UH-OH!
Apology from Houston Astros broadcaster highlights glaring problem with "standards"
Apr 19, 2022, 11:56 am
Who possibly was offended by Blummer’s slip of the lip? Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images.
So Astros’ TV announcer Geoff Blum inadvertently dropped an “s-bomb” into a hot mic between innings of last Saturday night’s Astros game.
Blum, thinking the microphone was off, said, “We’re gonna Crawford Bock the s--- out of this thing.”
I’m not even sure what that means, but oh the humanity! My ears! How could he say such a vulgar thing!
Blum’s gaffe made sports sites across the Internet, and gave him an entry on the awfulannouncing.com website.
My reaction? Who the gives a s---?
Still, Blummer felt obliged, or maybe he was told to feel obliged, to go on social media for the standard non-apology apology.
“My apologies for the hot mic moment, i can get a little spicy in between innings!”
He wink-winked his mea culpa with emojis of a grimace face and glass of beer. I was more offended by his failure to capitalize the letter “i.” Punctuation counts, Blummer.
If he felt the need to apologize, it should have been for breaking the broadcaster’s rule: always assume a microphone is hot.
Seriously, though, who possibly was offended by Blummer’s slip of the lip? It’s a “Rated R for language” world. Even the Academy Awards isn’t safe from F-bomb threats and physical assaults. We have a former president who cusses up a storm at rallies, and a current president who recently called a reporter “a stupid son-of-a b-word” under his breath into a hot mic. Several years ago, as vice-president, he whispered an exuberant F-bomb in his excitement over Obamacare becoming law.
Blum isn’t running for political office, but I think he could beat both of those guys in Houston. As Dr. Rick would say, “nobody cares” if a public figure lets a naughty word loose.
You know, baseball games now are aired on Apple TV, where profanity is acceptable and widespread. The real obscenity with baseball on Apple TV has nothing to do dirty words – it’s those horrible announcers.
Astros fans love Blum. He’s part of the Astros’ respected TV crew with Todd Kalas and Julia Morales. We didn’t know how much we loved those three until we got a dose of those blathering Apple TV announcers.
Instead of apologizing, Blum should get a bonus from the Astros for handing them a kick-ass campaign on a silver platter. We could use a little boot in the keister around here.
Apologize? No, Blum needs to trademark his new catchphrase and cash in on T-shirts, mugs, koozies, billboards and souvenir beer cups.
Karbach Brewery, the makers of Crawford Bock, should hire Blum as its official spokesperson and give him a piece of the business. Blum’s offhand remark is perfect – it’s funny, slightly weird, and rallies this city behind the Astros. Most important, he remembered to name the product.
There may be some self-righteous parents who say, “My kids watch Astros games on TV and Blum’s comment was inappropriate. I shouldn’t have to worry about my kids hearing the devil’s words during a baseball game.”
To those parents, I have some advice. Do not do search the browsing history on your precious angels’ laptops.
Compared to catastrophic, career-ending boners by other sports announcers, Blum’s indelicate remark was practically a Sunday school sermon. For example …
Two years ago, Cincinnati Reds veteran play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman was caught uttering a homophobic slur into on a hot mic. Brennaman was gone in a blink, fired by the Reds and dropped by Fox Sports’ coverage of the NFL. He now announces high school games on something called Chatterbox Sports.
Jimmy Hoffa will win Dancing with the Stars before we see Brennaman back in the big leagues.
Last year, Tigers color analyst Jack Morris was asked how he’d pitch to pitch to Shohei Ohtani. Morris answered, “be very, very careful,” which would have been fine if he didn’t use an offensive, cartoonish Japanese accent. Morris was suspended, reinstated, awaiting his next ignorant comment. That’s sort of his thing.
Nothing or nobody will top, actually sink below, announcer Matt Rowan’s racist comments while streaming a girls’prep basketball tournament game in Oklahoma last year. When the Norman High School team took a knee during the national anthem, Rowan, thinking he was in a break, unleashed a profanity-laced torrent of insults, including the N-word, into a live microphone, ending with “I hope they lose.”
Rowan later apologized for his comments, and blamed diabetes for his lapse of judgment.
