Bobby Valentine made some incredibly stupid remarks earlier this month on the 12-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks. Rather than taking time to pay tribute to the victims and their families, Valentine used the topic as an opportunity to praise the New York Mets for supporting the community during a difficult time and bash the New York Yankees for supposedly not doing the same.
Fortunately, there were some consequences. According to Newsday’s Neil Best, Valentine was originally supposed to be a part of the TBS broadcasting crew for the 2013 MLB playoffs. Instead, Keith Olbermann will be joined in studio by Pedro Martinez and Tom Verducci. Valentine was reportedly nixed after his idiotic comments, which he later refused to back down from.
“Two people familiar with what went down said Valentine was sunk by comments on WFAN Sept. 11 in which he criticized the Yankees’ response – or lack thereof – in the days after the terrorist attacks of 2001,” Best wrote.
Turner Sports simply claimed Valentine was a candidate but the network decided to go in another direction.
“Bobby was one of a number of candidates being considered for the role, but we elected to go with the team of Keith, Pedro and Tom and we’re very excited about that combination in-studio for us,” a Turner spokesman said.
It doesn’t really matter if Valentine’s 9/11 comments are the reason he got bounced from the postseason broadcasting booth. The important thing here is we don’t have to listen to him during the playoffs. I think we can all consider that a victory.
H/T Deadspin
