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Fox fires Lyons for remarks
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/461915p-388616c.html
DETROIT - Fox fired analyst Steve Lyons shortly after Game 3 of the AL Championship Series Friday for making what it considered racially insensitive remarks during the game broadcast. The comments were directed at fellow analyst Lou Piniella's Hispanic background.
Piniella had been breaking down the poor performance by Oakland at the plate.
One of Piniella's points was that light-hitting shortstop Marco Scutaro had reverted to form after driving in six runs during the division series, something he likened to finding a "wallet" one day and then expecting to find another the next day. Another was that Frank Thomas, Oakland's regular-season RBI leader, had stopped producing. He used the Spanish words for cold and on fire - "frio" and "en fuego" - to describe what Thomas was and what the A's need him to be.
Play-by-play man Thom Brennaman praised Piniella's use of Spanish and then Lyons said that Piniella was "habla-ing Español" - a hackneyed use of the verb to speak - and continued, "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 went on.
Lyons told The Associated Press that he was kidding. "If I offended anybody, I'm truly sorry," Lyons said. "But my comment about Lou taking my wallet was a joke and in no way racially motivated."
Lyons, with the network since 1996, had once been suspended without pay for remarks about then-Dodger Shawn Green's decision not to play one of the days during the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday in 2004. Jose Mota, a Los Angeles Angels broadcaster, replaced Lyons in the broadcast booth yesterday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/461915p-388616c.html
DETROIT - Fox fired analyst Steve Lyons shortly after Game 3 of the AL Championship Series Friday for making what it considered racially insensitive remarks during the game broadcast. The comments were directed at fellow analyst Lou Piniella's Hispanic background.
Piniella had been breaking down the poor performance by Oakland at the plate.
One of Piniella's points was that light-hitting shortstop Marco Scutaro had reverted to form after driving in six runs during the division series, something he likened to finding a "wallet" one day and then expecting to find another the next day. Another was that Frank Thomas, Oakland's regular-season RBI leader, had stopped producing. He used the Spanish words for cold and on fire - "frio" and "en fuego" - to describe what Thomas was and what the A's need him to be.
Play-by-play man Thom Brennaman praised Piniella's use of Spanish and then Lyons said that Piniella was "habla-ing Español" - a hackneyed use of the verb to speak - and continued, "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 went on.
Lyons told The Associated Press that he was kidding. "If I offended anybody, I'm truly sorry," Lyons said. "But my comment about Lou taking my wallet was a joke and in no way racially motivated."
Lyons, with the network since 1996, had once been suspended without pay for remarks about then-Dodger Shawn Green's decision not to play one of the days during the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday in 2004. Jose Mota, a Los Angeles Angels broadcaster, replaced Lyons in the broadcast booth yesterday.