Harold Reynolds Fired By ESPN

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.

 

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

 

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. :

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.