone a lot higher in the draft,” the scouting director added.

I wonder if I even need to add anything else to this post. While there are other quotes from various people regarding the Core Jackson situation, some of which came from those of the Jewish faith, it is this quote that stuck out to me. The Yankees saw value. They saw an opportunity. A chance to sign a talented kid below slot so they could transfer the savings to their first-round pick. Essentially, the Aroldis Chapman trade in a draft setting.

To the Yankees, it’s “good business.”  To Randy Levine, it’s good business. I can appreciate the Yankees consulting a Jewish executive for his opinion, but Randy Levine? His first question was likely “Is he any good?”

“He’s just a dumb kid who didn’t understand the seriousness of what he was doing.”

This is an insult to our intelligence. You don’t just randomly draw a swastika on a Jewish student’s door. It is done with intent, purpose, and hate. If he disliked a kid who lived down the hall, there are 1,000,000 ways to express that dislike, most of which are immature but likely not all that uncommon. But a swastika?  It seems cut-and-dry to me: There’s no way you can both draw a swastika on the door and claim you are ignorant of its significance. You knew it would likely deeply hurt the student, but didn’t know why?  It doesn’t make sense. The most benefit of the doubt I can give him is that he didn’t understand the full scope of the monstrous history. But being ignorant of it? Nah. I find that impossible to believe.  This isn’t an insensitive Jewish joke that can be brushed off. This is a part of history that we should never forget.

Unlike many athletes, who try to sweep things under the rug and hope they never come to the surface, Jackson was upfront about it during the draft process. At that point, it becomes a high-stakes game of chicken amongst 30 executives who try to figure out when it is OK to draft him. The Yankees ultimately drafted him, and that’s on them. I can place a decent bet that 90% of the league was contemplating if and when they should pull the trigger. That’s the nature of sports, where hardly anyone turns down a shot at a “steal.”  Teams made an exception to this rule with admitted child molester Luke Heimlich, though Oregon State’s manager was more concerned with going after the College World Series crown.

I am not here to compare these two vastly different situations. The point is that, in most cases, teams will ignore almost anything if it means a talented player can help them win games, whether now or in the future. They have drawn a few lines in the past, but not many. Nazi symbolism is an acceptable line to cross. If you think that is harsh, the proof is in that Core Jackson is playing professional baseball.

“He’s in his early 20s – should we just cross him off the list forever?”

This is where the argument becomes trickier, admittedly. If he shows personal growth from the incident, I don’t think it should define the next 50 years of his life. However, that doesn’t mean full tolerance in the present. It is possible, believe it or not, to send a message now while allowing him to grow from the experience.

Jackson was going to be drafted. That doesn’t justify the Yankees being that team, but let’s not be naive about the subject. He would be in another system if the Yankees crossed him off their board.

It’s not really about that, however.

It’s the excuses. It’s about the justification process. “We asked our Jewish executive, and Core took a class where he was attentive,” doesn’t resonate with me. It isn’t me concluding that the Yankees saw a chance to nab a talented kid who was falling in the draft. Their scouting director said that.

It’s another example of talent overriding bad behavior.  As a sports fan, I’ve had to grapple with this for a while. I want my teams to win, even with the presence of shady characters on the roster.

I won’t go so far as to say that fans are the problem, because I don’t believe that. The dilemma of disliking Chapman while not wanting him to blow the lead was real.

It’s up to the employers to do their best to “hire” the best employees.

The Yankees failed in that endeavor with the drafting of Core Jackson.