Daniel Murphy’s wife Tori Ahern Murphy just gave birth to their first child on March 31, 2014. And when Daniel Murphy took only three days of paternity leave to be with his family when the baby was born and start his new life, a few radio talk show hosts had a huge problem with it.
The 29-year old second baseman has been playing with the MLB since 2006 when he was drafted by the Mets. The 26-year old Victoria (Tori) Murphy is a high school teacher and a former softball player with the North Florida Ospreys at the University of Northern Florida. The couple began dating in 2007, but they spit up around October of 2010. It seems that around this time, a series of injuries placed Daniel Murphy off the field and the Jacksonville Florida native became depressed. Tori Murphy stayed in touch with Daniel Murphy during this rough patch, and by the following Christmas, they were back together. Daniel Murphy proposed in January of 2012 and by December 1st, the couple was officially Mr. and Mrs. Murphy.
When their son Noah was born on opening day, Daniel Murphy decided to take the maximum number of paternity days allotted by the MLB, a mere three days. And when he did, radio talk show hosts Mike Francesca and Boomer Esiason each separately took Daniel Murphy to task for it. “What are you gonna do? Sit there and look at your wife in the hospital bed for three days?” Mike Francesca told his listening audience. But even worse, Boomer Esiason told his audience he would have made his wife have a C-Section.
Just to be completely clear here, a C-Section is a major surgery, and physicians don’t just cut people open willy-nilly. It seems Boomer and Francesca needed to be called out on their out of touch and seemingly cold-hearted comments, and their male fans did just that. Some asked that Francesca recognize this as one of the most important milestones in life and stressed the importance of being with family at this critical time. Others were less forgiving.
At the end of the day, however, all the opinionated comments in the world won’t make a difference. Daniel Murphy got three days to settle in with his wife and new son, and then he was back in action. It likely won't affect the Mets season at all. But it did help one family set up a stronger foundation for a brighter future, and Daniel Murphy and Tori Murphy (and one little baby) are certainly happier for it.