Earlier this week, it was reported that ESPN fired long time broadcaster and former Mariners player Harold Reynolds from his position on Baseball Tonight and the network. At first ESPN declined to say why Reynolds was let go, but a friend of mine told me at Professor Thom's last night that he was fired because a female employee at ESPN has accused him of sexually harrassing her.Reynolds has generally had a good reputation as a player and a broadcaster and is known as a devout Christian. He has pleaded his innocence and believes he will get his position back at the network. He may be fighting an uphill battle at ESPN, as the network is known to be bananas about their sexual harrassment rules.
I always enjoyed his take on baseball when he first started on Baseball Tonight, but in the last few years, Reynolds came off way too much like a Yankee fan for my taste. Back during the 2004 ALCS, he picked the Yankees to win that series because "of the rings, and the pinstripes," which absolutely horrified Peter Gammons. Too often Reynolds sounded to me like he was angling for a gig at the YES Network.
However, he does deserve to tell his side of the story and defend himself. We'll see how all this plays out.
I've heard and read in a few places that rather than this being a particular case, it has been a recurring theme with Reynolds and that this last incident was merely the straw that broke the camel's back. Whether it's true or not is a different matter, but with so many different instances being reported it's beginning to look more and more like a 'no smoke without fire' kind of thing. I do enjoy his broadcasting though and perhaps we'll see eventually if he is guilty or if there are just a few people looking to profit somehow
ReplyDeleteI saw this on baseballnooz.com....glad you joined. I'm having a couple problems getting my posts transmuted onto their site, but Walter is working on it. See Ya Q.
ReplyDeleteAhhh, George has found his latest shill:
ReplyDeleteUnfortunate for Harold, as I enjoyed his b'd casts;
Maybe he should consult with Steve Phillips on this matter.
The real question, though, the core of the issue as I see it, and this can't be stressed enough, is this: who will coach the non-Kenny Mayne team in the annual celebrity/old fat player softball game the day before the all-star game? I think it might end up being Joe Morgan, and nobody wants that...so TJ, Harold. Now we all suffer.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Peter. Walter put me on the blog roll at baseballnooz last night.Hope you get everything straightened out soon...
ReplyDeleteWSF: since my post I heard the same thing, that it may not be one isolated case. Still, ESPN has not officially commented on the case. I also saw in today's Daily News that Reynolds told USA Today that he was fired because "ESPN wanted to go in another direction." Stay tuned...
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