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Piniella: Lyons meant no harm, firing 'unfortunate'
New Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella called the firing of Fox baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons "an unfortunate thing" and said he thought his TV colleague was just kidding when he made a racially insensitive comment.
"There isn't a racist bone in his body. Not one," Piniella said Tuesday. "I've known the guy personally. He was kidding with me, nothing more and nothing less. It was an unfortunate thing."
Lyons was dismissed after Game 3 of the AL Championship Series on Friday for his on-air comment while working the Oakland-Detroit game with Piniella.
Piniella made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases during Friday's broadcast.
Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing" in "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 said.
Lyons claimed he was kidding and Piniella accepted that explanation.
"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."
The 46-year-old Lyons was a career .252 hitter with 19 home runs and 196 RBI for Boston, the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta and Montreal.
Source: AP
"There isn't a racist bone in his body. Not one," Piniella said Tuesday. "I've known the guy personally. He was kidding with me, nothing more and nothing less. It was an unfortunate thing."
Lyons was dismissed after Game 3 of the AL Championship Series on Friday for his on-air comment while working the Oakland-Detroit game with Piniella.
Piniella made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases during Friday's broadcast.
Lyons said that Piniella was "hablaing" in "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 said.
Lyons claimed he was kidding and Piniella accepted that explanation.
"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."
The 46-year-old Lyons was a career .252 hitter with 19 home runs and 196 RBI for Boston, the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta and Montreal.
Source: AP
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