Fox commits an error

Fox fired MLB broadcaster Steve Lyons after Game 3 of the ALCS. The reason, he made "racially insensitive remarks" about Lou Piniella who is hispanic. The remarks?

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.

Were those comments bad enough for immediate dismissal? From my seat, no. Sadly, as I watched the A's get swept (I thought this was their year - my fav team), Lyons' comments didn't even register with me as racial - in fact, they didn't register at all. Furthermore, even after reading the article I still don't see it. If butchering Spanish conjugations is racist then I, for one, have committed many racist offenses. Sorry. If butchering any language's conjugations is racist, then we have a nation full of racists. I grew up in the south, I butcher English on a daily basis, do I hate myself?

The thing is, I've been cruising the net and I can't find a single instance of anyone being offended by his comments. Most post game wrap-ups just talk about the game, some Baseball bloggers have old post's about Lyons' being an idiot, but no mention, that I could find, about his racist comments. For example, Rush Limbaugh's comments about Eagle's Quarterback Donovan McNabb lit up the airwaves immediately after he made them. One could easily debate just how racist those comments were, but at least there was a reaction. [Quick note, that last comment was actually not one of my many digs at Mr. Limbaugh. He was just at the center of the last comparable incident I could remember]

If they were really that bad, someone in wrap-up would have mentioned them. Not to be insensitive, but if Lyons' comments are racist then the bar for racism has gotten pretty low.