Posted on 10/17/2006 8:44:05 PM PDT by misterrob
Even if Steve Lyons meant it the way his bosses at Fox allegedly took it - Watch your wallet around the Spanish-speaking guy - it would have been just another crude joke on a network that cranks them out the way Spike TV cranks out car crashes.
After Lyons was fired, a spokesman for Fox claimed the veteran baseball analyst made on-air comments the company found inappropriate, an explanation funnier than anything you’ll hear on “Family Guy.” The company in question includes the cable channel F/X, which is home to the show “Nip/Tuck.”
SNIP
Of course, Steve Lyons didn’t mean it the way his bosses at Fox took it, which makes his firing even more outrageous. Obviously, they wanted to fire the guy, and they found a convenient and politically correct way to do it. They didn’t have the guts or the integrity to just say, “We don’t like the way Steve Lyons is doing his job. We’re going in another direction.”
They weren’t happy to just dump the guy. They wanted to destroy him, too. It’s enough to turn your stomach. Kind of like the very concept of “Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy.”
David Hill, head of Fox Sports, knew many in the mainstream media would see it his way because that’s what the mainstream media do in these situations: They jump up and bark like trained seals, feigning offense even when no reasonable person truly believes they were offended. Better to err on the side of the PC forces than to appear sympathetic toward a Neanderthal like Lyons.
SNIP
It’s something you might expect from Katie Couric’s network or from PBS or CNN, but Fox? Somewhere, Bart Simpson is hanging his head in shame.
(Excerpt) Read more at redsox.bostonherald.com ...
Note to Gerry Callahan: Employers don't need a "good" reason to fire anyone. NO ONE is owed a job.
You missed Callahan's points on this. They ginned up a BS reason for firing the guy and hid behind some PC reason. Fox runs all kinds of crappy and risque programming but gets twisted over this? Fox did a hatchet job on Lyons and tried to stand on ceremony in doing so.
He's a drama queen on the field with his theatrics. He sucks as a booth commentator and he hasn't done anything as a manager in years.
He was supposed to announce Saturday's game...you couldn't keep that quiet anymore than if Albert Pujols was going to miss the game. If I remember the timing correctly, the news came out Saturday afternoon. Someone from Fox had to spread the news because they named a replacement for him as well.
Lyons sucked, but you fire him for incompetence. Not crap like this.
Steve Lyons' nickname as a player was "Psycho". That shoulda told Fox something...
He's been working for them for years. Not the brightest guy out there and they could have done better. He seemed more like comic relief than anything else.
Heard the exchange, and this firing was the bunk.
Pefect match for the Cubs, then.
/White Sox fan
/doesn't know squat about Piniella
>They ginned up a BS reason for firing the guy and hid behind some PC reason.
Well then I don't understand why Fox had to gin up a reason. All Fox had to do was fire him without giving a reason.
To can a guy during the series invites questions.
Scr** the questions
Ballplayers are constantly after each other verbally. Can you imagine what would happen if the bull that gets spread in the dugout, bullpen and locker room ever made it on the air?
(By the way, I didn't understand the 'joke' because I've always thought that Pinella was Italian. Shouldn't his name be pronounced differently if it's Hispanic?)
David Ortiz uses the term bitch or biatch a lot but in a kidding way. None of his teammates get uppity over it (then again, he's 6' 4", 240 lbs) and it keeps things light.
Having done HS sports as a kid, I can tell you stuff can get bad in a hurry.
Piniella should be pronounced Pineya....
I just tried the Ellis Island website for the surname Piniella. It turned up just two matches--one a Guillermo Piniella from Havana, Cuba, the other a Remigio Piniella whose ethnicity was listed as Spanish.
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