Society

Reds Manager Under Fire After Profanity Laced Interview

Like many long-suffering Cubs fans, I have enjoyed this season immensely as the Cubs have found traction with our new line-up, including such news players as Kris Bryant and our new manager Joe Maddon. While our 150 million dollar pitcher, John Lester, appears better throwing his glove than the ball to first base, we are a lot happier with our second place position in the Central Division than our friends with the Cincinnati Reds — at least from the impressions left by Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price. Price gave a relatively brief interview about his team’s losing streak and managed to use the F-word 77 times as a noun, adjective, and what appears a conjunction. He added 11 versions of horse and cow manure. Some people are calling for him to be fired for the profane outburst but should a manager or player be fired for foul language?


One has to be impressed that Price was able to stuff 77 F-bombs and 11 other swear words into an interview that only lasted five-minutes 34-seconds. Here it is:

What is odd is how Price lashes out on how media coverage is not working for him or the team: “I don’t know what the importance is for everyone to know if we have a player that’s not here. We don’t benefit at all from the other teams knowing we don’t have a player.” It is really not meant to benefit any team. The media is allowed to report on such missing players.

Having said this, while Tom Hanks would say “there is no crying in baseball,” there is certainly a lot of swearing.

I do not agree that this is so out of line to justify termination for Price. He was passionate and profane to be sure, but to be fired for swearing? I have been a critic of how sporting events have become filled with drunk abusive fans.

What do you think?

48 thoughts on “Reds Manager Under Fire After Profanity Laced Interview”

  1. Baseball is not really a professional sport all the time. Sometimes it’s just blood and guts passionate and not just sickening Progressively Politically Correct.

  2. @ Tin Ear – Too bad the ‘learns and reports’ part of the reporters job only applies to sports and not say politics or government deceit…..

  3. Completely unprofessional. The cursing during a press conference is very disturbing. More disturbing to me, his reaction during a bad time for the team. He should have owned up to his team’s bad results instead of losing it and deflecting blame to the press. Or reiterated how early in the season it was and for everyone to chill out. If he had a problem with a particular reporter or reporters, the professional thing to do would have been to address it with the reporter(s), off the record.

    This tells me this guy is not fit for the job.

  5. I do love these non toxic threads. Good work, folks. Even a post about profanity is civil if the right folks don’t infect it w/ middle school drama.

  6. There is a rich history of profanity in baseball. Although he was prudent to not be taped, every other word out of Tommy Lasorda’s mouth was a profanity. Baseball is not for those faint of heart and puritanical. Now, drunken profanity in the stands is an entirely different matter and not conducive to family attendance. But, in the dugout/clubhouse, it is perfectly fine and healthy.

  7. JT conveniently forgot to mention the profanity laced screed from former Cub manager, Lee Elia back in the early 80’s. But, Elia committed the cardinal sin of directing his vitriol @ the fans. It is now safe to admit, myself, my partner investigator @ Clausen Miller, and the younger son of coach Ray Meyer were attending that game, playing hooky from work. It was a cold, damp day and the booing we gave Elia for his woefully inept pitching decisions were heard clearly by Elia. He looked up in the stands giving us the stink eye. So, we were part of the “f@ckin’ unemployed f@ckin’ fans who don’t have a f@ckin’ life and come out to the f#ckin’ ballpark, ripping everything f$ckin’ thing I do!” The longtime radio sports guy for WLS, Les Grobstein, had his tape recorder running after the game and got the classic screed. It’s worth listening to if you want a good laugh.

