Fox Fires Lyons After Insensitive Comment

MyWay AP ^ | 10/14/06 | Janie McCauley

[Henry Wilson]

Update:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061017/ap_en_tv/bbo_lyons_piniella

LOS ANGELES - Fired Fox announcer Steve Lyons got backing on two fronts Tuesday: He can keep his part-time broadcasting job with the Los Angeles Dodgers if he completes diversity training, and Lou Piniella came to his defense.
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Lyons was fired over the weekend for making a racially insensitive comment while on the air with Piniella during the AL championship series.

"There isn't a racist bone in his body. Not one," Piniella said after being introduced as manager of the Chicago Cubs. "I've known the guy personally. He was kidding with me, nothing more and nothing less."

Piniella called Lyons' firing "an unfortunate thing."

Lyons was dismissed after Friday's Game 3 of the ALCS between Oakland and Detroit.

The Dodgers said Lyons would remain on the job for FSN Prime Ticket "upon the completion of diversity training and under probationary guidelines." Lyons works with Charley Steiner on the 40-plus road games that Vin Scully doesn't do.

Piniella made an analogy during Friday's broadcast involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases.

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 RBIs for Boston, the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta and Montreal.