Commentator Steve Lyons Got a Raw Deal: FOX Overreacted to His Comments

Steve Lyons has paid the price for making a bad joke. Lyons was fired from his job at FOX Sports as a color man on baseball broadcasts after something he said during a Tigers and A's game. Steve Lyons didn't deserve what he got, and he certainly doesn't deserve to be labeled a racist now. Steve Lyons was dealt a bad hand, and all because of an attempt at a joke so bad, that he himself cannot explain what went wrong.

Let me set the scene that led to Lyons' undoing. A graphic was being shown, depicting Oakland's Frank Thomas, Eric Chavez, and light hitting Marco Scutaro. Under their pictures were stats indicating that all three had gone hitless so far in the series against the Tigers. Play by play man Thom Brennaman noted the failings of the three players shown, to which Lou Piniella, also aboard the telecast for his insights since he played and managed for most of his life, pointed out that Scutaro did not belong grouped with Thomas and Swisher, who are legitimate sluggers and expected to drive in runs. Piniella, having seen Scutaro play for the past few years, knew that he was mainly in the game for his glove, not his bat, and any hitting he did would be an added bonus.

At this point Brennaman told Piniella that Scutaro had managed six runs batted in against the Twins in the Division Series. Lyons had not injected anything into the conversation so far. Now, anyone who has watched Marco Scutaro hit would be amazed he collected six RBI in a month, never mind in the playoffs. So Piniella made his joke, something to the effect that thinking that Scutaro could repeat this performance would be akin to finding a wallet in your driveway on Friday, and looking for one again on Saturday and Sunday. This was funny stuff, and obviously it was a comment that Piniella had made over the course of his playing and managing days in similar situations.