Last week, reports arose that Mike Jeffcoat, head coach of the Texas Wesleyan University baseball team, refused to recruit players from Colorado because of their “liberal politicians,” which is unbelievably narrow minded.

In his letter to the interested player, Jeffcoat cited Colorado’s “liberal politicians” as the reason he would not have him on the team. It raises the question: How does a person’s residence affect their ability to play baseball?

The obvious answer is that it does not have any effect whatsoever. Heading a collegiate baseball program means the coach should do everything they can to help their team win.

In any other circumstance, anyone looking to recruit people for a team, job, etc., should have zero bias in their process because that is not performing their job to the best of their ability.

Even if one disagrees with all leftist politics, which Jeffcoat has said he does not in a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it is careless to jeopardize a job over political views that have no bearing on in-game performance.

Jeffcoat also specified in the interview that he has had players from Colorado be a part of his program in the past and the legalization of marijuana had no bearing on recruitment until he sent the email. But he claimed to have sent the email out of frustration due to players failing drug tests in the past.

Even so, banning potential players from a whole state seems very drastic. Whether a baseball player is from Colorado, Texas or anywhere else, it is possible they smoke marijuana.

For his actions, Jeffcoat was fired from his post as head coach, which Texas Wesleyan University should be applauded for. Now, there is an example for professionals on how not to act in the workplace.

Even if Jeffcoat were permitted to keep his job, nobody with a differing opinions would want anything to do with him, either. Even after admitting that sending the email was a poor choice, he will likely never get a job coaching college baseball again.

It is the job of any coach to do their due diligence in the recruiting process, even if a player is from a state where marijuana is legal. It would make sense to find out if they use the drug first before opening up to criticism in the way Jeffcoat did.

In the days following, Jeffcoat claims to have received positive feedback from some people, saying that there were players and parents who supported his stance and wanted to be apart of the program as long as he would remain the head coach. However, baseball has nothing to do with politics.

Unless one’s priority is to be grouped with likeminded people during college and not expand their political perspective at all, it should have nothing to do with baseball.

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