The Firing of Steve Lyons

1. The Firing of Steve Lyons Fox Baseball Broadcaster

2. 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.

3. 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

5. 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 Fox’s 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.

7. 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."

8. It’s 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 Green’s 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 didn’t marry a Jewish girl. And from what I understand, he never had a bar mitzvah, which is unfortunate because he didn’t get the money.” • The Fox network, which is televising the games, apologized and said Lyons had expressed remorse.

9. 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.