Farhan talked to @knbrmurph this morning. 6:45 in, he admits two ways he (and Kapler) screwed up.

1. They didn't seek advice from "advocates" during the process. "we were just thinking about what we needed to do, rather than what the right thing was." https://omny.fm/shows/murph-mac-podcast/11-13-farhan-zaidi-discusses-why-giants-hired-gabe

2. "We asked the victims if they wanted to go to the police, and we thought that was enough. In the conversations we've had, we understand that was woefully insufficient ... we needed to do whatever we could to provide more support."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a huge part of the furor has to do with needing five years to reach these conclusions. It's not about cancel culture or making sure Kapler never works again. It's about honestly owning an egregious judgment lapse. Not sure if that happened before this

Kapler's old blog really didn't give that same vibe. It was more of a "Whoa, I didn't know about the sexual assault part, and once you realize that, you can see how I handled everything properly." That was a big part of the problem.

Kapler might strike a similar tone as Zaidi did today, and it might come from the heart. But it's hard to believe these are conclusions that would have been reached without fans/media continuing to talk about it. It would have five years in the past, without any lessons learned.

So two points: The first is that if all the attention made two people realize exactly how they screwed up in a way that they wouldn't have without the attention, that's the best possible argument against the, "He apologized! Move on!" crowd. Everyone needed to be loud about this.

Second, it's still hard to believe that Kapler is worth this! That any manager is worth this. If you can guarantee a championship with a crystal ball, you can make a cold, ruthless business argument, but the offseason after the Baer fiasco?

My guess is that everyone's heads were so buried in their work that they were only tangentially aware of how big of a deal this was. @extrabaggs detailed an awkward 30 seconds of silence in his piece https://theathletic.com/1374240/2019/11/13/the-gabe-kapler-era-in-san-francisco-will-begin-not-with-a-fresh-start-but-with-opening-old-wounds/ that indicates there was no razor-sharp response ready

Which kinda undercuts the we-talked-to-some-advocates-and-realized-how-we-screwed-up argument. Because if they had properly done that due diligence, they would have instantly had a better version of "That sucked. We learned from it. We should have learned more from it years ago."

Instead, it gave off a real, "Whoa. People are still furious. Be careful, let's think about how to approach this" vibe. The response should have been *locked* *down* a day before the press conference. (Maybe I'm wrong about that and reading too much into the pause, dunno.)

Anyway, I'm still thinking through all this, and I'm kind of a dullard who tends to think "I don't get the big deal" before someone explains why it's a big deal and thinking "Ah." I usually need help, so constructive criticism is welcome.

Farhan's two realizations felt right to me, though. Just late, and harder to stomach because of the sense that they're happening only because it's a big deal. What if it weren't a big deal?

Sorry about screwing up the flow of your timeline.