As many of you know, I’m a baseball fan. I’ve only been to one game so far this year, because, as many of you know, I’m a bit of a nervous nelly when it comes to getting sick. Sitting in a petri dish of Skydome Rogers Centre with Covid still flying around isn’t my idea of staying safe. But I went, had a great time, and hope to get there one more time to see the Jays thrash the Yankees in what promises to be a battle for first place overall in the American League East.
The other night, we were treated to an amazing run from first base to home plate by our all-star catcher, Alejandro Kirk on a double by Whit Merrifield to add to the Jays total against the Tampa Bay Rays. Kirk, only 23, was voted to the All-Star game, was hitting .310 at the time of the vote, has caught Alek Manoah’s pitching and has put Alek in the Cy Young conversation for the best pitcher in the league. In other words, Kirk is a pretty darned good player.
Except, not in the eyes of a Montreal TSN commentator named Matthew Ross. Ross reposted a Blue Jays video of Kirk running on the play from first to home. Kirk is only 5’ 8” and weighs in at 245 lbs. He doesn’t look like a typical white, American baseball player. He looks like the Latino he is, short and squat. Ross said Kirk’s run from first was an embarrassment to the sport and that he should lose weight.
Ross needs to STFU.
Except, he doesn’t need to hear it from me. He heard it from Alek Manoah, the Toronto Blue Jays all-star pitcher and ace of the staff. Alek pointed out Kirk’s elite status, receiving almost a landslide of votes to appear in the All-Star game. Kirk currently leads the team in batting average and on-base percentage. He’s tied for the lead in walks.
Alek wasn’t having any of Ross' nonsense. He replied personally to Ross on Twitter. Here’s a part of it:
What’s actually embarrassing for the sport is people that go by the name of Matthew and have never played a day in the big leagues thinking they can control the narrative and stereotypes. Go ahead and tell that 8 year old kid who is 10 lbs over weight that he should quit now.
The criticism was so scathing, Ross deleted the tweet, and then his Twitter account. He went silent for days.
What got me thinking was Ross works for TSN. The owner of TSN is Bell Media, which also owns the CTV network. You know, the network that fired long-time news anchor Lisa LaFlamme. Allegedly she was fired because she was old and had grey hair. I say allegedly just so I don’t get sued. But when a new vice president of news comes in, complains that someone let Ms. LaFlamme let her hair go grey during the pandemic and a few months later she has no job, well, draw your own conclusions.
Someone working for Bell Media, Ross, should have thought twice before body-shaming Kirk. It’s not any different than Lisa LaFlamme’s age or grey hair. But I suppose it’s the corporate culture over there now.
After a period of introspection, Ross posted the following, that basically, he’s an idiot.
Too little, too late. No one reads the retraction. A claim gets made, people get ginned up but never see the backtracking ("it was a joke", "I didn’t really mean it", "who would take that seriously") but the damage is done.
Ross should be fired. But he won’t be. He’s not a 58 year old woman with a 35 year career in broadcasting and grey hair.
I'll leave you with a view of Lake Huron. Our amazing September weather seems to just keep going.
