Apparently, baseball is so simple that even a Dominican can do it! At least that was the sentiment expressed by the now-former ESPN, and possibly never-going-to-be Fox Sports 1 host Colin Cowherd, who on Thursday’s edition of his show “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” broke with one of his longtime patterns and devoted an entire segment to baseball.
If Colin had any idea that this particular baseball monologue would result in his firing, he would have definitely stuck with not talking about baseball. As it is, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
The discussion began innocently enough. Cowherd set out to disprove the notion that baseball is some kind of overly-complex sport that few can grasp.
Specifically, he addressed what he perceived to be the silliness of the idea that Florida Marlins manager Dan Jennings would struggle managing at the major league level, due to a lack of managing experience and his inability to grasp the awesome complexity of the game.
So far so good. Then, this happened:
It’s too complex? I’ve never bought into that ‘baseball is too complex.’ Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has not been known in my lifetime as having world class academic abilities. A lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and have not had opportunities academically that other kids from other countries have. Baseball is like any sport. It’s mostly instincts. A sportswriter who covers baseball could go up to Tony La Russa and make an argument and Tony would listen and it would seem reasonable. There’s not a single NFL writer in the country who could diagram a play for Bill Belichick. You know, we get caught up in this whole ‘thinking-man’s game.’ Is it in the same family? Most people could do it. It’s not being a concert pianist. It’s in the same family.
Cowherd then tried to walk back his comments and apologize.
“I could’ve made the point without using one country, and there’s all sorts of smart people from the Dominican Republic,” Cowherd said Friday during The Herd. “I could’ve said a third of baseball’s talent is being furnished from countries with economic hardships, therefore educational hurdles. For the record, I used the Dominican Republic because they’ve furnished baseball with so many great players."
He went on to cite reports and statistics about the country’s ranking in primary education.
I understand that when you mention a specific country, they get offended. I get it. I do. And for that, I feel bad. I do. But I have four reports in front of me … where there are discussions of major deficiencies in the education sector at all levels. … It wasn’t a shot at them. It was data. Five, seven years ago I talked about the same subject. Was I clunky? Perhaps. Did people not like my tone? I get it. Sometimes my tone stinks.
I think when you host a radio show, just like Jon Stewart hosts a show, I think sometimes I bring up stuff … that makes people cringe. I’m not saying there’s not intelligent, educated people from the Dominican Republic. I cringe at the data too.
Cowherd’s attempted apology not only fell on deaf ears with ESPN, but now the Major League Players Association is considering a boycott of ESPN and Fox as a result of his comments.
What makes this situation particularly bad is the fact that Cowherd has seemingly been auditioning for a MSNBC gig for months. For example, he suggested during the debate about Bruce Jenner receiving an ESPY that all of the intelligent people were on the side of Jenner, and that anyone on the opposite side consisted of poorly educated and intolerant people. He also called conservatives “phonies” in their outrage on Jenner and said that Christian bakers were hypocrites for making cakes for people who have premarital sex, but not for gays.
Yet, the real takeaway is that, for all its high-minded talk about justice and rights and courage, ESPN is full of a smug elitism that looks down on and stereotypes people. Kind of like their grown-up cousins in the “news” media.
Cowherd’s time at ESPN is at an end. Whether or not his new employer, Fox Sports 1, wants anything to do with this clown show is anybody’s guess.
