Longtime Cincinnati Reds announcer Thom
Brennaman was suspended on Wednesday after he was heard using an
anti-gay slur.
A microphone picked up Brennaman, 56,
saying “one of the fag capitals of the world” at the top of the
seventh inning in the first game of a doubleheader between the Reds
and the Kansas City Royals. Brennaman was most likely unaware that
Fox Sports Ohio had returned from a commercial break.
As fans reacted on social media,
Brennaman was removed from the broadcast booth during the second game
of the doubleheader and Jim Day took over.
Brennaman apologized during the fifth
inning.
“I made a comment earlier tonight
that, I guess, went out over the air, that I am deeply ashamed of,”
Brennaman told viewers. “If I have hurt anyone out there, I can’t
tell you how much I say from the bottom of my heart, I am so very,
very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith. …
I don’t know if I’ll be putting on this headset again. I don’t
know if it’ll be for the Reds, I don’t know if it’s going to be
for my bosses at Fox, I want to apologize to the people that sign my
paycheck – for the Reds, for Fox Sports Ohio, for the people I work
with, for anybody I’ve offended tonight. I can’t begin to tell
you how deeply sorry I am. That is not who I am, it never has been.
I’d like to think that I have some people that could back that up.
I am very, very sorry and I beg for your forgiveness.”
The Reds announced in a statement that
they had suspended Brennaman, saying that they were “devastated by
the horrific, homophobic remark.”
Alphonso David, president of the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate,
denounced the remark during an appearance on ABC's Good Morning
America.
“This unfortunate incident is just a
reflection of the bias that we still have in our communities, and we
have to root it out,” David said.
The MLB has yet to comment on the
incident.