CBS fired Jimmy Snyder almost immediately. Snyder retired to a quiet life, but continued to write a betting column for a Las Vegas newspaper. He died in 1996 at the age of 76.
MARGE SCHOTT OFFENDS EVERYONE, EMBARRASSES BASEBALL
Marge Schott took over the Cincinnati Reds, baseball's first professional team, in December 1984. She told the press she bought the team as a Christmas present to herself and to keep the team from leaving Cincinnati. Schott was owner during the team's 1990 World Series Championship. During her fifteen-year tenure with the Reds, she was not known for her bubbly personality or her tact. It is rumored she settled a player's contract dispute by flipping a coin. Former marketing director for the Reds, Charles ''Cal'' Levy claimed in a 1992 deposition that he had heard Schott refer to outfielders Eric Davis and Dave Parker as ''million-dollar niggers.'' The deposition was part of a lawsuit filed by Tom Sabo, who claimed he was fired as team controller because he disagreed with Schott's unwritten policy of not hiring blacks. Sabo lost the suit. Levy also claimed Schott owned a Nazi swastika armband and that he once overheard her say, ''sneaky goddamn Jews are all alike.'' The New York Times quoted former Oakland Athletics front-office staff person Sharon Jones as saying that Schott had made similar comments in front of several baseball owners. Jones said Schott commented in a conference call, ''I once had a nigger work for me. He couldn't do the job, I had to put him in the mail room and he couldn't even handle that. I later found out the nigger couldn't read or write. I would never hire another nigger. I'd rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger.''10
Schott was suspended from everyday control of the Reds in 1993 and fined $25,000. Many Cincinnati officials felt Schott's comments reflected a broader race-relations problem in the city, where approximately 38 percent of the population at the time was black. Hank Aaron, baseball's career home run leader and the second-highest ranking black executive in Major League Baseball at the time, argued Schott's comments were as severe as the gambling problems of former Reds' manager Peter Rose. ''You don't need people like this in the league,'' Aaron said.11
Suspension did not deter Schott. Upon her return to the league, she continued to use racial and ethnic slurs and even praised Adolf Hitler in an interview. Schott again enraged the public in 1994 when she said her players could not wear earrings, because ''only fruits wear earrings.'' For that remark, Schott was reprimanded by baseball's Executive Council and was asked to make a donation to charity.12 In a 1996 television interview, Schott commented that Hitler was ''good in the beginning'' but ''went too far.''13 In a 1996 issue of Sports Illustrated, Schott made this comment about Asian Americans: ''Well, I don't like when they come here, honey, and stay so long and then outdo our kids. That's not right.'' The reporter also said Schott imitated Japan's prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa in a ''cartoonish Japanese accent.''14 Baseball commissioner Bud Selig called Schott's comments about blacks and Jews, ''the most base and demeaning type of racial and ethnic stereotyping.''15 Schott was suspended again from 1996 to 1998. She apologized for her comments in May 1996, saying, ''Let me take this opportunity to set the record straight. I do not and have never condoned Adolf Hitler's policies of hatred, militarism and genocide. Hitler was unquestionably one of history's most despicable tyrants.''16
Umpire John McSherry tragically passed away in April 1996, when he was scheduled to umpire the Reds' opening day game. Schott quickly scribbled a sympathy card and sent it with flowers to the umpires' dressing room. It would seem to be a nice gesture, until it was learned that the flowers were a gift to her from the team's television affiliate and she simply recycled them. To make matters worse, Schott said she felt ''cheated'' because the game had to be postponed. In the same year, Schott fired Manager Davey Johnson because she did not approve of him living with his girlfriend before they were married.17
Under pressure from the league, Schott sold controlling interest of the Reds in October 1999. After that, she rarely appeared in public. When she did, it was generally to announce donations to the Cincinnati Zoo or other area charities. A chain-smoker, Schott was hospitalized in spring 2004 for breathing problems. She passed away at age 75 in March 2004. Barry Larkin, who was on the team from 1986 until the time that Schott died, remembered her fondly. He said, ''I think people are remembered for the good things they do when they are gone. Now that she's gone, they will remember the parties she had to raise money for kids, her involvement in the zoo, her giving to minority groups. She gave to minority programs before her racist comments came out.''18 Although Schott had been denounced for slashing the Reds' promotions and marketing, she was applauded by fans for keeping ticket prices the lowest in the league and for selling $1 hotdogs. It stands to reason that her disgusting comments will have more to do with her legacy than her willingness to sell a cheap hotdog.
FUZZY ZOELLER DISPARAGES YOUNG TIGER WOODS
As Tiger Woods was putting the final touches on his runaway victory at the 1997 Masters Tournament, fellow professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller was making racially insensitive remarks about Woods to a group of journalists gathered in a prominent interview area just off the eighteenth green. As the twenty-one-year-old superstar was polishing off the field in record fashion, Zoeller said, ''That little boy is driving well.… So you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say, 'Congratulations and enjoy it,' and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it?'' He then began to walk away, stopping to add, ''Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.''19 The remarks were regarding the Champions Dinner, which precedes the tournament with the previous year's champion selecting the menu. Woods, who is primarily African American and Asian American, said that he was not particularly surprised by the comments and that, ''Over time I think we will all see that it's an incident that was good for golf. But it's going to take some time to understand it.''20
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One year after Fuzzy Zoeller made offensive comments about Tiger Woods at the Masters, the two made an uncomfortable pairing in the second round in 1998. Courtesy of AP Photo/Elise Amendola.
