ESPN host Colin Cowherd, on his nationally broadcast radio show “Follow the Herd, said on Thursday, 23 July 2015: “I’ve never bought into that ‘baseball is too complex.’ Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic.” The comment, considered offensive by many, led to his early departure from ESPN.
ESPN had previously announced that Cowherd’s 12-year run at the network was about to expire by mutual accord. He is expected to join the Fox network, but his show was supposed to run another week.
In a subsequent video on YouTube, Cowherd explains the context of what he said: He said his point was that baseball is mostly instincts, you can win a game of baseball with players not speaking the same language, this cannot happen in football that requires more communication, he explained.
Pedro Martinez, when asked about the opinion, reacted:
“That person, I don’t even know him. I don’t want to know him. I want to know the people who represent something to us, the people that understand how we can better ourselves. Yes, we are a third world country. Yes, we don’t have the resources to be better educated. But you know what? Every once in a while, you’re going to get one like me, that’s not afraid to face you guys [the media], tell you how proud I am of having become. We’re not going to stop and go back to the third world country that we were 30 years ago. We’re going to go forward. We’re looking forward.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VWvJyt6pIw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUlZ-jSpyDI
http://www.csnne.com/boston-red-sox/pedro-martinez-responds-to-colin-cowherd-comments-on-domincan-players
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/07/24/mlb-union-denounce-espns-colin-cowherds-comments/30634885/
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2530784-colin-cowherd-espn-part-ways-after-comments-on-dominican-mlb-players