Hot Foot in Mouth

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Roger McDowell insults non-gay San Franciscan with gay epithets.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Atlanta-Braves-pitching-coach-Roger-McDowell-accused-of-yelling-gay-slurs-at-fans-042711

[soupcan]

Incredible.

Goes without saying that I've always been a fan of McDowell's but if even 10% of this is true it's pretty disgusting behavior and I'd be all for him losing his job over it.

Granted I haven't heard his side but man.

[ashie62]

Wasn't McDowell a bit of a smartass as a Met?

[metirish]

WTF would he be so stupid and mean and so fucking stupid again?

Quinn of course goes crying to Gloria Allred$$$$$$$

fucking f---------------at fuck

[G-Fafif]

What a Braves uniform will do to a person.

[metsmarathon]

man. used to be you could call someone a fag and not be accused of a hate crime.

i'm not complaining necessarily, but we're running out of insults.

[Gwreck]

metsmarathon wrote: man. used to be you could call someone a fag and not be accused of a hate crime. i'm not complaining necessarily, but we're running out of insults.

Yeah, but you'd still be a douchebag if you called someone that.

Hey, look. That insult still works. I also like moron; that would fit someone using that term (now, or then) well too.

[bmfc1]

Nice thread title, JCL.

[Fman99]

That's some queer behavior by McDowell. Wonder what was up his butt that day.

[metsmarathon]

Gwreck wrote: metsmarathon wrote: man. used to be you could call someone a fag and not be accused of a hate crime. i'm not complaining necessarily, but we're running out of insults. Yeah, but you'd still be a douchebag if you called someone that. Hey, look. That insult still works. I also like moron; that would fit someone using that term (now, or then) well too.

moron
2. Psychology A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

[Gwreck]

Interesting. I wonder if I'm splitting hairs to think that there is a difference.

[Willets Point]

metsmarathon wrote: man. used to be you could call someone a fag and not be accused of a hate crime. i'm not complaining necessarily, but we're running out of insults.

We'll always have assclown and caustic fucktard.

[Guest Number 6]

metsmarathon wrote: moron 2. Psychology A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

Which is why moron is no longer truly offensive on this level. It's not really a slur against the disadvantaged (like the word "retard"), it's more like calling someone an arsehole. Doesn't offend arseholes everywhere.

There are plenty of words still available to call someone a jerk which don't simultaneously stigmatize others.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Not to excuse an ounce of his behavior but I get the impression anti-gay slurs are like government-backed currency among ballplayers. If this helps to turn that around, it'd be nice. But with the ever-unpopular Bud Selig ruling over it, it's probably just as likely that McDowell turns into a first-amendment martyr.

Q: When does gay-bashing escalate from stupid to dangerous?

A: When you're a friend of Charlie Sheen.

There should be some sort of scale on the amount of damage a guy can do to American culture --- the "Mel Gibson Scale" or something. It's like "Charlie Sheen has already racked up nine Gibsons this year, but Donald Trump has achieved five in the last two weeks alone and the year is still young."

[Gwreck]

McDowell: "I am deeply sorry that I responded to the heckling fans in San Francisco on Saturday," McDowell said in a statement. "I apologize to everyone for my actions."

[Benjamin Grimm]

You always have to question the sincerity of forced apologies.

Is it "I'm sorry I did that" or "I regret the trouble I'm in"?

[Guest Edgy DC]

It sounds like,, "I"m sorry they made me do that."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I don't know McDowell any better than you do but I'm sure he was just acting like the dumb jock he probably is and said stupid things he thought were harmless to a sensitive person he thought could take it. I think he's apologizing for a lack of judgment as to when use a bat to demonstrate gay sex.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That much I think makes sense. The question is how seriously to take the complaint that he threatened to knock somebody's teeth out with a bat.

The testimony of the kids ("He shouldn't say things that upset me!") sounds as well coached as Taylor Hanson was in shutting down the Padres last night.

[soupcan]

Let's assume that what the dad says happened is all true.

If that's the case not only is McDowell a Class A fucking asshole, but he deserves to lose his job over this. Cursing, threatening and intimidating with a bat in front of this guys kids at a stadium is completely inexcusable. It's horrible and frightening even without the gay stuff. But you add in the gay stuff and it just takes it to another level of disgust. It's bullying, it's ugly, it's so many bad things.

I hope they make an example of him.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'm with soupy on this (it may be standard currency in the locker room, but-- leaving aside the homophobic/nonhomophobic question-- do you want a member of the coaching staff taunting members of the general public?).

Damn, though... don't people realize how much credibility they LOSE when they stand in front of a camera with Gloria Allred?

(It probably doesn't help that his daughters, who were scared and traumatized by the original act, are flanking the guy as he reenacts the whole Louisville-Bugger bit.)

[Benjamin Grimm]

The article in the Daily News mentioned that McDowell was traded to the Phillies in the "celebrated Lenny Dykstra deal."

Huh?

Celebrated by whom? Phillies fans? Or do the three people who wrote the article think that Dykstra came to the Mets in that deal?

Either way, recent events show that the Mets traded away two jerks on that day in 1989.

[Guest themetfairy]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Damn, though... don't people realize how much credibility they LOSE when they stand in front of a camera with Gloria Allred?

This.

[G-Fafif]

From Bondy, so take it FWIW:

For reporters who covered the effective reliever during the Mets' golden years in the late '80s, this incident is horrifying, yet not far removed from the realm of believability. McDowell was known to the public as a merry prankster, a guy who would give a "hot foot" to teammates at the drop of a cap. But he also could get surly with reporters who were critical of his pitching. "He definitely had a dark, nasty side," said one beat writer. "He was pretty thin-skinned. He could turn on you."

I loved his pitching quite often, especially when he first came up and eternally for Game Six in Houston, and of course rooted for him to succeed in a Mets uniform, but I never really cared for McDowell, personally...and by personally I mean as a fan, from a distance. Something about him always struck me as contrived. I think I resented that he'd be lumped in with Tug McGraw as a kindred free spirit when all Roger did was screw around with pranks and masks. I think I also resented that he usurped Orosco's pre-eminence in the pen (I hated that Jesse's effectiveness waned at the moment the Mets were becoming great; why can't I have everything I want all at once?) and was secretly satisfied that Jesse outpitched him in Game Seven (not that I spent a lot of time dwelling on that at the time). I was also modestly aghast (though completely getting it) that McDowell won the fan vote for best righthanded reliever in franchise history in 2002 when Benitez, painful as he was to consider, had piled up all relevant records over the previous three years.

All that said, I wasn't thinking, "He'll probably go over the top with homophobic slurs in San Francisco at some fan eventually," yet I'm somehow not particularly surprised.

[Guest Edgy DC]

There's certain levels of the desperation reached when a yuckster's act has grown stale. I'll always recall Roger McDowell going for the rainbow afro wig on the MTV Rock 'n' Jock Sofball Classic as a zenith in that regard.

[metirish]

OMFG , watch the press conference with Allard and the Quinn family.

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=c768a07d-3b51-4591-963e-3966a27b39b9&isShareURL=true


the whole thing is sort of creepy with the two young girls there but at 2 minutes it gets a whole lot weirder .

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

That's weird. I swear my pants just got a little tighter.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I had to click. I freaking had to click. Why did I have to click?

[Guest themetfairy]

themetfairy wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Damn, though... don't people realize how much credibility they LOSE when they stand in front of a camera with Gloria Allred? This.

I repeat - This.

[nymr83]

If he really threatened someone with a bat while in uniform, he's got to be GONE.