Steve Lyons was a FOX broadcaster until immediately following Game 3 of the ALCS. It was during that game that Lyons, according to FOX, made “racially insensitive remarks” about fellow broadcaster Lou Piniella, who is also destined to be the Cubs’ next skipper.
In this age of hypersensitivity, what in the world could Lyons have said to cost him his job? Here’s the report from the Detroit Free Press:
In the second inning Friday, Piniella talked about the success light-hitting A’s infielder Marco Scutaro had in the playoffs against Minnesota. 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.
Four minutes later, Piniella said the A’s needed Thomas to get “en fuego” — “on fire” in Spanish — because he was “frio” — “cold.” After Brennaman praised Piniella for being bilingual, Lyons spoke up.
Lyons said that Piniella was “habla-ing Espanol” — butchering the conjugation for the word “to speak” — and added, “I still can’t find my wallet.”
“I don’t understand him,” he continued, “and I don’t want to sit too close to him now.”
The three broadcasters laughed and continued calling the action.
Fox executives told Lyons after the game that he had been fired.
Now, can someone explain to me what’s “insensitive” about this exchange? Is it that he said Piniella was “habla-ing Espanol”? Did they really Lyons was poking fun of Spanish-speaking people or the Spanish language in general? Please. Or was it that he implied Piniella had stolen his wallet, thus leading FOX to believe he thinks people of Hispanic descent are born thieves?
Come on. Lyons was just trying to make clever repartee — silly banter — with his booth-mates as is normal for broadcasters. He didn’t make any racial slurs or play on any stereotypes; if it had been Brennaman who had said what Piniella said, Lyons would have said the same thing. To fire him over this is the epitome of political correctness, and is the kind of thing that makes people afraid to say anything at all.
If FOX wants to fire someone for being insensitive, they should fire Jeanne Zelasko for unceremoniously cutting off broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell after only 17 seconds of a pregame interview during the 2005 All-Star Game.
Once upon a time I was taught in school that this country had something called “freedom of speech”. That this country was strong because it was free. That people who didn’t “toe the party line” in places like East Germany lost their jobs and ended up doing things like cleaning sewers. They had to build a wall to keep the East Germans in their prison-nation. Those who fought and sacrificed to keep this country free in WWII and the cold war must be sick to their stomach when they read how the United States of America is now captive to “political correctness”. How did we allow this to happen?
Howard Cosell would’ve never been on the air once if he had worked in the modern era, and he was one of the best ever. If they want robots in the booth, they should put robots in the booth.
This does seem ludicrous, CJ. The comments seem almost vague enough to be meaningless. I didn’t quite get it. And dude, if Piniella laughed at it – doesnt’ he have a say? Or is it possible he complained about it? I don’t know, just thoughts.
And if I have any complaints, it’s about Fox News – certainly not their sportscasting. This is nothing, baby, nothing, compared to the full-on Republican spin Fox News blurts out daily. Can you get an entire network fired?
Its funny how Fox fired Lyons for something as petty and misunderstood like this, yet, Bill O’reilly can have a sexual harassment case thrown at him and he is perfectly okay (and yes..he did settle) Now, people will say its because of his ratings, and he owns part of FOX. Still, hypocrates. They pick when to be sensitive and politically correct and bounce back and forth based on financial backlash like any company. Like how an insurance agent might rate someone a liability. Given, the latino population in sports and population-illegally and legally they are a faction you don’t want boycotting your business, after all the republicans are shaking in their seats right now, and cannot afford a backlash.