Harold Reynolds Fired By ESPN

[Jackie Treehorn]

He might have just needed more time to work on his instructional videos. As soon as they carry a team to back-to-back-to-back-to-back AAU championships, they are going to replace the Tom Emanski series.

No doubt. I love those faux newspaper headlines:
"National Champions!"
"Another National Title!"
"Champs Again!"
(or something similar)

Also, Olney>Kurkjian, IMO.

[MacDaddy]

I think we're missing the bigger issue here.

With Harold Reynolds out, who's going to be the manager/coach for the AL squad in the All-Star celebrity/ex-jock softball game?

[The Big Ragu]

I am itching to know what is behind this. Can't wait until it comes out. Only two possibilities really exist: 1) slammed ESPN publicly, of 2) played a little grab ass with one of the production assistants. Are there any other ways out of Bristol?

[Starman]

I am itching to know what is behind this. Can't wait until it comes out. Only two possibilities really exist: 1) slammed ESPN publicly, of 2) played a little grab ass with one of the production assistants. Are there any other ways out of Bristol?

Or, 3) talked money with FOX.

[The Big Ragu]

My list is corrected. Maybe you can add a four possibility (from Deadspin just now): 4) Refused to do an ESPN mobile commercial.

[Piotr Rasputin]

If I didn't already know that Joe Morgan was absolutely incapable of expressing himself verbally, he closed the deal on Sunday night.

Miller brought up that Joe's mind was probably not fully on his job ( ) because of the recent passing of his sister, Gloria.

Morgan's response (and I know he didn't mean it this way) went something like this:  "Well, at least the good thing is that I have two sisters left." Like one of your TVs blows a tube and you say, "Well, at least I have one left in the rec room and another in my bedroom, so I'm covered."

It was an awkward, embarrassing exchange that made him look like a retard, quite frankly. They would have been better off not even bringing it up.

A completely bizarre moment....and he repeated it several times. Even given the situation--grieving and distracted--it was just so odd that someone would even think that way.  It's like he has no internal mechanism that regulates his thought process, which seems fairly essential for TV work. 

As someone who cannot stand Joe Morgan (or Jon Miller, who looks like an alien), I find that exchange to be absolutely hilarious. What a bonehead; I'm sure his family was thrilled to have their grief paraded around,  and then stomped on by one of their own.

And don't get me started on Miller. Dude acts like he's never seen a game before, getting over-excited on every single swing of the bat.

[micropolitan guy]

I think Harold was a contract employee, and not directly employed by ESPN. Perhaps he wanted more money. Maybe that's what they all are there, I don't know.

He carried Mike Patrick at the College World Series, as Patrick was definitely off his game and making mistakes galore as the event wore on.

[Boom_70]

If I didn't already know that Joe Morgan was absolutely incapable of expressing himself verbally, he closed the deal on Sunday night.

Miller brought up that Joe's mind was probably not fully on his job ( ) because of the recent passing of his sister, Gloria.

Morgan's response (and I know he didn't mean it this way) went something like this:  "Well, at least the good thing is that I have two sisters left." Like one of your TVs blows a tube and you say, "Well, at least I have one left in the rec room and another in my bedroom, so I'm covered."

It was an awkward, embarrassing exchange that made him look like a retard, quite frankly. They would have been better off not even bringing it up.

A completely bizarre moment....and he repeated it several times. Even given the situation--grieving and distracted--it was just so odd that someone would even think that way.  It's like he has no internal mechanism that regulates his thought process, which seems fairly essential for TV work. 

As someone who cannot stand Joe Morgan (or Jon Miller, who looks like an alien), I find that exchange to be absolutely hilarious. What a bonehead; I'm sure his family was thrilled to have their grief paraded around,  and then stomped on by one of their own.

And don't get me started on Miller. Dude acts like he's never seen a game before, getting over-excited on every single swing of the bat.

Joe probably brought 2 bags with him on dates. One for his date and one in case first breaks.

The weird thing about Miller is that as over excited he gets on TV he sounds bland on radio doing the Orioles. He needs to flip flop his voices.

[Inky_Wretch]

My list is corrected. Maybe you can add a four possibility (from Deadspin just now): 4) Refused to do an ESPN mobile commercial.

If that's why he was fired, I'll have newfound respect for Reynolds.

[ondeadline]

The weird thing about Miller is that as over excited he gets on TV he sounds bland on radio doing the Orioles. He needs to flip flop his voices.

