The story has already had several twists and turns, but the latest series of reports and comments made by Detroit Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire, point to former Cubs pitching coach rightfully being fired earlier this week.
On Wednesday the Tigers announced that they had fired Bosio, who was hired by them prior to the season as their pitching coach. Reports then said it was because of racially charged comments made by Bosio at a Tigers employee.
Then, on Thursday Bosio defended himself, saying the firing was unfair and the comment he made was taken out of context.
Via USA Today.
Bosio revealed to USA TODAY Sports that he was fired for using the word “monkey” in a conversation that was overheard by – but not involving – an African-American clubhouse attendant.
Bosio insists he was not using the word in a racial and disparaging context, and that it was not directed toward the clubhouse attendant. He says he referring to injured pitcher Daniel Stumpf, a white pitcher from Humble, Texas.
Here’s what Bosio claims happened that led to his firing.
“Someone in our coaches’ room asked me (Monday afternoon) about Stumpf,’’ Bosio said. “And I said, “Oh, you mean, ‘Spider Monkey.’ That’s his nickname. He’s a skinny little white kid who makes all of these funny faces when he works out.
“The kid thought we were talking about him. He got all upset. He assumed we were talking about him. I said, “No, no, no. We’re talking about Stumpf.’
“And that was it. I swear on my mom and dad’s graves, there was nothing else to it.’’
Well, that story seems like complete bullshit now. The Tigers’ pitcher that Bosio said he called spider monkey, Daniel Stumpf, said he wasn’t familiar with that nickname.
“‘Spider Monkey’ is not a nickname I have been called or I’m familiar with,” Daniel Stumpf said. https://t.co/0iEXzDxyvu
— anthony fenech (@anthonyfenech) June 29, 2018
There’s more, as Ken Rosenthal and Katie Strang of the Athletic reported the following.
Via The Athletic.
Bosio called the attendant, who is African-American, a “monkey,” according to four team sources. The remark was directed toward the young man, who was collecting towels from the coaches’ room at the time, during a post-game gripe session in which Bosio was lamenting about a pitcher.
During this exchange, Bosio made a derogatory comment about one of the Tigers pitchers and then gestured toward the attendant before adding, “like this monkey here,” the sources said. The attendant pushed back at Bosio for the comment, and an additional team employee witnessed the exchange. Bosio was provided an opportunity to apologize to the attendant after his outburst but declined to do so, according to multiple sources.
These sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
That’s not just one source, four different people telling the same story is pretty damn convincing. Plus, you’d have to think that the Tigers would know better than just to fire a coach over a misunderstanding.
Add in the manager’s hard stance, defending the decision, and all of a sudden it really does look bad for Bosio.
Read more about it here, but this was the main quote by Gardenhire.
“I think this has been a reality check for everybody that hey, we’re not going to stand for this anymore,” Gardenhire said. “We’ve got to get this out of lives and our systems and treat each other with respect. This has been going on and it’s probably overdue and it needs to be pushed even harder. This is why the Tigers did what they’ve had to do, which is very important.”
Bosio said in his USA Today interview that he was planning to hire an attorney to determine if he’d file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Tigers.
That seems doubtful now.
