Harold Reynolds Fired By ESPN

Reynolds speaks, sort of:

http://www.nypost.com/sports/accused_of_sexual_harassment_sports_andrew_marchand.htm

After being accused of sexual harassment and fired by ESPN, former "Baseball Tonight" analyst Harold Reynolds said yesterday he doesn't think he did anything wrong and is still hoping to regain his job.

"This was a total misunderstanding," Reynolds told The Post. "My goal is to sit down and get back. To be honest with you, I gave a woman a hug and I felt like it was misinterpreted."

Reynolds declined to give any more details. The woman who accused Reynolds of the sexual harassment is an ESPN co-worker, according to sources.

Yesterday, ESPN confirmed The Post's report that Reynolds had been fired, but they would not comment any further.

"He no longer works here," ESPN VP Josh Krulewitz said.

Still, Reynolds is hopeful ESPN executives will change their minds. Besides being with the network for 11 years, Reynolds had just signed a new six-year contract to remain in Bristol and he recently got married.

Reynolds limited his comments, because he didn't want to go into too many details for fear of saying something that could hurt his chances of reversing ESPN's decision.

Reynolds, 45, started with ESPN after a 12-year major league career.

ESPN has been vigilant about sexual harassment because it reportedly has been a problem in Bristol for years. In 2000, the book "ESPN: The Uncensored History" reported rampant cases of harassment of women. Most prominently mentioned was Mike Tirico, who was even suspended at one point.

Tirico, though, never was fired and now is one of the main faces of the network. This fall, he will be ESPN's new voice for "Monday Night Football." Since the book's release, ESPN has denied its validity.

ESPN is known for giving its top on-air employees warnings. There are many cases where ESPN executives have chosen to provide on-air personnel with second chances.

Last NFL season, Michael Irvin was charged with a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. Despite Irvin's past problems, he was only suspended for a weekend and that was mostly because he did not immediately report the incident to ESPN executives.

Earlier this baseball season, Rick Sutcliffe conducted a rambling on-air interview while intoxicated. Sutcliffe was only suspended for one game.

Without Reynolds, "Baseball Tonight" will continue to have an unfamiliar look. The show was already dealing with the loss of its other fixture, Peter Gammons, who suffered a brain aneurysm last month. Gammons is recovering nicely, but is not scheduled to return soon.

Karl Ravech is still the show's main host. He will be joined by the other mainstay, John Kruk, on most nights. Ex-Mets GM Steve Phillips, who already was seeing more time in place of Gammons, figures to become an even more integral part of the program.

ESPN also can call on Orel Hershiser, Jeff Brantley, Tino Martinez, Orestes Destrades, Tim Kurkjian and Buster Olney as replacements for Reynolds.

"We'll get contributions from everybody from our deep commentator pool," Krulewitz said.

 

Too bad so many of those guys are stuck in the shallow end (and I'm not talking abotu the ink-stained guys).

 

Good morning.

ESPN brass, if you're reading this, pull your retarded heads out of your flacid asses and re-hire Harold Reynolds. I give him the benefit of the doubt. Unless he went Boots on one of your wives or mistresses, stop being idiots and hire him back.

Sincerely,
A fan.

 

I doubt this was the first time.

 

Hey, this thread is linked from this blog!

http://thebiglead.com/?p=714

 

This falls into "only in Bristol"

Reynolds replacement :

A former New York Mets employee has withdrawn her threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit against the team and general manager Steve Phillips, apparently for a payment. The threat of a suit caused Phillips to take an eight-day leave of absence earlier this month. Neither the Mets nor the woman's lawyer, Dominic Barbara, disclosed details of the settlement other than to say there will not be a lawsuit.

 

I have mentioned before that I practice employment law and I have advised/litigated a lot of sexual harassment claims on behalf of employers.  Depending on what he is accused of, his history of allegations against him and what the investigation revealed, ESPN may have had no choice but to fire him.  For example, if he threatened the employee for complaining, he's a goner.  If he told her that she would lose her job if she turned down his advances, he's a goner.  Same goes if he kept on hitting on her after she told him to stop or if there was unwanted touching.

With a company like ESPN, which has a history of sexual harassment issues, their reaction to a complaint (including the swiftness of their response, the manner of the investigation and the severity of the punishment) is vital to reducing potential exposure.

 

It's Orestes Destrade, no 's', and how he got to be an analyst is beyond me. He sure as hell couldn't play baseball in NY.

 

Well, how many GMs and coaches failed as players, but had a solid grasp on the game?

Back to Reynolds, a friend of mine found and e-mailed this list from some blogger he reads ...

But of all the things to get you fired at ESPN, we know what will NOT get you canned.
1. Urinating on a cop (Gary Miller, Cleveland, Ohio.)
2. Throwing a beer in the face of fans (Michelle Tafoya, Minneapolis)
3. Having an “imaginary friend” leave his weed pipe in your car. (Michael Irvin, Dallas).
4. Being an event-wrecking cliché-spewing camera ogre. (Chris Berman, forever).

 

Which is unfortunate. He may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. That ESPN book mentions around the time of the Tirico incident, there was another harassment case in the building where a remark was made. One woman thought it was funny, the second ran right to a producer and complained about it. That person who made the remark was fired, while Tirico was merely suspended for three months. There were a lot of pissed-off people in Bristol.

I don't defend what Reynolds did or didn't do... it's just that in this day and age, an innocent remark to a woman on how nice they look today might get you hauled into human resources. Guess we'll see how this turns out.

 

You have to wonder if the 'You're With Me Leather' girl realizes she could have been an American hero if she had just spoken up in a timely manner...

 

She did. That's what got Harold Reynolds fired. It's the human resources equivalent of giving Cleveland State probation when Kentucky does wrong.