ESPN offed Colin Cowherd for a “racist” rant. ESPN and Colin Cowherd should be ashamed and blamed.
Neither party was honest...
Cowherd should not have been pasteurized, but he should have been paddy whacked first for apologizing, second for saying sorry via Twitter – a completely awful format to express comprehensive thoughts, and third for utterly misstating or misdiagnosing what he is sorry for.
He tweeted: I did not intend to offend anyone w my comments...
He HAS TO know someone, somewhere, somehow will take offense at even the “apple pie, peace not war, I love mom, save the planet” voiced views. So he’s either a dough-head to think no one would be irked by WHATEVER he says, or he’s as stupid as they come for believing same...or he didn’t think through his tweet.
After all, did he not write a book: You Herd Me! I'll Say It If Nobody Else Will? And he is pleased as punch with the new beer brewed in his name: “Blunt, N’ Bitter”
So he should plead the fifth for being frightfully forgetful of his own formulations and fulminations...or contemplate his mental incapacity – or mendacity.
But what a difference a day makes! On July 22nd he gives his explanation for leaving ESPN. He talks about expanding his horizons, and how the parting, after 10+ years, was amicable, and how ESPN offered him a great new contract, but he was inspired to fight complacency and embrace risk. He says he made the decision to leave ESPN. On July 23rd he talks of the Dominican Republic’s academic prowess. On July 24th ESPN cuts him off. He castigates the editing of his 57 second statement into a 16-second-edited-out-of-context “racist” rant.
Now, no matter the day, for all those who castigate Cowherd’s commentary as racist, take a flying leap. If he slurred anyone, he slurred a country, not a race, for the Dominican Republic, and its baseball players are made of races, not a race. An estimated 73% of Dominicans are of mixed race, 16% have a white European background, and 11% are black. Get your critique right, all right?
And ESPN should do a “balls” check, first, for cowering over a worker’s on-air opinion and second, for sending that worker to the nether regions. Be a sport. Do the sporting thing. Roll with the punches, suck it up, take the hit and stand by your man. Geez...
Why should someone have to disappear for life (or at least until that someone starts at FOX on September 8th) because of a startling, possibly incorrect, - or correct - observation?
Blue Jay slugger, Dominican José Bautista, didn’t call for Cowherd to be cow-belled out of town. José thinks Cowherd implied “...ignorance or stupidity...”
Major League Baseball, an outfit that really hasn’t come to grips with the 40-inch forearms gripping bats and blasting baseballs into orbit during the steroid era, hasn’t come to grips with Cowherd. They intoned Cowherd’s contents were “...completely inconsistent with the values of our game.”
The values of major league baseball have included, or at least coincided and partially abided with, cheating with drugs, cheating with stealing signs, cheating with spitting on baseballs, cheating with gambling. They should not have gone all hoity toity when they’ve been dirty in pig slop, and should have, rather, issued a statement, saying: “Cowherd’s comments are his own.” A blanket denunciation makes them sound stupid.
And don’t bring in the values of the game, period. Baseball’s values are completely separate from the Major League Baseball organization and for that group to try to attach itself to baseball the sport, as its guardian, is inappropriate and insulting.
The players’ union took a whack with the bat. They said his comments were offensive. Yes, yes, we know, the statements might be deemed offensive to some, but again, so what? In highlighting Cowherd’s thoughts they’ve shone the spotlight on the Dominican Republic’s failings or faults, real or imagined.
On the other hand – maybe this is one of those “teachable moments.” Perhaps baseball executives, managers, coaches, and players, from the Dominican or elsewhere, are lacking in smarts. Maybe the DR needs to brush up on its ABC’s as well as their batters deal with brushback pitches.
Essentially the reactions to Cowherd’s commentary should be: was he right or wrong? Disagree or agree with his ideas – but back your opinion back with facts, data, graphs and stats, then perhaps throw some theory in there and some philosophical musings. Forget the peripherals of offensiveness, or intemperate bluntness, or a poorly phrased point – these considerations are window dressing to the goods in the store. Is baseball, and the DR lacking in intelligence?
Basically, no way.
Ironically, ultimately, Cowherd and the herds haranguing him may be off the mark and missing the bigger point.
Unlike the NFL – with its X’s and O’s, or NBA – with its diagrammed, programmed plays,
the MLB baseball players, to a pitcher, hitter, fielder, or reliever, often need to hone their talents, mentally and physically, in the minor leagues – in A, AA, or AAA ball – often for YEARS. It is a hard game to master, if one wants to play competently at the highest level in the USA.
New York Post’s, Phil Mushnick, got on his high horse and said things, I thought, were nuts. Of his six nouns describing Cowherd’s bit, I agreed with one. Three I disagreed with, two, I could see where he was coming from, but basically I don’t want Mushnick mushed out of town. Sure, I think his first paragraph in his July 26th piece is largely garbage, but
too bad so sad
– for me.
But his opinions engage. Let’s hear him out, perhaps give him the benefit of the doubt for at least debating and deliberating, rather than death-sentencing Colin. Phil speaks from the heart, if not from the head...Leave him be. He has the right to be wrong – or right – as the case may be.
As does Cowherd.
Objectors, conscious or comatose, take a break. Read Dan Le Batard’s take. Try a shrug or give a hug, for we are entitled to speak and think, unashamedly.
