Disturbing allegations against Tigers affiliated VPs and others

[Paul Meloche]

It's from The Athletic so it's paywalled, but here's the link. I'll copy/paste the first paragraph below so if you're not a subscriber you can decide if you want to click the link to continue reading. 

"At least eight men employed by the Detroit Tigers, its business arm or broadcast partner have been accused of misconduct toward women since 2023, including four vice presidents and two other high-ranking employees, an investigation by The Athletic found.

Seven of those eight were accused of mistreating women employed by Ilitch Sports and Entertainment (IS+E), which operates the MLB franchise, the NHL’s Red Wings, Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena and other entertainment entities. The allegations against the men ranged from offensive comments to physical confrontation."

Some of the allegations I was familiar with (Sam Menzin, Craig Monroe) but most I was not. Many of the accused aren't names I'm familiar with, but Cameron Maybin's name popped up. It was probably mentioned on the list before why he is no longer on the broadcasts but I wasn't familiar with the story.

[Roger King]

I’d be curious if this is really unique to the Detroit Tigers and if so, why? I haven’t read the piece but when they’re talking about offensive comments, it’s not a stretch to suggest this is likely the sports culture across the board.

My general impression is athletes and men in positions of power in sports franchises are much more well-behaved than in the old days but I’m sure there’s still room for improvement.

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[Michael W]

The article is both disturbing and damning.  The Athletic (which is part of the New York Times) interviewed 45 current and former employees to get the picture of what is going on.  That's a pretty good size sample, and a lot of the criticism and allegations comes with numerous confirmations.  

In addition to a seemingly endless list of inappropriate behavior to women, there have been 3 lawsuits about age discrimination, and allegations of verbal abuse of both men and women.

Coming from the corporate world myself, the fact that most of the accused are executives (vice presidents) is particularly troubling.  These are the people who set the tone in the culture and also the ones with the most training on issues like these.  If the rot is at the top, it's pretty hard to fix without big changes.

One thing that's a bit unclear is how many of these people report to Scott Harris.  At least two, the operations leader from Lakeland and the VP of Game Presentation seem like the probably would.  But it's possible many of these folks report up to the Ilitch organization in a different chain.  So I'm not sure if this means "Scott Harris needs to go" or not.  But probably it does.

Michael

[Michael W]

The fact that the same organization also supports the Detroit Red Wings, but the Red Wings are hardly mentioned, is another hint that the problem may be more localized.

Michael

[Paul Meloche]

Although not a main topic of the article, it did mention that the Tigers are one of only three MLB teams that don't offer paid maternity leave to their employees (Angels and Rangers are the others) which seems outrageous in 2025.

 

The article did say that a source within the organization said paid maternity leave will be available starting next year.

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[Peter Welch]

So Menzin was just the tip of the iceberg.  It was a bad sign that there had been a long list of complaints against Menzin before he was finally forced out.

Sounds like it’s been a “Madmen”-style toxic male culture in the organization for a while. Gross.

Doesn’t make the Ilitches look good.

Peter

On Sep 10, 2025, at 11:16 AM, Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Cal Lord]

The article ends with this - 

The allegations and organizational exits come to light with the Tigers in the midst of a strong season on the field. The team enters play Wednesday with 83 wins, tied for the most in the American League.

Do you think their reporting has anything to do with this? I do. This is not to say the allegations aren’t true. It seems like the Tigers dealt with them accordingly. 

Cal

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[Michael W]

>  It seems like the Tigers dealt with them accordingly. 

I think if you have a bad apple and take care of it, that's fine.  If you have 4 bad apples, and they are all senior people, and lots of background noise as well, that's a different thing.  I hope the Illitchs take some action.  If they don't, MLB may have to. 

Michael

[Peter Welch]

More reason to be glad we traded Maybin to the Marlins in the Miggy Cabrera trade, although unfortunately he came back Detroit years later. Sounds like he was an a-hole behind the scenes.  Maybin always seemed to be having a lot of fun when he played.  I had no idea at the time how he behaved off the field or outside the broadcast booth.

The abusive behavior toward subordinates and toxic masculinity of the executives sounds like the worst sort of Wall Street behavior or worst sort of Hollywood movie/music industry behavior.  I think modern baseball executives often come from Wall Street or the entertainment industry so not that surprising.

Peter 

 

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Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 11:14:59 PM
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Subject: Re: Disturbing allegations against Tigers affiliated VPs and others

 

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