Canzano: Oregon State's Luke Heimlich going undrafted is a strong statement
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2018/06/canzano_oregon_states_luke_hei.html?__vfz=medium=tray_notification
Major League Baseball clubs drafted 1,214 players over 40 rounds this week....
Oregon State pitcher Luke Heimlich was not selected by any of the clubs despite being one of the most talented college pitchers in America.... didn't get picked for the second straight draft. This despite being a left-handed pitcher who throws 97 mph and mows down lineups....
.... None of the 30 clubs wanted to claim Heimlich. They couldn't bring themselves to do it. Not with people watching. Not with the franchise brand at stake. None of them wanted to stand alongside an admitted sex offender, whose most notable public statements in the last 12 months were used to essentially call his victim a liar.
.... Weeks in front of the draft, Heimlich told the New York Times he didn't commit the crime. He said, "Nothing ever happened."... This flew in the face of the statement he made a few years ago accepting full responsibility for the crime. He wrote then, "I admit that I had sexual contact," with a little girl. ...
.... My law-enforcement and lawyer friends couldn't believe what they were reading. A fundamental part of rehabilitation is the acceptance of responsibility. Now, Heimlich, who had reportedly undergone court-ordered sex-offender counseling, was waving the whole thing off and re-victimizing the little girl. Public-relations-world friends cringed. It was a desperate play. Bad strategy.
More importantly, insensitive and indecent to the survivor. Heimlich clearly was trying to help himself in front of the draft. He desperately wanted to be picked. And he trampled a young girl trying to get there.....
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