Fox Fires Lyons for Insensitive Comment [Archive]

View Full Version : Fox Fires Lyons for Insensitive Comment

alwat

10-14-2006, 08:21 PM

Oct 14, 5:12 PM (ET) By JANIE McCAULEY 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
comments. He has been replaced for the remainder of the series by Los
Angeles Angels announcer Jose Mota.
"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.
Lyons had
been working in the booth for the ALCS alongside Thom Brennaman and
Piniella, the No. 2 broadcast team for Fox this postseason.
A call to Lyons' cell phone was not immediately returned Saturday.
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.
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.
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 cam

HBox

10-14-2006, 08:34 PM

I barely get what he said and how it would be construed as racist. However, since the announers tonight brought it up at one point in a mocking tone I think what he said really pissed Piniella and the other guy off. And there seems to be a history of this kind of stuff with him. And he's a horrible broadcaster. So there you go.

ADF

10-14-2006, 08:53 PM

I guess he was trying to say that latinos steal wallets or that he doesn't like to sit next to them.  The next step is firing Piniella for being a mushmouth.  The sooner he gets a managerial job and out of the booth the better.

aaaaaaaa

10-14-2006, 08:54 PM

personally I think piniella should get his ass beat for using such hack sportscenter lingo. he might as well have been in the booth with steve "feed em to the" lyons and tom "sing us a song you're the" brennaman.

whiskyriver

10-14-2006, 08:59 PM

like him or not....he made a bad joke that me and my friends make daily.
i give shit to the mexicans at work they give it back,same with the blacks. god
damn we are so fin uptight as a country. you have to think about everything you
say before you speak.

El Mudo

10-14-2006, 09:48 PM

ADF wrote: I guess
he was trying to say that latinos steal wallets or that he doesn't like
to sit next to them. The next step is firing Piniella for being a
mushmouth. The sooner he gets a managerial job and out of the booth the
better.   Luckily, it looks like he's going to MoJo's Cubs... Won't THAT make for a great thread next year... <blockquote />

FezPaul

10-14-2006, 10:13 PM

whiskyriver wrote: like him or not....he made a bad joke that me and my friends make daily. i give shit to the mexicans at work they give it back,same with the blacks. god damn we are so fin uptight as a country. you have to think about everything you say before you speak. My friends and I. <img src="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/bye.gif" border="0" />

Doctor Z

10-14-2006, 10:16 PM

He also once pulled down his pants on the field during his playing days.I like how they just tacked that on to the end of the article.  Nice touch.

PapaBear

10-14-2006, 10:28 PM

i give shit to the mexicans at work they give it backI give shit to the Salvadorans at work. I call them Mexicans.

HBox

10-14-2006, 10:40 PM

I give shit to Mexicans all the time. I think they'd prefer the ethnic slurs.

Tenbatsuzen

10-15-2006, 04:55 AM

Doctor_Z wrote:  He also once pulled down his pants on the field during his playing days. I like how they just tacked that on to the end of the article. Nice touch.    That was his "sex in a church" moment.

Sheeplovr

10-15-2006, 05:01 AM

so fin uptight as a country. you have to think about everything you say before you speak.<img width="410" height="297" border="0" src="http://www.gothamist.com/images/2003_11_parisdolphin.jpg" />Fin Tight? man how come every thread round here ends up talking about Doulphin Sex

Gvac

10-15-2006, 06:03 AM

Does anyone know what Lyons said about Shawn Green 2 years ago? Every article on this subject mentions he made some comments about Green not playing during Yom Kippur, but none of them quote him.

cougarjake13

10-15-2006, 06:46 AM

Gvac wrote: Does anyone know what Lyons said about Shawn Green 2 years ago? Every article on this subject mentions he made some comments about Green not playing during Yom Kippur, but none of them quote him.   if i remember correctly it was lyons saying that green should sack it up and play b/c the dodgers were in a pennant race and him not playing would hurt their chances, something to that effect

JimBeam

10-15-2006, 09:07 AM

The comment on Green was his opinion and shouldnt have had anything to do with the religious aspect.He had a valid opinion and stated it. I mean if there were any religious days in the Catholic church where you couldnt do anything 1/2 of MLB would have to close down. Old school Catholocism would say you shouldn't do anything on a Sunday. How would MLB get along if every Catholic player didnt wanna play on Sunday ?As far as his comments the other night, while they were lame and corny, I don't really think they are racist. How in any of his comments did he bring into the fatc that Pinella had any Spanish/Latin in him. I'd have assumed all along Pinella was just an Italian. Lyons' making fun by saying habla was more at Pinella using the words then his ethnicity. And the joke about the waller stemmed from Pinella's ridiculous correlation story. Its not like Lyons said " He I wish you would give me back my wallet and stop hablaing because your a dirty part-spic ".Talk about reading into somebody's words. Again maybe if Lyons had made the wallet reference without Pinella having already mentioned it you might infer that's what he was saying.And the bit about the pants pulling down really sent the message home.Let's not worry that a drug addict, drunk, woman abuser threw out the first pitch at the Mets' game. Lets focus on possible intended verbal racism.