On Tuesday night, Diamondbacks announcer Bob Brenly made an off-putting comment with racial undertones at the expense of Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman.
The joke in question was about the du-rag that the Mets hurler was wearing on his head during the game.
“I’m pretty sure that’s the same du-rag that Tom Seaver used to wear when he pitched for the Mets,” Brenly said.
It didn’t take long for the joke to go viral, as within minutes it was all over Twitter.
Mets manager Luis Rojas was made aware of the comment after the game.
“I was very disappointed when I heard it,” said Rojas. “If it was like a joke or something, I didn’t get it. That was my initial reaction to it. I think it’s completely inappropriate.”
Stroman also took to Twitter to voice his opinion, saying “Onward and upward…through all adversity and racial undertones. The climb continues through all.”
Several fans and reporters alike have rushed to Stroman’s defense, with a fan tweeting, “I am not surprised by this type of language towards African-American athletes. It’s the blatant racism and it’s been going on for a long time.
Stroman has seemingly taken the high road, tweeting a picture of himself wearing the du-rag and commenting “Du-rags coming soon.”
It’s good to see Stroman taking everything in stride, but it’s frustrating that we seem to always have to go back to square one when it comes to racism. Brenly was completely out of line to say what he said, and this isn’t even the first time he’s been in the news for the wrong reasons. In 2019, he suggested that Fernando Tatis Jr. was being slowed down by his “bike chain” referring to the necklace the Padres star was wearing during the game.
There’s no place for this type of behavior. Not just in sports, but in our society as a whole, and Major League Baseball needs to make an example out of Brenly to show that it has zero tolerance for a joke such as this.
Brenly has at least agreed to do sensitivity training, stating that the joke was “a poor attempt at humor,’ but at the same time, it also seems like he’s only sorry because he got caught.
Only time will tell if Bob Brenly learns from his mistake, but the fact of the matter is that society is tired of racism rearing its ugly head time and time again, and we must do everything we can to combat it.
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