As ESPN on Friday said that some of the radio host Colin Cowherd’s remarks the day before about Dominicans in baseball were “inappropriate,” Cowherd went on the air to try to explain his intentions.
First, he excoriated the editing of his remarks, which sparked criticism online that he was insulting the intelligence of Dominicans. The truncated version of his comments, which questioned those who say baseball is complex, ended with his saying: “Like I’ve never bought into that, `Baseball’s just too complex.’ Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic.”
One of baseball’s greatest Dominican players, pitcher Pedro Martinez, is to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday
On his show Friday, Cowherd played his entire remarks, in which he described the Dominican Republic as lacking “world-class academic abilities,” and said that “a lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and have not had opportunities academically that other kids from other countries have.