“During the game my sugar was spiking. While not excusing my remarks, it is not unusual when my sugar spikes that I become disoriented and often say things that are not appropriate as well as hurtful,” Rowan said, adding, (if not for his diabetes) “I do not believe that I would have made such horrible statements.”
Rowan was suspended from the rest of the tournament. By the way, not only did the Norman girls win that game, they went on to capture the Oklahoma state championship.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Party and eat like an MVP at CultureMap's 2024 sports bash The Tailgate
Oct 7, 2024, 3:13 pm
For the first time since 2016, the Houston Astros failed to win a playoff game. And that’s not OK with general manager Dana Brown.
A day after the Astros were swept by the Detroit Tigers in their AL Wild Card Series, stopping a streak of seven straight trips to the AL Championship Series, Brown detailed his top priority for the offseason.
“First of all, one of the things we want to make sure we do is get back deep into the postseason,” he said Thursday. “That’s going to be our vision, that’s going to be our focus.”
When it comes to fulfilling that goal, "we’re not taking anything off the table,” he said.
The Astros, who won the World Series in 2017 and 2022, looked as if they might fall short of the playoffs altogether at the beginning of the season. They got off to a 7-19 start, falling 10 games behind Seattle in the AL West. But they finished with an 88-73 record and won their seventh division title in eight years, with the only exception coming in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Manager Joe Espada, who was hired after Dusty Baker retired, was impressed with Houston’s resiliency this season.
“A team gets tested and you see the character of your team,” he said. “Through adversity and the way we were tested early, I knew that this team was strong enough to make a push and get us into the postseason.”
Now they’ll look to return to the playoffs and make another long run next year. The first step could be re-signing star third baseman Alex Bregman. Represented by Scott Boras, the two-time All-Star is eligible for free agency and assuredly will command a hefty new paycheck.
Bregman has spent his entire nine-year career with Houston. He said after Wednesday’s loss to Detroit that he hopes to remain with the team. Second baseman Jose Altuve said he would be “heartbroken” if Bregman were to sign elsewhere.
“We will have some discussions with Boras and also with Bregman,” Brown said. “We’ve had some small talk, but ultimately, we will have some discussions. We know what he means to this organization.”
Houston also could look for an upgrade at first base. José Abreu was released with $20.8 million remaining on his contract after he hit .124 through June 13, and the Astros never found a consistent replacement at the position.
Though Brown repeated his “nothing is off the table” comment when asked if he’d try to add to the rotation, he believes the Astros will be a good spot in that area because of the improvement of their young pitchers this season.
Multiple injuries to Houston’s starters forced the Astros to insert Ronel Blanco and rookie Spencer Arrighetti into the rotation. Blanco threw a no-hitter in his season debut and was second on the team with 13 wins and a 2.80 ERA. Arrighetti made 28 starts and was selected AL Rookie of the Month for August after going 3-2 with a 1.95 ERA.
Hunter Brown, in his second MLB season, went 11-9 with a 3.49 ERA to help steady the rotation during a year when three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander made just 17 starts due to injuries.
Dana Brown said Thursday that right-hander Cristian Javier, who had Tommy John surgery in June, is recovering well and they expect him to be ready to pitch by the end of July. Brown called Javier a “pillar” of the rotation after the 27-year-old started 56 games combined in the previous two seasons before this year’s injury limited him to just seven starts.
The development of Houston’s young pitchers combined with the expected return of Javier, José Urquidy and Luis Garcia next season makes it unlikely that the Astros will re-sign Verlander or veteran left-hander Yusei Kikuchi.
The 41-year-old Verlander appears to be headed to free agency after failing to pitch the 140 innings he needed to trigger a $35 million player option on his contract. He didn't make the playoff roster after struggling in his return following a two-month stint on the injured list with a neck injury.
“Justin Verlander has been outstanding in this organization and is a big part of the winning culture in this organization and ultimately it sounds like he wants to come back,” Brown said. “But we’re going to have some discussions with our front office and coach Joe and his staff as to what’s the best thing for the team and how should we go forward.”
He had a similar answer when asked about Kikuchi’s future with the team. He also is eligible for free agency after pitching well for the Astros down the stretch after a July trade from Toronto.