Did Colin Cowherd Really Do Anything That Bad?

[eagle eye]

I listen to sports talk radio in the morning. It's sort of like white noise on my job and it gives a background noise that, for me, is welcome rather than absolute peace and quiet which I find oppressive. Mike and Mike and The Herd with Cowherd were my staples in the morning. By lunch I'm tired of the jibber-jabber and I play my music list from Pandora. But, since Cowherd got himself fired for using guys from the Dominican Republic as examples of people who aren't too smart but can play baseball well the 9 AM to 12 PM time slot on ESPN has been a void that hasn't been filled very well. They started out with a couple of guys who just argued with each other about everything. To me that's not entertaining and really detracts from the subject matter. Now they have Michelle Beadle and Ben Lyons. I liked Michelle Beadle when she was on SportsNation (BTW with Colin Cowherd) because it was about having some fun and it wasn't serious, never was meant to be. On the radio show I find I don't like her nearly as much. Ben Lyons is a total tool bag and it could be my own personal prejudice for the sense of humor of people from the northeastern part of the country or maybe it's just because the guy is a tool bag. It got me to thinking about what it was that was so bad about what Colin Cowherd was saying. As a bit of a recap he was trying to say that day that baseball is not a complicated sport to play. Why, he reasoned, were people from the Dominican Republic where they don't have the same educational advantages as kids in the US do, able to come to the US and play a game where they often can't communicate with coaches and some teammates because of the language difference and not only play but play well. Now, I don't remember exactly what got Cowherd off on that tangent in the first place but if you listened to the whole thing you could read between the lines pretty easily that he wasn't singling out people from the DR as being stupid. He was trying to make a point that people from poor countries weren't stupid but they didn't have the educational opportunities available to more well to do nations but they were all capable of playing baseball because it's not a complicated sport to play. At least not like football where you have to study film, learn tendencies, learn proper techniques and myriad of other things you need to know to play the sport. Now, I don't necessarily agree with Cowherd when he says baseball isn't complicated because there is a lot of strategy and nuances about the game you have to know to play it well but I understand what he was trying to say. He made an analogy to help prove his argument and it could have been communicated differently but if you listened to the whole thing in context he wasn't being deliberately insulting IMO.
I was wondering if anyone else heard the program and what your opinion of what he said is. I'm not asking if you liked Cowherd, that's a different subject but did he really deserve to have his career damaged, if not ruined all together, over the comments he made?
Below is a link to the youtube video of the segment in reference. Notice the comments sections below the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_hQ0ynRySU

[eagle eye]

Apparently Cowherd didn't do anything bad enough to lose his gig at FoxSports1. He will make his debut for the network on September 8 and be broadcast on FoxSports1 network, FoxSports1 radio and a podcast which is what he basically did for ESPN for 10 years. I do not know the broadcast times as yet but I'll let you know. I know a lot of people hate Cowherd but he is interesting to listen to. I hope it's in the morning in his old time slot of 9 to noon Monday thru Friday. Now FoxSports1 is trying to get a toe-hold in the biz and ESPN is a pretty big Goliath to sling rocks at but Cowherd has a following and it will interesting to see if he can kick FS1 ratings in the rear end some. I, for one, miss him and I will be listening if at all possible at work. Or on the drive home because an alternative to ESPN Houston's The Drive is really, really needed. Trouble is the FS1 affiliates are all AM radio stations that I'm aware of which makes competing with a clear FM station like 97.5 a challenge at best. Sept 8 is a Tuesday BTW but I'll keep you posted.

[eagle eye]

Tomorrow is the big day for the debut of Colin Cowherd's podcast/radio show on FoxSports1. I'll have to find out if it's going to be broadcast locally on the radio. Finding out about this will take a little digging. If I find it I'll post the location. I'm really curious about this first show since he got canned at ESPN.

[eagle eye]

Colin is Colin. I've listened to several shows since his return last Tuesday and he hasn't changed a bit. (BTW, IMO that's a good thing.) He can be found on IHeartRadio and you can either go to Fox Sports Radio and he's on live every day from 12 to 3 PM or type in The Herd and you can listen to his show as a podcast.

[eagle eye]

Just an update. On the first few shows Cowherd did he continued to be thankful to ESPN but in converstations with guests and his usual rants he doesn't refer to ESPN by name but as "my former employer" and he has gotten some not-to-subtle digs at the Mother Ship. It's just Colin but the girl that does his news breaks and who he engages in conversations at times is pretty hot and she's pretty smart too. You don't always find that in female broadcasters. A lot of them spew clichés and don't offer much but you really appreciate the ones who are a cut above that. I know it sounds sexist but I'm a little old school and I still, in the back of my mind, have a bit of a problem with women as sideline reporters. The lady that did the broadcast of a baseball playoff game recently was pretty good. She had done here homework and she wasn't just a talking head. These women are helping me get over that "boys club" mentality of women just being eye candy for broadcasts. That goes all the way back to the 70's when Brent, Phyllis and Irv was the CBS Sunday morning pre-game, halftime and post-game hosts. The Phyllis was Phyllis George and she was beautiful and smart and made positive contributions to the show every week. Still, it's a guys game and a guys world and it's still hard for some of us to get over that. That is a me problem and I freely acknowledge that there are women who love sports and are good at their jobs but when a woman catches a coach coming off the field at halftime could she not ask such stupid freaking questions? Again, that's just me. Guys ask dumb questions too and it bugs the crap out of me. I am glad most of the time to take a 15 minute break from the game so I don't have to listen to stupidity.