The Firing of Steve Lyons

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The Firing of Steve Lyons

• Fox Baseball Broadcaster

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• 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.

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Steve Lyons Background

• Steve Lyons played nine seasons in Major League
  Baseball.
• Lyons was drafted 19th in the first round of the
  81 draft by the Red Sox, and played from 85-93
  bouncing from the Red Sox to the White Sox before
  pinballing back and forth between the Red Sox,
  Braves, Expos, and eventually back with the Red
  Sox between 91 and 93 when he retired.
• His career numbers breakdown as follows
• 853 G, 2162 AB, 264 R, 545 H, 19 HR, 196 RBI, 156
  BB, 364 SO, .252 BA, .301 OBP, .340 SLG

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Steve Lyons Background

• As this interview outlines, not all former
  players land in the lap of luxury. Hard to
  imagine former major leaguers selling hot dogs at
  a golf course. In 1995 Lyons landed a gig as a
  Chicago radio sports talk host. He then passed an
  audition the next year with Fox. He started doing
  the Saturday Baseball Game of the Week studio
  show as an analyst, and transitioned to Foxs
  game coverage. He worked as a primary anchor on
  the Fox Sports Net News Desk, and was a color
  analyst for 50 games of the 2003 Arizona
  Diamondback season. He is now part of the Dodger
  broadcast team.
• Lyons has earned an Emmy and two additional Emmy
  nominations during his tenure with Fox.

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The Incident

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

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Its Not the First Time

• This was not a first-time offense for Lyons,
  nicknamed "Psycho" during his nine-year big
  league career.
• Lyons was suspended without pay in late September
  2004 after he questioned Shawn Greens commitment
  to Judaism after the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger
  sat out an important game against the San
  Francisco Giants because of Yom Kippur.
• Green is not a practicing Jew, Lyons said on
  air. He didnt marry a Jewish girl. And from
  what I understand, he never had a bar mitzvah,
  which is unfortunate because he didnt get the
  money.
• The Fox network, which is televising the games,
  apologized and said Lyons had expressed remorse.

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Comments on a Visually Impaired Fan

• 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.
• Lyons (and fellow sportscaster Thom Brennaman)
  also made fun of a New York Mets fan wearing an
  unusual device over his eyes at a game during
  Game 1 of the 2006 National League Division
  Series between the Mets and Dodgers. Lyons said,
  He's got a digital camera stuck to his face.   
  
• The man turned out to be nearly blind, except for
  limited peripheral vision in one eye, and the
  headgear were special glasses (a "JORDY," a
  maginifying device) that allowed him limited
  vision to see the game.