2021 season is definitely not the best of the years for baseball announcers.
Recently, on Detroit’s Tuesday game in which they were playing against Los Angeles, Detroit Tiger’s Television Analyst had faced a lot of backlash for his comment regarding Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese slugger. And as a result, he’s been suspended from Bally Sports Detroit for an unknown period.
This whole controversy arises from the game on Tuesday when Morris was describing how to pitch during the sixth inning. Matt Shepard, also a Detroit Tiger’s play-by-play announcer, asked Jack Morris, “Now what do you do with Shohei Ohtani?”.To which he deliberately responded with an unusual accent, “Be very, very careful.”
ICYMI – here’s what Jack Morris said about Shohei Ohtani during the #Tigers broadcast, and his 9th inning apology.
pic.twitter.com/x4odYHPC2g— Jonathan Deutsch (@JonathanD_TV) August 18, 2021
His realized his blunder very soon and apologized immediately during the ninth inning when Ohtani came to plate. His statement live on air was, “It’s been brought to my attention, and I sincerely apologize if I offended anybody, especially anybody in the Asian community, for what I said about pitching and being careful to Shohei Ohtani. I did not intend for any offensive thing, and I apologize if I did. I certainly respect and have the utmost respect for this guy.”
Bally Sports Detroit and Detroit Tigers also thought it was necessary to release their statements. The Bally Sports Detroit’s statement reads that they’re very disappointed in the announcer’s comment and have suspended him and have made him undergo bias training. Similarly, Tiger’s statement mentions that they fully support the suspension of Morris since every culture should be honored.
Jack Morris has been “suspended indefinitely from Tigers broadcasts and will be undergoing bias training,” Bally Sports Detroit says.
Statements from the team and network: pic.twitter.com/m3tFgJbgbd
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) August 18, 2021
It is not the first time an incident like this has happened, as Morris isn’t the only MLB announcer in trouble for making a racist comment.
A similar incident had occurred in June during the New York Mets game when the Arizona Diamondbacks broadcaster, together with the tv analyst for the team Bob Brenly happen to have tried to make a joke about Marcus Stroman. Bob commented, “I’m sure that is the same du-rag that Tom Seaver [former Mets great] used to wear when he pitched for the Mets.”
mannn… why? comes out of nowhere and gets smartly totally ignored by his partner. pic.twitter.com/q810Azt1WK
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) June 2, 2021
It attracted a lot of attention, and Brenly released an apology the day after the game day. Arizona Organization was not happy with his remarks and made him promise to undertake sensitivity training. He also announced that he won’t be present in the next couple of games. He wants to take his time to reflect on his mistake and devote time towards awareness-training.
“During last night’s game, I made a poor attempt at humor that was insensitive and wrong. I apologize to Marcus Stroman and have reached out directly to share those thoughts”. Brenly said,” I have had several conversations with the D-backs, and we agree that seeking sensitivity training is an important step so that I can continue to learn from my mistakes to be better in the future.”
Post game after Stroman realised what had happened he tweeted that these remarks won’t stop his climp and progress.
Onward and upward…through all adversity and racist undertones. The climb continues through all! 🗣
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) June 2, 2021
Also don’t forget to check out this awesome Japanese volleyball player from Olympics!