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Great job linking to the community Nationals. No wonder no one comes to your games.

No player should be fined for being late after spending time with Little leaguers period! His teammates should pay his fine. The Nats appear to be clueless.

They knew where he was. He was doing it to represent the Nationals and himself.

First of all Dukes was paid $500 for showing up to that event... Second, if I'm a parent, I don't want him anywhere near my kids. I don't think anyone that beats their spouse is a good role model.

Gee, Mr. Dukes, can you give me some advice on how to beat my sandbox girlfriend??? Pleas?!?

The guy is on time for his off field committment, stays throughout and then gets fined for doing good deeds in the community. Wow....way to bust a balloon there Washington.

Guess the Nats can't blame this one on "Ol Leatherpants" Jim Bowden (:-D)

The Nationals should donate the $500 to that little league program, and try to turn this into a positive.

QUOTE(#8):

Originally posted 08:54 AM ET  04.21 by TGRFAN1

The Nationals should donate the $500 to that little league program, and try to turn this into a positive.

have you seen a Nats game attendence...I dont think they can spare $500

What a stupid and unnecessary situation. Good for Dukes for sticking around at the Little League commitment, and good for the Little League for trying to fundraise his fine. But $500 to an MLB player? That's like a normal person being fined $3.50. I'm sure it's not an issue for him, but the Nationals look like even more of a mismanaged jerkoff club with a move like this.

What we have here, is a failure to communicate.

When you make $415k a year, I think that your employer can expect you to be on time.

QUOTE(#3):

Originally posted 08:05 AM ET  04.21 by Cheesedaddy

No player should be fined for being late after spending time with Little leaguers period!

Look- as callous as it is to say- being late is being late....
but as poster # 5 said- all he had to do was CALL and let
them know where he was & what he was doing & it
likely would've been no big deal.

QUOTE(#13):

Originally posted 10:34 AM ET  04.21 by jgb

Look- as callous as it is to say- being late is being late....but as poster # 5 said- all he had to do was CALL and letthem know where he was & what he was doing & it likely would've been no big deal.

i agree with the 'being late is being late' and there should be consequences but things are not always black and white. i think most would agree that the reason for his tardiness should have been taken into account(which it may have-we don't know if this guy has a habit of being late)

and the article makes no mention if the Nationals knew of his whereabouts or not or maybe he did call someone and let them know what he was doing and that he was running late and they still decided to fine him.....we don't know.

I'm all for nice gestures, i really am, but are they serious? 500 dollars to a professional athlete? take that 500 and donate it to an actual cause. the parents are just being stupid...

with that said, somebody needs to do something with the Nationals. the uniform thing is a joke. this is even worse. how these owners on some of these franchises make their millions is beyond me...they're pretty stupid when it comes to marketing and selling their product.

QUOTE(#13):

Originally posted 10:34 AM ET  04.21 by jgb

Look- as callous as it is to say- being late is being late....but as poster # 5 said- all he had to do was CALL and letthem know where he was & what he was doing & it likely would've been no big deal.

I read about this and apparently no matter what the Nats wanted to send a message that being late would get you benched and fined so they are doing that to every player that shows up late. It wouldn't have mattered if Dukes was 30 seconds late, and had called every member of the Front office and every coach to tell them he would be late. Dukes would have been fined no matter what.

Doesn't the League and its teams require/ push for the MLB players to make these appearances as part of their contract? He should have called them and they should have known. He was representing their ball club.

THe nationals should move back to montreal. At least back there they spelled the team name on their jersey correct...

Its funny that half the people on here are blaming dukes for being late bringing up salary and how simple it is to make a phone call. I know that i dont make a phone call every time Im going to be a few minutes late...and it doesnt matter if im getting paid to be there or not. Im not going to critize dukes for any of this.

The guy goes out and does a good deed for the community as REQUESTED by the nats and he gets fined for good measure! This is why most athletes dont do anything for anyone but themselves...cause he tries to do the right thing and still gets blasted by people.

Manny Acta needs to get a clue and so do the nats...theres a reason why this franchise is always towards the bottom of the MLB in everything.

QUOTE(#11):

Originally posted 09:27 AM ET  04.21 by ICEnSoCal

What we have here, is a failure to communicate.

Oh man, I was hoping to say it....

Dukes, it's real simple, just tell the group you have a game to play!

And please don't accept the money. If you do, then say thank you, and have a pizza party for the kids.

So, he's at a parade of little kids ... it's running a bit late (shocking) ... and he's supposed to whip out his cell phone and call? Seriously. And y'all wonder why your kids behave rudely with cell phones.

QUOTE:

Originally posted by

You have to wonder if Dukes told the Nats in advance what he was doing that day. If they knew what he was doing and fined him over 5 minutes then shame on them. But if he never informed them in advance, then the fine was probably a "let us know in advance next time" thing.

so you bench your only quality player because he didn`t let them know in advance. bunch of clowns in d.c.