Miller does Giants games. It's been years since he was with the Orioles.

[ballscribe]

But that guy sure sounds like a dead ringer for Miller, as I recall.

[Lee Jackson Beauregard]

Maybe Harold refused to do the Little League World Series, which he'd done for years.

I liked Harold. If ESPN wants to start firing people, it should look to its SportsCenter desk.

[flanders]

My list is corrected. Maybe you can add a four possibility (from Deadspin just now): 4) Refused to do an ESPN mobile commercial.

not true. he did a radio spot for a mobile espn baseball tonight sweepstakes/promotion.

[BYH]

But that guy sure sounds like a dead ringer for Miller, as I recall.

He does. I love the O's broadcasts. Too bad the team is so goddamn awful.

The suddeness of Reynolds' firing leads me to believe this is a lot more than a contract dispute or telling a comely production assistant that she has a nice ass.

He's a nice guy, but as Smasher said, he all but humped the players.

I wonder how Derek Jeter feels now that his one valued member of the media is no longer employed. 

[DisembodiedOwlHead]

The weird thing about Miller is that as over excited he gets on TV he sounds bland on radio doing the Orioles. He needs to flip flop his voices.

Miller does Giants games. It's been years since he was with the Orioles.

That's why he's so bland -- he has to broadcast their games for free to nobody.

[Pete Wevurski]

He's probably a really nice guy in person, away from the job.

A story told to me by Larry "Lash" Larue, Tacoma's beat writer:

A son of Tacoma's top desk editor had a really bad high school game one day, made a bunch o' errors at second base and was really, really down on himself. Desk guy tells Lash the story. Next day at the ballpark, Lash asks Harold if he ever had as bad a day at second base and, if so, had he any advice to help the young lad.

Harold laughs and says (I'm paraphrsing here), "Sure, one day in HS I went hitless and made a bunch of errors, too, and after the last one, I just sort of plopped down on the outfield grass, feeling sorry for myself. My mother comes storming out of the stands, grabs me and yanks me out of the game!"

Lash laughs and thanks Harold, telling him he'll pass that story along to the kid.

Harold says, "Better yet, give me his phone number. I'll tell him myself."

Harold phoned the young fella and spent quite a lot of time with him on the phone.

I'd say, yeah, that's a nice guy.  

[Columbo]

He's probably a really nice guy in person, away from the job.

A story told to me by Larry "Lash" Larue, Tacoma's beat writer:

A son of Tacoma's top desk editor had a really bad high school game one day, made a bunch o' errors at second base and was really, really down on himself. Desk guy tells Lash the story. Next day at the ballpark, Lash asks Harold if he ever had as bad a day at second base and, if so, had he any advice to help the young lad.

Harold laughs and says (I'm paraphrsing here), "Sure, one day in HS I went hitless and made a bunch of errors, too, and after the last one, I just sort of plopped down on the outfield grass, feeling sorry for myself. My mother comes storming out of the stands, grabs me and yanks me out of the game!"

Lash laughs and thanks Harold, telling him he'll pass that story along to the kid.

Harold says, "Better yet, give me his phone number. I'll tell him myself."

Harold phoned the young fella and spent quite a lot of time with him on the phone.

I'd say, yeah, that's a nice guy.  

Always good to hear that.

Damn, I wonder what it was.

[Deeper_Background]

There must've been an incident. ESPN evaluates all their employees annually after their seasons are done... The last time something like this happened, it was a sexual harrassment deal... I don't know if that's the case again.

We can't say for sure why Harold Reynolds was fired from ESPN yesterday, because ESPN hasn't put out a statement or anything (and they don't have to), but we can tell you what the chatter in Bristol is: Everyone is hearing sexual harassment. Every single email we've received from the inside about this today has used those very two words.

Again, nothing concrete on this. But that is definitely what they're whispering in Bristol. Some highlights:

• Thirdhand info, but I'm told it's sexual harassment. There were allegations of inappropriate actions between him and female PAs on a couple different occasions, so I'm not entirely shocked.

• It's apparently sexual harassment, but no one knows who the victim was. It went down over the course of the weekend.

• I have on good authority that HR was fired for all things, hitting on girls. Allegedly, this has been going on for a while. The last straw was when a new PA was having none of what Harold had to offer and turned him in.

