Stacey Shick, Columnist

Baseball, Apple Pie and No Family Leave

What was most ridiculous about Mike Francesa's rant was his assumption the paternity leave taken by the New York Mets' Daniel Murphy had been enabled by the federal government. If only that were true.
New dad Daniel Murphy was an opening day winner, even if the Mets were not. Photographer: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
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New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy missed opening day this week to attend the birth of his son, Noah. Which might have been nice but unremarkable had sports-talk host Mike Francesa not railed against it for 20 minutes yesterday afternoon on WFAN Radio.

"What are you going to do? I mean, you are going to sit there and look at your wife in a hospital bed for two days?" Francesa said. "Your wife doesn't need your help the first couple of days; you know that you're not doing much the first couple days with the baby that was just born."