Steve Lyons Fired By FOX

Announcer Steve Lyons was fired by FOX Sports for an "insensitive" remark about the Hispanic heritage of Lou Piniella.

From the (Dis)Associated Press:

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.

I am not of Hispanic heritage, but rather of a "Heinz 57" mixture of German, Irish and Jewish among other things, so I readily admit that I don’t really understand what was so "insensitive" about his comments. I hope that someone can educate my ignorance.

Having said that, if FOX had said that they fired Steve Lyons because he was an IDIOT, I’d understand.

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