Fox fires Lyons after insensitive comment

[LesProfit]

Fox fires Lyons after insensitive comment

By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer
October 14, 2006

DETROIT (AP) -- Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons has been fired for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League championship series.

The network confirmed Saturday that Lyons was dismissed after Friday's game. He has been replaced for the remainder of the series by Los Angeles Angels announcer Jose Mota.

Piniella had made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases during Friday's broadcast.

Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" -- butchering the conjugation for the word "to speak" -- and added, "I still can't find my wallet."

"I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit too close to him now," Lyons continued.

Lyons claimed he was kidding.

"If I offended anybody, I'm truly sorry," Lyons said in a phone interview. "But my comment about Lou taking my wallet was a joke and in no way racially motivated."

Lyons flew Saturday to Los Angeles, where he hoped to meet with Fox chairman David Hill. Lyons had been working in the booth for the ALCS alongside Thom Brennaman and Piniella, the No. 2 broadcast team for Fox this postseason.

"Steve Lyons has been relieved of his Fox Sports duties for making comments on air that the company found inappropriate," network spokesman Dan Bell said.

In the second inning of Friday's game between Detroit and Oakland, Piniella talked about the success light-hitting A's infielder Marco Scutaro had in the first round of the playoffs. Piniella said that slugger Frank Thomas and Eric Chavez needed to contribute, comparing Scutaro's production to finding a "wallet on Friday" and hoping it happened again the next week.

Later, Piniella said the A's needed Thomas to get "en fuego" -- hot in Spanish -- because he was currently "frio" -- or cold. After Brennaman praised Piniella for being bilingual, Lyons spoke up.

Fox executives told Lyons after the game he had been fired.

Piniella, approached before Saturday's Game 4, declined to comment on the situation except to say: "No, he's not here today."

This was not a first-time offense for Lyons, nicknamed "Psycho" during his nine-year big league career as a utilityman that ended in 1993 with the Boston Red Sox.

Hired when Fox began broadcasting baseball in 1996, Lyons was suspended without pay in late September 2004 after his remarks about Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Green is Jewish and elected not to play one of the two games at San Francisco that took place during the Yom Kippur holiday.

The network apologized for Lyons' remarks at the time.

Earlier in the playoffs, while working the Mets-Dodgers NLDS, Lyons unwittingly made fun of a nearly blind fan who was wearing special glasses to see the game.

"He's got a digital camera stuck to his face," Lyons said.

He also once pulled down his pants on the field during his playing days.

Lyons, 46, was a career .252 hitter with 19 home runs and 196 RBIs for Boston, the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta and Montreal. He was a first-round draft pick by the Red Sox, 19th overall, in 1981.

AP Baseball Writer Ben Walker and AP Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed to this story.
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My comments:

WTF?

I really do not understand this, but I realise that I'm not supposed to understand it, because I'm European, living only for 6 years in this country...

But still, give me a fing break, people can not make a joke in this country almost about anything, without being faced with losing a job, beat up, sued, prosecuted, ridiculised, etc. ??

What are your thoughts about this (I'm asking ony born Americans!), can you explain me this kind of democracy, this kind of freedom in "the Land of the free"?

[Dr. Jack]

I don't think this has anything to do with American. Fox or anyone has the right to run their business a certain way. These comments may or may not be bad but I think with Lyons it's not the first time which is the real problem. JMO

[LesProfit]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jack

I don't think this has anything to do with American. Fox or anyone has the right to run their business a certain way. These comments may or may not be bad but I think with Lyons it's not the first time which is the real problem. JMO

Thanks Jack, you have a good point here.
Also I had no ideea that Lyons already had these kind of problems.

[Dr. Jack]

With that being said - many are all a little sensitive when it comes to race, etc

[jonnyblaze]

Valid points Jack, both ways.

[LesProfit]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jack

With that being said - many are all a little sensitive when it comes to race, etc

Too sensitive I would add, but again that's only being seen with an European eye...

[hungjury]

I was watching when he made the 'racial' comments and when the cameras showed that guy wearing those special glasses. I can tell you now, both announcers were making fun of the guy with the glasses because it looked like he had a computer on his face and no one knew what it was. No one was making fun of him because he was nearly blind. No one knew. He just had this apparatus on his face where it looked like he was wearing a camera on his head with headphones. I was cracking up about it because I thought he was some super fan that wanted to either take close up pics or have one eye with super binoculars or something. It was pretty funny looking but I never thought he was blind.

And then the 'racial' comments about Pinella went way over my head. I remember him saying it and everyone laughing. I did not take it as racial at all. I didn't even think that whole bit was funny. My roommates were sitting with me and no one thought anything of it.

I think FOX over-reacted with the racial comments but I guess he has a history. But, if we've learned one thing in this country, you can practically rape a woman, as an announcer and find your way back on TV

[skippy]

Originally Posted by LesProfit

Thanks Jack, you have a good point here.
Also I had no ideea that Lyons already had these kind of problems.

All he had to do was issue a disclaimer and point out his numerous Latino friends and ex-teammates.

[Bobtheicon]

I thought it was funny.

[WildKat]

The bottom line is: You have to watch everything that you say today. There is a good chance that are going to hurt someones feelings. Freedom to do many things in this country has made it great, but also is going to be the very thing that hurts us.

[skippy]

Originally Posted by Bobtheicon

I thought it was funny.

Good thing I have a chain on my wallet.

[The Kid 2822]

Who knew BBP was really Steve Lyons!

[Trossi3389]

Who knows.. fox might have been waiting for any little thing just so they could fire him. Maybe something thats been brewing for a while between the 2 parties ?? Something seems fishy.

[Bobtheicon]

Originally Posted by The Kid 2822

Who knew BBP was really Steve Lyons!

It wasn't that bad...

[hungjury]

Any of you guys here that announcer for the Miami/Florida International game? He pretty much backed the 'Canes and the fight, on air. I'm sure he'll be fired. He sounded like an idiot when the fight was going on