The Twitter world thought that Miami Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson was called a racial slur in Sunday’s Marlins-Rockies game. Twitter blew up, and his name was trending just minutes after the ‘slur’ was yelled.
“The Colorado Rockies are disgusted at the racial slur by a fan directed at the Marlins’ Lewis Brinson during the ninth of today’s game,” the Rockies said in a statement after the game. “Although the subject was not identified prior to the end of the game, the Rockies are still investigating this incident.”
“The Rockies have zero tolerance for any form of racism or discrimination,” the statement read, “and any fan using derogatory language of any kind will be ejected and banned from Coors Field.”
The Rockies underwent an investigation, and found that the fan wasn’t using a slur. In fact, the fan was supposedly yelling at the Rockies’ mascot, Dinger, in an attempt to get a photo with the team’s mascot.
“After a thorough investigation that included calls, emails and video clips from concerned fans, media and broadcast partners, the Colorado Rockies have concluded that the fan was indeed yelling for Rockies mascot Dinger in hopes of getting his attention for a photo, and there was never any racial slur that occurred,” said the Rockies in another statement on Monday.
“The Rockies remain dedicated to providing an inclusive environment for all fans, players and guests at Coors Field, and any fan using derogatory language of any kind will be ejected from Coors Field,” they later said in the second statement.
Brinson addressed the situation.
“I didn’t initially hear it during my at-bat,” Brinson said. “I don’t know if it was because I was locked in or just… I just didn’t hear it. Came in, I had no idea what was going on — that Twitter was blowing up and I was getting a bunch of messages on Instagram. And my initial reaction was upset, man. Nobody wants to be called that. It’s a disrespectful and disgusting word that belittles my people — black people. It’s a disgusting word and nobody wants to hear it. So my initial reaction was upset, and disgusted — I was in shock.”
The right-handed bat suggests a possible name change for the Rockies’ mascot.
“Maybe change the mascot’s name,” said Brinson. “It sounds a little similar (to the N-word), especially on video.”
Brinson, 27, is having a breakout season this year with Miami. The 6-foot-5 outfielder has notched a career-high 111 wRC+ through 46 games this season. The 2012 first-round pick of the Rangers has slashed a career-best .268/.302/.472 while swatting five homers and has recorded 19 RBIs.
“I’ve watched the video maybe… at least 50 times over the past 15-16 hours,” the five-year veteran said. “Watched it a lot, especially when I heard that he said ‘Dinger,’ instead of the N-word. I personally, again this is my personal opinion, I personally keep hearing the N-word. It’s not that I want to hear it, I’d never want to hear that word. Personally I’ve never been called that in-person, to my face, on the baseball field, outside the baseball field, ever. So I don’t know what my reaction would be or anything would be if I got called that.”
“But, to now,” he continued, “Saying that, again I haven’t talked to the Rockies, I haven’t talked to that fan personally, but if that’s the case, then I’m sorry for any backlash or anything that he’s getting right now.”
Brinson notes that, even if it wasn’t said in Sunday’s game, it does happen often in sports.
“If the word wasn’t said, then it wasn’t said,” the outfielder later said. “But again, I’m not deferring away from that this does happen, regardless if it didn’t happen (Sunday) or it happened (Sunday), this does happen. And a lot of black players can atest to that. Like I said, I’ve never been called that on the field but I’m sure a lot of black players have. I’ve had racial things said to me on the field, but never been called the N-word. But it does happen in this game and it does happen in sports. It’s swept under the rug way too much in my opinion, and I’m sure in a lot of black players opinion, it’s forgotten about way too much and it needs to be stopped.”