King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Fox fires Steve Lyons for the wrong reason. Can we think of one for Thom Brennaman now?

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Oct. 16, 2006 | Fox fired Steve Lyons for that?

Lyons spent 11 years uttering bad jokes and insight-free commentary on Fox's national baseball telecasts. He chattered about family trivia during crucial, ninth-inning at-bats in playoff games. He wore annoying catchphrases like "Pickin' and grinnin' at first base" to their nubs.

And after all that, Fox decided, with at most four games remaining on Lyons' contract, to give him the ax for making a joke that if you stand on one foot and twist your neck just so, almost sort of sounds like it might have been motivated by ethnic insensitivity.

Because of the Detroit Tigers' sweep of the Oakland A's in the American League Championship Series, it turned out that Lyons would have worked only one more game before his contract expired.

I am one of those p.c. people willing to stand on one foot and twist my neck just so to find the insensitivity in a comment, especially one made on national television by an ex-jock. And I think Steve Lyons got a bum rap.

Here's what happened: In the second inning of Game 3 of the Oakland-Detroit series at Comerica Park Friday afternoon, Lou Piniella, working the Fox booth with Lyons and Thom Brennaman, said that expecting light-hitting A's shortstop Marco Scutaro to repeat his big hitting from the divisional round would be "like finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday too."

Later in the inning, giving the "Keys to the Game," Piniella said the A's needed Frank Thomas' bat to get "en fuego," Spanish for on fire, rather than "frio," cold. Brennaman said, "Oh, a little español" and then, a moment later, "The bilingual Lou Piniella."

Lyons chimed in, "It's funny there, Lou's habla-ing some español there and I'm still lookin' for my wallet." Brennaman and Piniella both laughed. "I don't understand him," Lyons continued, chuckling just a bit, "and I don't want to sit close to him now!" Piniella gave a laugh and then Lyons giggled too.

It was not a particularly awkward moment. Anyone listening would have to twist themselves in knots to not hear Lyons' joke for what it was, a clumsy, unfunny attempt to needle Piniella, not an ethnic slur. Reading the comments makes them sound worse than they sounded on the air. And remember, I'm an easily offended guy who doesn't like Steve Lyons as a broadcaster.

Next page: Dumb, but that's par for the course. The whole thing started with another Brennaman inanity