The tape of the comments was not broadcast for a week. CNN included the footage in its weekly show Pro Golf Week in a feature on the impact that Woods would have on the game as the first minority to win a major tournament. Once CNN ran the footage, other stations picked it up and it was a fixture in the news for several days. The question remained: Why had no other news outlet carried the story immediately? It was clear that the interview involved many reporters (an ESPN microphone can be seen in the footage).
CNN maintained that it was not protecting Zoeller and simply did not believe the footage belonged as one of many post-tournament sound bites. Rather, CNN chose to wait and put the comments in the context of a show dealing with the race issue. This did not address the troubling fact that numerous journalists heard the comment and none included it in post-event stories. After the initial program aired, Zoeller apologized profusely and attempted to contact Woods several times. Woods did not immediately return his calls. He saw the comments as a racial incident and not as an innocent joke, and sent a message by taking several days to accept Zoeller's apology. The delay, according to some golf insiders, caused some resentment among his fellow professionals who generally liked Zoeller. The fallout did not end with the apology. Zoeller was stripped of his corporate support, as Kmart and Dunlop retracted his endorsement deals.
Sensing that the controversy needed closure, Woods agreed to meet with Zoeller at a tournament a month later. Over a twenty-minute lunch, they worked to clear the air. Woods maintained that he had a problem with the tone that was used and that he did not take the comments as a joke, but he was willing to put the event in the past. Zoeller said, ''The cloud's off my head,'' and likened the lunch to a Catholic confession.21 Unfortunately, he also said, ''The only thing I'm upset about is that I had to buy his lunch,''22 which was yet another poor attempt at humor and indicated that he still did not grasp the gravity of the situation.
One yea
r later, Zoeller had escaped his pariah status as far as sponsors were concerned. Daiwa golf clubs, Sport-Haley clothes, and Ocean Waves sunglasses all were willing to pay forty-six-year-old, good-old-boy Fuzzy Zoeller to endorse their products. Ocean Waves president Kevin Carlson said that it was not difficult to partner with him, explaining, ''He made a comment that was taken completely the wrong way.''23 Carlson offered no explanation for how the comments should have been taken, but did describe Zoeller as ''a fun guy and a kidder.''24
The comments remained a hot topic at the Masters one year later. Zoeller resented the media for carrying the story, saying, ''I didn't write it up. You're the ones who buried me and I appreciate it.''25 As Zoeller apparently realized that his career would be defined by the controversy, he admitted, ''It will never die.''26 Woods also had blamed the media for keeping the issue alive.
At the 1998 Champions dinner, Woods selected cheeseburgers, grilled chicken-breast sandwiches, French fries and milk shakes. Bob Goalby, 1968 Masters Champion, said that if they served cheeseburgers he would walk out. He didn't follow through on the threat. A more recent comment, made by Golf Channel commentator Kelly Tilghman, a friend of Woods, received similar media outcry. The difference was that Tilghman immediately apologized for saying younger players' only chance of beating Woods was to lynch him.
REGGIE WHITE, THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE, GETS OFFENSIVE
Reggie White was among the finest defensive players to ever play professional football, at one time holding the record for quarterback sacks in a career.
He was also an ordained minister, leading to his moniker, ''the minister of defense.'' He retired from the National Football League after the 1998 season, after helping the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl in 1997 but then losing to the Denver Broncos in the following year's title game. White had spent eight years buoying the defense in Philadelphia before accepting a free agent contract with the Packers. He intended to transition into broadcasting as a football analyst with CBS as the sun set on his playing career.
White's plans to be a broadcaster were scuttled by a speech that he delivered for Wisconsin State legislators on March 25, 1998. In the speech, which stretched to an hour, White condemned homosexuality as a sin and a personal choice. He claimed that homosexuals could not compare their struggle to the civil rights movement because their struggles were essentially self-imposed and a result of a sinful lifestyle. He added his belief that homosexuality, which had ''run rampant,'' was a sign of an increasingly Godless country and that homosexuals struggling for rights actually offended him.
