Should Athletes Miss Their Child's Birth for a Game?

Since I am a sports fan I visit ESPN.com for the latest news, box scores and other things. Every day ESPN.com has an online poll that people can vote on. Today's poll question was "should an athlete play a game on the day his child his born?"

Personally I'm ashamed this question even needs to be brought up because my answer is a resounding no.

Some people at this point might go on a rant about how baseball, basketball, or whatever sport is just a game and it's no big deal. Well, personally I think people who use the "just a game" argument is full of it. Yes baseball, basketball and football are games but they are also businesses, very big businesses. Just because an athlete gets to play a game, which he should absolutely be thankful for, doesn't mean it's not a job. An athlete has to work hard every day just like everyone else. That being said, if me or you were expecting our child we would probably take the day off and an athlete should too.

The crazy thing is, it's pretty common in sports to not take a day off for your child's birth and sometimes when a player does take a day off for their child's birth they can railed by the media or even their own team because their team was depending on them. My response to that is, "sorry mate, you're out of luck." To ask someone to miss their own child's birth because you need them to go 3 for 4 that night is just dumb.

As far as I'm concerned there are three events in life that will most likely be the three best experiences of your life. Obviously there are some instances that it might be different, but to me I can not imagine anything being more important than 1) the day I accepted Christ, 2) the day I get married and 3) the day my child/children are born.

Yes, I know that one game can have an impact on your team's standing. A player might miss a game for their child's birth, that team might end up losing because that player wasn't there and they might miss the playoffs by one game but my feeling is 1) If you lose because one player isn't there you're probably not winning the championship anyway. 2) If you missed the playoffs by one game then you should've played better in one of those other games you lost. 3) A championship is not more important than a child's birth. If you feel differently, you don't have your priorities straight.