That’s major league.
Neither party was honest...
Cowherd should not have been pasteurized, but he should have been paddy whacked first for apologizing, second for saying sorry via Twitter – a completely awful format to express comprehensive thoughts, and third for utterly misstating or misdiagnosing what he is sorry for.
He tweeted: I did not intend to offend anyone w my comments...
He HAS TO know someone, somewhere, somehow will take offense at even the “apple pie, peace not war, I love mom, save the planet” voiced views. So he’s either a dough-head to think no one would be irked by WHATEVER he says, or he’s as stupid as they come for believing same...or he didn’t think through his tweet.
After all, did he not write a book: You Herd Me! I'll Say It If Nobody Else Will? And he is pleased as punch with the new beer brewed in his name: “Blunt, N’ Bitter”
So he should plead the fifth for being frightfully forgetful of his own formulations and fulminations...or contemplate his mental incapacity – or mendacity.
But what a difference a day makes! On July 22nd he gives his explanation for leaving ESPN. He talks about expanding his horizons, and how the parting, after 10+ years, was amicable, and how ESPN offered him a great new contract, but he was inspired to fight complacency and embrace risk. He says he made the decision to leave ESPN. On July 23rd he talks of the Dominican Republic’s academic prowess. On July 24th ESPN cuts him off. He castigates the editing of his 57 second statement into a 16-second-edited-out-of-context “racist” rant.
Now, no matter the day, for all those who castigate Cowherd’s commentary as racist, take a flying leap. If he slurred anyone, he slurred a country, not a race, for the Dominican Republic, and its baseball players are made of races, not a race. An estimated 73% of Dominicans are of mixed race, 16% have a white European background, and 11% are black. Get your critique right, all right?
And ESPN should do a “balls” check, first, for cowering over a worker’s on-air opinion and second, for sending that worker to the nether regions. Be a sport. Do the sporting thing. Roll with the punches, suck it up, take the hit and stand by your man. Geez...
Why should someone have to disappear for life (or at least until that someone starts at FOX on September 8th) because of a startling, possibly incorrect, - or correct - observation?
Blue Jay slugger, Dominican José Bautista, didn’t call for Cowherd to be cow-belled out of town. José thinks Cowherd implied “...ignorance or stupidity...”
Major League Baseball, an outfit that really hasn’t come to grips with the 40-inch forearms gripping bats and blasting baseballs into orbit during the steroid era, hasn’t come to grips with Cowherd. They intoned Cowherd’s contents were “...completely inconsistent with the values of our game.”
The values of major league baseball have included, or at least coincided and partially abided with, cheating with drugs, cheating with stealing signs, cheating with spitting on baseballs, cheating with gambling. They should not have gone all hoity toity when they’ve been dirty in pig slop, and should have, rather, issued a statement, saying: “Cowherd’s comments are his own.” A blanket denunciation makes them sound stupid.
And don’t bring in the values of the game, period. Baseball’s values are completely separate from the Major League Baseball organization and for that group to try to attach itself to baseball the sport, as its guardian, is inappropriate and insulting.
The players’ union took a whack with the bat. They said his comments were offensive. Yes, yes, we know, the statements might be deemed offensive to some, but again, so what? In highlighting Cowherd’s thoughts they’ve shone the spotlight on the Dominican Republic’s failings or faults, real or imagined.
On the other hand – maybe this is one of those “teachable moments.” Perhaps baseball executives, managers, coaches, and players, from the Dominican or elsewhere, are lacking in smarts. Maybe the DR needs to brush up on its ABC’s as well as their batters deal with brushback pitches.
Essentially the reactions to Cowherd’s commentary should be: was he right or wrong? Disagree or agree with his ideas – but back your opinion back with facts, data, graphs and stats, then perhaps throw some theory in there and some philosophical musings. Forget the peripherals of offensiveness, or intemperate bluntness, or a poorly phrased point – these considerations are window dressing to the goods in the store. Is baseball, and the DR lacking in intelligence?
Basically, no way.
Ironically, ultimately, Cowherd and the herds haranguing him may be off the mark and missing the bigger point.
Unlike the NFL – with its X’s and O’s, or NBA – with its diagrammed, programmed plays,
the MLB baseball players, to a pitcher, hitter, fielder, or reliever, often need to hone their talents, mentally and physically, in the minor leagues – in A, AA, or AAA ball – often for YEARS. It is a hard game to master, if one wants to play competently at the highest level in the USA.
New York Post’s, Phil Mushnick, got on his high horse and said things, I thought, were nuts. Of his six nouns describing Cowherd’s bit, I agreed with one. Three I disagreed with, two, I could see where he was coming from, but basically I don’t want Mushnick mushed out of town. Sure, I think his first paragraph in his July 26th piece is largely garbage, but
too bad so sad
– for me.
But his opinions engage. Let’s hear him out, perhaps give him the benefit of the doubt for at least debating and deliberating, rather than death-sentencing Colin. Phil speaks from the heart, if not from the head...Leave him be. He has the right to be wrong – or right – as the case may be.
As does Cowherd.
Objectors, conscious or comatose, take a break. Read Dan Le Batard’s take. Try a shrug or give a hug, for we are entitled to speak and think, unashamedly.
That’s major league.