White went on to say that blacks ''like to dance,'' Hispanics ''can put 20 or 30 people in one home,'' Native Americans excelled at ''sneaking up on people,'' whites ''do a good job with building businesses,'' and Asians ''can turn a television into a watch.''27
As his comments created a public outcry, White issued an apology saying he never intended to slight anyone and admitted that his examples might have been ''clumsy and inappropriate.'' His apology was qualifled, however, by saying that he would not apologize for ''standing on God's word.''28
The minister of defense was branded with a new nickname in the aftermath of the speech: the minister of offense. He lost the opportunity to work for CBS, which issued a press release saying it ''doesn't accept bias from its announcers of any kind.''29 While most NFL players were mum on the issue, some outspoken players were critical. Minnesota Vikings running back Robert Smith was quoted in the Minnesota Star Tribune as saying, ''I find many of Reggie's comments incredibly ignorant. His statements on gays are embarrassing and speak to how little he knows about issues outside of religion.''30 White read Smith's comments in the presence of journalists. When he finished he looked up, clearly upset, and said only, ''I have no comment.''31
In July 1998 White appeared in his Packers uniform in a full-page advertisement in USA Today headlined, ''Toward an open debate on homosexual behavior'' and under his picture it read, ''In defense of free speech.'' The $63,000 ad was paid for by a coalition of fifteen Christian groups. The NFL was not pleased that White appeared in uniform, and a Packers spokesman said, ''He is speaking as an individual.''32
White returned to the playing field with the Carolina Panthers in 2000, but was a shadow of his former self. During the preseason he said that he stood by the comments he made in the 1998 speech. He explained that he did not have anything personal against homosexuals in particular, but rather that he believed homosexuality is a sin and that he hates all sin. Regarding the comments about ethnic groups, he said, ''The thing I was trying to bring across is we do have differences. God didn't create us all to be the same.
Within all of our communities, all of us as different races and different ethnic groups, we have something to offer one another.''33
Reggie White died suddenly of a respiratory condition on December 26, 2004, at the age of forty-three. In the few years between his second retirement and his passing, White had moved away from organized religion. He spent time learning Hebrew and studying the roots of religion. He wrote a book in which he questioned black leaders, asking why they didn't do more to build businesses in black communities and accusing them of being self-serving.
JOHN ROCKER EXPOSED VIA SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ARTICLE
When asked whether he would ever play for a baseball team in New York City, Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker responded, ''I would retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing.''34 This was only the beginning of the hateful comments that Rocker made for a December 1999 Sports Illustrated article. He went on say that the thing he most disliked about New York City was the foreigners. ''I'm not a very big fan of foreigners.''35 He then disparaged women, Asians, Russians, and Hispanics. Then he started in on his own teammates, calling one player a fat monkey and blaming reserve shortstop Ozzie Guillen for losing the fourth game of the National League Championship the previous season. Whether Guillen made a poor play mattered little in light of the fact that Rocker broke a long-honored code that players do not publicly blame teammates for losses.
Six months after making disparaging comments about New York and its people, John Rocker faced the wrath of Mets fans at Shea Stadium. Matt Campbell/AFP/Getty Images.
Although Rocker admitted during the interview that he is not particularly intelligent, he did have a gift for sports. As a high school player he could fire a ball over ninety miles per hour and drew many pro scouts to games. The Braves drafted him in 1993, and he was a project, enjoying some success but throwing wildly at times. He eventually switched from starter to relief pitcher, and it was in that capacity that he became a major leaguer. His loud mouth immediately commanded as much attention in the clubhouse as his arm did on the mound.
As Jeff Pearlman noted in his Sports Illustrated article, a teammate of Rocker's made a comment in the aftermath of the NLCS Game 4 loss that would prove to be prophetic. Mike Remlinger, a more seasoned player, said, ''The thing is, baseball is a game of humility. You can be on top one minute, as low as possible the next. When you're young, you don't realize it. But sooner or later you learn-we all do. Be humble.''36
Rocker would learn soon enough. His ninety-seven miles-per-hour fastballs and 104 strikeouts had him the toast of the town the previous season. But he became an instant pariah when the Sports Illustrated story hit the newsstands.
The Major League Baseball community was shocked. His teammates distanced themselves. The people of New York were irate. Even the rock-and-roll band Twisted Sister asked the team to cease using its song (''I Wanna Rock'') to introduce Rocker when he entered a game.
Saying that Rocker had ''offended practically every element of society,'' Commissioner Bud Selig suspended him until May 1 of the 2000 season.37 The players associatio
n appealed the decision, and arbitrator Shyam Das reduced the suspension to the first fourteen days of the regular season and a $500 fine (it was initially $20,000!).
While he tried to mend fences with teammates, Rocker was less interested in maintaining a relationship with the author of the article. Rocker went after Pearlman, verbally confronting him outside the Braves' clubhouse early in the season, causing teammate Brian Jordan to call Rocker a ''cancer.''38 His apologies to teammates did not all fall on deaf ears. Randall Simon, who was the target of the ''fat monkey'' comment said, ''I looked at him in the face and he showed me that he really meant that he regretted what he said. … I really accepted his apology. I forgive him for what he said.''39 After Rocker met with and apologized to the team, manager Bobby Cox announced to the media that ''They're giving John Rocker the greatest opportunity in the world to turn this around. They were terrific.''40
In late June 2000 Rocker returned to New York to face the Mets and its fans, which were not so prepared to forgive. Rocker figured that it could not hurt to ask. He prepared a statement, which officials for both clubs arranged to show via video on the stadium JumboTron just before the game commenced. The fans booed wildly. There was so much concern for Rocker's safety that he had been transported from the hotel to the ballpark in a New York Police Department van. The game was staffed by 450 more uniformed and plainclothes police than normal, and a wooden canopy was constructed to cover the Braves' bullpen. Rocker spent the early innings of the game hidden away in the Atlanta clubhouse.
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