Tired of Mo’ne Davis

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of Mo’ne Davis. She’s one-third of a triumvirate of names that I wish would just go away – the other two being Marcus Mariota and Tim Tebow.

That said, I wrote about Tebow last week: Tim Tebow an Eagle?

This week, I didn’t want to write about Mo’ne Davis, but here I am doing just that.

My change of heart started Monday night when I was swapping tweets with a couple of radio guys.

What radio guys?

jack webb imageWell, like Sgt. Joe Friday on the old Dragnet television show, I’m withholding their names to protect the innocent.

Anyway, like I was saying, I was tweeting with Farzie and Sludge last night about the kid from Bloomsburg dropping the slut-bomb on Mo’ne Davis – and then getting knee-jerked off the college baseball team.

In case you missed it, here’s the kid’s tweet.

joey casselberry image

So now you know the kid from Bloomsburg is Joey Casselberry. I believe he’s a first baseman and I heard he was batting .389 after the first six games of the season for the Bloomsburg Huskies.

Getting back to his tweet, I’ve seen his accusers call it insensitive, offensive, and vile.

Pardon me, but when was being insensitive, offensive, and/or vile outlawed?

Answer: Only in the misguided universe of political correctness.

Using the word “slut” is not a probable cause for arrest. If it were, I’d be in jail. How about you? Have you ever uttered the word slut?

So, in my opinion, from a legal aspect, Joey Casselberry did nothing wrong. So – pardon my French – but here’s the opinion I tweeted: “the kid got fucked over everyday language.”

Before you jump on me, let’s take a closer look. Yes, Joey Casselberry used poor judgement. Yes, he pulled a word out of left field – pun intended – that had no apparent connection to Mo’ne Davis.

Why did this happen?

Because he was tired of seeing Mo’ne Davis getting so much attention.

But I started out by telling you that I’m tired of seeing Mo’ne Davis getting so much attention. Am I guilty of anything?

No, of course not.

Nor would I be guilty of anything if I called her a slut – which I wouldn’t. There’s three things I try to abstain from:

(1) Telling people how to think.

(2) Telling people what to say.

(3) Name-calling people I don’t know.

If you know someone and call them names, they know you well enough to understand your context. They know when you’re kidding. They know when you mean it.

As far as I know, Joey Casselberry doesn’t know Mo’ne Davis and vice versa. Calling her a slut was a mistake. Calling her a slut on social media was a huge blunder – as Joey has since learned. All he had to do was substitute “She got” for “That slut” and this brouhaha would’ve never developed. But was his indiscretion of such magnitude to warrant kicking him off his college baseball team?

I think not.

I’m not the litigious type. But if I were the kid’s father, I’d be sitting across the desk from the president of that college right now explaining the ramifications of the First Amendment and threatening to sue his ass if my kid weren’t back on the baseball team before I walked out the door.


A couple bystanders got involved in our tweets and, next thing I know, Sludge is discussing the topic on the air. It was enlightening to me because I’d not yet heard about Mo’ne Davis pleading Joey Casselberry’s case to the president of Bloomsburg University. So when I got home, I jumped on the Internet and looked it up.

Below is what I believe to be part of an email Mo’ne Davis transmitted.

mone davis image

Very interesting.

I may be tired of Mo’ne Davis, but I agree with charlie – who jumped into our conversation.

mone davis image

I don’t know Mo’ne Davis. I don’t know the closest people in her life. But I can see that she’s getting good advice and she seems to be heeding it. She handles herself well in public and seems to possess the maturity that Joey Cassleberry lacked. Like charlie said in his tweet – “this girl is a champ.”

Barry Bowe is the author of Born to Be Wild, 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant, and 12 Best Eagles QBs.

Written by Barry Bowe
Former sportswriter - first to put Timmy Duncan's name on the sports page.

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