After the media went berserk over a baseball fan supposedly using a racial slur, the team confirmed Monday via video evidence that the person in question was merely calling out to the mascot.
During the ninth inning of the Colorado Rockies’ game in Denver against the Miami Marlins, a home team fan yelled the word “Dinger.” He was calling out to the team’s mascot — a dinosaur — since that is its name.
However, after the fan’s words were picked up on a microphone, it swiftly became an issue on social media. The mob began to mobilize, rebuking the man for supposedly yelling the n-word slur at Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson. The play-by-play announcer for the Marlins, Paul Severino, condemned the fan on Twitter shortly after.
“I’m absolutely disgusted at the language that was picked up by the mics late in the game today,” Severino wrote. “The level of hate that was displayed has no place in this world. Unfortunately, it’s still far too prevalent. We need to be better. And soon. Awful.”
https://twitter.com/SeverinoMLB/status/1424503519265046528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1424503519265046528%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.denverpost.com%2F2021%2F08%2F09%2Frockies-racial-slur-dinger-coors-field%2F
The Rockies organization was quick to jump on the racism bandwagon. The team released a statement Sunday evening, noting it is “disgusted at the racial slur directed at the Marlins’ Lewis Brinson during the ninth inning of today’s game.”
The team also acknowledged it is ” …still investigating the incident,” contradicting its preliminary hypothesis.
A statement from the Colorado Rockies regarding the racial slur incident at the end of today's game: pic.twitter.com/85uN3f1pFZ
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 9, 2021
Left-wing outlets were quick to accept the alleged incident prior to letting the investigation play out. Keith Olbermann, a former CNN employee, sounded off on the Rockies for not releasing its statement soon enough. Like others, he presumed guilt.
“Shouting the N-word at a game? Where is the @Rockies statement on how they apprehended the racist and what they did to him? Where is @mlb’s investigation?” Olbermann had tweeted. “This is a private business and they are responsible for the conduct of their patrons.”
Shouting the N-word at a game? Where is the @Rockies statement on how they apprehended the racist and what they did to him? Where is @mlb’s investigation?
This is a private business and they are responsible for the conduct of their patrons.
pic.twitter.com/LEeJVLmpVz— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 8, 2021
But after interviewing the fan and observing footage, the Rockies reached out to a local Denver reporter to provide its findings, it became clear it was a harmless case of referring to the mascot.
It was not only the team that jumped to conclusions, given Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark issued a statement prior to the investigation concluding. Upon the team realizing the fan was merely talking to the mascot, people took to social media to call out the Rockies for trying to appease the laptop class mob.
The @Rockies were compelled to throw their own fans under the bus as despicable racists lest they suffer the 24-hour cycle of rage on Twitter.
They opted to call their own fans bigots to appease the social media mob.
Think. About. That.
— Larry O'Connor (@LarryOConnor) August 9, 2021
There is an MLB investigation into whether a Colorado Rockies fan was yelling a racial slur at a black batter or yelling “Dinger,” the name of the Rockies mascot, to get his attention. This feels like a Curb episode: https://t.co/L0aE6MHneE
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 9, 2021
The media and its institutional allies are no stranger to jumping on the racism bandwagon at all costs.
Actor Jussie Smollett notably fabricated a “racist” Republican attack on him in Chicago in 2019. That same year, CNN and other legacy media smeared boys at Covington Catholic High School as racist prior to knowing any actual facts of the situation. Last summer, the FBI concluded that a supposed NASCAR “hate crime” in driver Bubba Wallace’s garage was nothing more than a pull rope for the door.
It appears that the media is not content with the outcome. The left-wing tabloid SFGate concluded its reluctant piece on the investigation’s findings with the sentence: “The Rockies don’t plan to make any changes to the mascot’s name.”
