Ron Darling uttered an oft-used idiom that dates back centuries Saturday night, but he still found himself in hot water with (parts of) the Twitter mob.
The TBS baseball analyst put himself in a pickle during Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Fenway Park on Saturday night when he described New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka’s battle with control as a “chink in the armor.”
Despite that saying dating back more than 600 years, the New York Daily News accused Darling of using a “slur,” an assertion apparently based on the fact that Tanaka is Japanese.
Darling, whose mother is Hawaiian-Chinese, apparently felt he needed to make a statement apologizing for his use of words.
“Earlier (Saturday night) I used an expression while referencing Masahiro Tanaka’s recent pitching performance. While unintentional, I apologize for my choice of words,” Darling said in a statement to Yahoo Sports.
While the word “chink” by itself undoubtedly is an awful slur, no one would know better than Darling, given his heritage. His track record as a TV announcer also speaks for itself, so the fact Darling still decided to apologize says a lot about his character or the current social climate — or both.
TBS won’t discipline Darling for the comment, and he’ll be back on the call Monday night at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 between New York and the Boston Red Sox. We’ll have to wait and see whether Darling feels the need to address the situation on air, too.
Poster Comment:
That same phrase has gotten members of the media into trouble before, most infamously with the ESPN headline writer who used it in reference to Jeremy Lin after the then Knicks guard had nine turnovers in a game amid what had been a torrid stretch.
The headline writer, Anthony Federico, was fired by ESPN and sincerely regretted his mistake at the time.
"This had nothing to do with me being cute or punny," he told the Daily News at the time. "I'm so sorry that I offended people. I'm so sorry if I offended Jeremy."
An ESPN anchor, Max Bretos, was suspended for 30 days shortly after because it was discovered he had used the same phrase on a broadcast.