• Harold Reynolds was fired more or less for copious amounts of sexual harassment. Apparently, he brazenly hits on female employees constantly, despite the fact that his wife just had a kid six months ago. He was warned by the big-wigs on numerous occasions to cool it with the ladies, but someone finally lodged a complaint, and he was canned immediately.

• It's very difficult to get fired from ESPN. It takes multiple offenses ... they're usually so worried about getting sued for unlawful termination that people are suspended multiple times for the same repeated behavior before it finally comes to getting fired. Within the walls of the campus, there are only a few on-air talent guys that had an honest reputation as being overly friendly with the ladies, and HR was one of them.

So anyway, that's what they're saying on the Bristol campus. But since ESPN doesn't have to say anything -- in-house or otherwise -- and neither does Reynolds, we might never know for sure. (No announcement, we're told, has been made to the staff.) That's what they're saying, though; we didn't receive a single email suggesting anything but that.

But that's not what we're saying, because we don't know. To be clear.  http://www.deadspin.com/sports/top/was-this-why-harold-got-the-axe-189733.php

[BYH]

Deep douchebag reports Harold Reynolds led the AL in stolen bases in 1987. More on this story as it develops.

[Boom_70]

There must've been an incident. ESPN evaluates all their employees annually after their seasons are done... The last time something like this happened, it was a sexual harrassment deal... I don't know if that's the case again.

e can't say for sure why Harold Reynolds was fired from ESPN yesterday, because ESPN hasn't put out a statement or anything (and they don't have to), but we can tell you what the chatter in Bristol is: Everyone is hearing sexual harassment. Every single email we've received from the inside about this today has used those very two words.

Again, nothing concrete on this. But that is definitely what they're whispering in Bristol. Some highlights:

• Thirdhand info, but I'm told it's sexual harassment. There were allegations of inappropriate actions between him and female PAs on a couple different occasions, so I'm not entirely shocked.

• It's apparently sexual harassment, but no one knows who the victim was. It went down over the course of the weekend.

• I have on good authority that HR was fired for all things, hitting on girls. Allegedly, this has been going on for a while. The last straw was when a new PA was having none of what Harold had to offer and turned him in.

• Harold Reynolds was fired more or less for copious amounts of sexual harassment. Apparently, he brazenly hits on female employees constantly, despite the fact that his wife just had a kid six months ago. He was warned by the big-wigs on numerous occasions to cool it with the ladies, but someone finally lodged a complaint, and he was canned immediately.

• It's very difficult to get fired from ESPN. It takes multiple offenses ... they're usually so worried about getting sued for unlawful termination that people are suspended multiple times for the same repeated behavior before it finally comes to getting fired. Within the walls of the campus, there are only a few on-air talent guys that had an honest reputation as being overly friendly with the ladies, and HR was one of them.

So anyway, that's what they're saying on the Bristol campus. But since ESPN doesn't have to say anything -- in-house or otherwise -- and neither does Reynolds, we might never know for sure. (No announcement, we're told, has been made to the staff.) That's what they're saying, though; we didn't receive a single email suggesting anything but that.

But that's not what we're saying, because we don't know. To be clear.  http://www.deadspin.com/sports/top/was-this-why-harold-got-the-axe-189733.php

If that's the case its funny that Steve Phillips will be taking over the chair now.

[The Big Ragu]

Good stuff, Boom.

[Deeper_Background]

From the comments section on Deadspin:  I remember reading in 'ESPN: An Unauthorized History' that Mike Tirico had also been accused (on more than one occasion) of sexual harassment.

It's obvious that the Worldwide Leader has a longer leash for the light-skinned bruthas.

And, Michael Irvin.

[Lester Bangs]

From the comments section on Deadspin:  I remember reading in 'ESPN: An Unauthorized History' that Mike Tirico had also been accused (on more than one occasion) of sexual harassment.

It's obvious that the Worldwide Leader has a longer leash for the light-skinned bruthas.

And, Michael Irvin.

Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for Scoop Jackson.

[The Big Ragu]

This is totally random... But why does Deeper_Background's avatar have a picture of Rachel Nichols with the "boom goes the dynamite" quote? It's beyond random.

[fmrsped]

I've said this before but I'llsay it again: The level of dumbassery on the part of D_B is unprecedented. He deserves the level of shit he gets around here, undoubtedly.

To comment on Mike Tirico's issues like it's never been discussed here before just baffles my mind.

May you get terrible arthritis in your fingers sir, so you may never type here again.