  9. Paul C

    I hear broadcasts all of the time about injured players or players having operations. It’s not considered top secret information. Anything that the manager wanted to sidestep and not answer could’ve been accomplished in a professional and civil manner. The reporter’s job is just that, to report the news. Anything that needed to be kept confidential, or secret, does not require a diatribe full of vulgarity. A simple response such as WE’RE STILL DECIDING WHAT TO DO or WE’RE CONSIDERING OUR ALTERNATIVES would’ve sufficed. This isn’t about respect for the press. That’s irrelevant, especially since the reporter seemed to be respectful and polite. No valid explanation for the outburst. Remember, he wasn’t in a locker room. He was speaking for the team and the organization. He came off as nuts and unhinged. Makes one wonder how he deals with the players, behind the scenes. That is relevant.

  10. The new TV screen in the left field at Wrigley is profanity at its highest. True Cubs fans will speak up.

  12. Squeeky

    The manager, for better or for worse, is often viewed as the face of the team. He manages the team in more ways than one. This isn’t about free speech; this about an employee of a company, who happens to be a manager of a MLB team, behaving in an inappropriate and offensive manner, while in the scope of his employment, during a broadcast. Not everyone is suited for every job. How did he ever rise to this level and not know how to conduct himself around the press? This is about sullying the reputation and the image of the team, as a whole. When seen in that light, this is about an individual who reflects poorly on the entire organization.

  13. Well, there is an easy answer for this! Ball parks need “safe spaces” like they have at certain colleges, where fans, officials, and players can go whenever they get frightened by free speech, or their feelings get hurt!

    Judith Shulevitz, writing in the New York Times, reports that infantilized college students are indulging their need for insulation by demanding “safe spaces” where any speech that could hurt their feelings would be forbidden.

    She lists examples of the demands of students that verge on the incredible; in one instance, when a student group at Brown University called the Sexual Assault Task Force discovered that a debate was to be held where one participant, a libertarian, would slam the term “rape culture,” the group protested to the administration. That prompted Brown’s president, Christina H. Paxson, to schedule a talk concurrent with the debate that would provide “research and facts” about “the role of culture in sexual assault.” A “safe space” was created for students upset by the debate; the space included cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets, and a video of puppies.

    More at the link:

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/03/23/infantilized-college-students-need-safe-spaces-to-avoid-scary-free-speech/

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  16. Paul C

    If his mishandling of the press, in such a blatant and offensive way, hurts the team’s image, and, therefore diminishing sales, you bet your sweet bippy he is judged by that. If he hurts the bottom line, by offending fans, which translates into fewer sales, he is a detriment to the team, not a benefit.

    1. bam bam – if he berates the fans that is one thing, but the American public rates the press very low. So, berating the press could actually do the team good. And, if you listened to what he was talking about, it is not the presses business why someone is not in the lineup and not their business to advertise to other teams that a major player will not be in the lineup. Unless, of course, the team has released this information.

  17. Paul C

    As the manager of a company, one could choose to decline any and all interviews. This is the manager of a MLB team, and part if his job description, I would assume, is to field questions from the sports press. I honestly didn’t hear the reporter asking any inappropriate questions. I didn’t. He has a job to do, and anything that the manager wanted to skirt could have been done in a more acceptable fashion. What I did hear was a person, so displeased and upset with his own shortcomings, including those of his team, that the unfortunate reporter bore the brunt of that misplaced aggression and anger.

    I can’t help but wonder if the manager’s contract contains a morals clause. If so, could this embarrassing and inappropriate publicly broadcast interview have violated it? Just a thought. Anyone out there deal with Sports Law?

  20. He clearly doesn’t understand the role of the press, which is to find out and report everything they learn about the team and its players. He keeps asking the reporter how the information that is reported benefits the Reds. The reporter’s job isn’t to help the Reds. It’s amazing that one could rise to the level of a MLB manager and not understand this. In my view, the guy is not ready for prime time on a lot of different levels. He has embarrassed the team and the city of Cincinnati, and lashed out at a sports reporter for doing what a sports reporter is supposed to do. If I were the team owner, I wouldn’t fire him immediately, but my confidence in him would be significantly diminished.

    1. TinEar – what is the manager’s function? How is he judged? Not by how he handles the press.

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