Volquez Father Passes, Unethical to Report?

On Tuesday night, the Kansas City Royals made a historical comeback in game one of the World Series, defeating the New York Mets 5-4 in 14 innings. Starting pitcher for the Royals, Edinson Volquez, would go 6 innings with 3 earned runs and 6 hits.  Although there was an inside the park home run and a game-tying home run in the ninth, one of the bigger stories seemed to come off the field.

That very night, Volquez’s father Daniel Volquez, passed away due to heart complications.  According to Manager Ned Yost, the team did not plan on informing Volquez about the news until after his performance.

“I don’t have any idea when he found out. We found out about it before the game and the wishes of the family was let Eddie pitch,’’ Yost said following the victory. “I was kind of keeping my eye on him and he was fine. He didn’t know and I guess after the game he found out.’’

After his time on the mound, Volquez was informed and departed with his family moments later.  Alex Gordon of the Royals was caught saying that “most of the guys didn’t know”.  Royals players may not have known, but how about other reporters?

There were multiple sources that developed headlines before Tuesday’s game about Volquez’s father.  On Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN Radio the following morning, the two agreed that it was extremely “unethical” to report on this specific story before Volquez even knew.

Ethics; is that even relevant when it comes to journalism nowadays?  Reporters do just about anything to be the first to break a story to the world, but was this a line that was crossed?  I believe so.

There is a fine line when it comes to what should be reported, and what can wait a few hours.  The Mets hid the fact that Volquez’s father passed away, but reporters chose to expose that news.  This story has been a controversy ever since it came out, but the correct thing to do would be to wait until Volquez was informed on the news.

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