[MVB]

Originally Posted by Rueters

Fox Sports fired baseball analyst Steve Lyons, hours after he made ethnically inappropriate comments on the air during the Detroit Tigers-Oakland A's championship game Friday.

Lyons is a former baseball player who has been working for Fox Sports since 1996. He also is an analyst for the Los Angeles Dodgers broadcasts.

Lyons ran afoul of Fox Sports for comments he made during the game after analyst and former manager Lou Piniella said expecting a player to repeat his performance was like "finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too."

A little while later, Piniella said Oakland A's infielder Marco Scutaro was "en fuego," to which Lyons responded: "Lou's hablaing some espanol there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now."

There were no repercussions on the air at the time, but Fox executives told Lyons later Friday that he was fired.

Fox Sports wouldn't discuss the incident in detail, releasing a short statement Saturday. "Steve Lyons has been relieved of his Fox Sports duties for making comments on air that the company found inappropriate," a statement said.

It isn't the first time Lyons has run into trouble for comments he made on the air. He was criticized last month for talking about a legally blind fan who was using a magnifying device to watch the game. He also had questioned the religious practices of outfielder Shawn Green.

Thoughts? Were the comments really "inappropriate" or is FOX making a big deal out of nothing?

[Trashed]

Man! You really have to be ultra PC to live in today's society! I didn't even understand the comment and Fox didn't either most likely it's just that they like everyone else are so afraid of the scummy special interest groups that they took a preventive measure. This is why I refuse to be employed and don't want to take part in american society save watching sports. What a joke!

[Lefty Noob]

Someone explain to me what the racial slur here is, cause I'm lost.

[Trashed]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Someone explain to me what the racial slur here is, cause I'm lost.

See what I mean?? Me too and a poor guy got fired for that??? What CAN you say on the air nowadays???

[Lefty Noob]

Maybe it's because Piniella was speaking Spanish, and Lyons said he didn't want to sit next to him?

[MVB]

Maybe the word "hablaing" is to blame?

[chsbletz]

Here's what happened, as best I remember it. Because Alex Gomez had such a big day for the Tigers in one of the games against the A's, Lyons suggested that Jim Leyland should use him every day. Piniella said something like, "That would be like finding a wallet on Friday, then going out looking for another one on Saturday and Sunday." Then the two of them got into some word byplay about Lyons not being able to find his wallet, implying that maybe Piniella had it. (To this point, it was all the needling remarks almost all men engage in from time to time.) Then, Lyons said that he didn't think he wanted to sit too close to Piniella in the future, kiddingly (I guess) suggesting that he would get his pocket picked if he did. Lyons should have had the good sense to clam up before he made the statement about not wanting to sit too close to Piniella, but he didn't. Now, he's out in the cold, professionally speaking. If he's smart, he will approach Piniella about becoming one of his coaches when he takes over the Cubs, even if he has to do it at a reduced salary level, to rehabilitate his standing in the baseball world.

[ThePundit]

I guess the pocket picked thing did him in....Lyons had a track record. He also said this about Sean Green.

“He’s not a practicing Jew,” Lyons said. “He didn’t marry a Jewish girl.” He added, “And from what I understand, he never had a bar mitzvah, which is unfortunate because he didn’t get the money.”

So I guess enough is enough.

[legend]

Here's what happened. Marco Scutaro was grouped in a picture with Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher, and the caption below had all of them being ) for the series to that point. Piniella said that Scutaro did not belong in that group to begin with, as he is not a big run producer and should not be expected to drive in runs. The play by play guy said,"But Scutaro drove in six runs against the Twins in the previous series" to which Pinella responded, "(to expect Scutaro to repeat) that would be like finding a wallet on Friday, and looking for one on Saturday and Sunday.

Lyons, you could tell, didn't catch the jist of the comment, and while making one of his own, said that Pinella was speaking Spanish, he couldn't find his own wallet, and he didn't want to sit next to Pinella-which I and everyone else in the United States took as a harmless joke. To be fired for that is ridiculous.

Lyons is on the broadcast to begin with because he is a flake and makes off-the -cuff comments. Imagine Fox, a network that was spawned in the gutter, getting rid of him for this.

[simple simon]

this is crazy

it was a light hearted joke

maybe Lyons is an idiot, but he did no harm here