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Poor timing and even poorer sound quality picked up what fans thought was a man shouting a racial slur during a Colorado Rockies baseball game. In actually, the fan was trying to get a photo with the teams mascot.
The incident was caught on the live broadcast of the game. He shouted loud enough for his voice to be heard as he sat behind the home plate.
Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson was up a bat for the top of the ninth inning, which prompted many onlookers to assume he was shouting a slur at the player.
Marlins sportscaster Paul Severino had tweeted:
"I'm absolutely disgusted at the language that was picked up by the mics late in the game today."
"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."
The tweet has since been deleted and replaced with an apology. An investigation took place and cleared the air for the fan accused of the incident.
A statement from the Colorado Rockies regarding the racial slur incident at the end of today's game:pic.twitter.com/85uN3f1pFZ— Colorado Rockies (@Colorado Rockies) 1628472885
pic.twitter.com/6DbzIipXfk— Paul Severino (@Paul Severino) 1628553579
The Colorado Rockies have also issued their own statement after the investigation took place. The man had merely been calling the attention of the purple dinosaur mascot called Dinger.
An update from the Colorado Rockies regarding the incident at the end of yesterday's game:pic.twitter.com/4cCS8peKnU— Colorado Rockies (@Colorado Rockies) 1628536233
You can see and hear what happened in the clips tweeted by Reporter Steve Staeger, who also had a chance to talk with the fan.
Here's the video by the way. I've highlighted both the fan and Dinger in the the first clip, then zoomed in on the fan in the second clip. And Dinger in the third.pic.twitter.com/ul14jQjavx— Steve Staeger (@Steve Staeger) 1628524713
Twitter users were arguing over whether this mistake could have been avoided without the persistence of what Twitter calls "Cancel Culture."
Are you telling me you didn't hear the nword upon first listen? This has nothing to do with being woke. It has to do with conditioned expectations about what to hear--the vast majority of us heard what we expected due to how rampant racism is in the US. It's Pavlov, not Rorschach— Love is in here somewhere #BlackLivesMatter (@Love is in here somewhere #BlackLivesMatter) 1628541734
I wish it were that easy to "snap out of it". We'd have to undo so many years of racism for us to reverse what we expect someone to say in this day and age. It's not that simple.— Love is in here somewhere #BlackLivesMatter (@Love is in here somewhere #BlackLivesMatter) 1628541432
This is a really weird reaction. It took less than a day to resolve and ultimately there's no harm done. It's not actually that difficult to look into incidents and clear up misconceptions when they occur.— Trillian Astra (@Trillian Astra) 1628560086
I'm glad that this was an honest audio flub. But let's not act like ONE mixup somehow negates all racism in Colorado, America, and worldwide lol.— Szayel (@Szayel) 1628529448
No one on video even gave it a thought. Heads would have whipped around if he said the N word— \ud83d\ude01 (@\ud83d\ude01) 1628527049
To be clear, I understand people jumped to the conclusion because there is a problem with how athletes are treated (specifically athletes of color). But it was very 2021 for this to blow up only to be a misunderstanding— BTC_Daddy (@BTC_Daddy) 1628527105
JERRY I JUST WANTED A PICTUREpic.twitter.com/fWg07xmU9J— Dolan of light (@Dolan of light) 1628560169
Staeger reported what the fan, who's remaining anonymous, shared with him:
"He's pretty devastated that people heard him the wrong way."
"He insists, and the video seems to back it up, that he was trying to get the mascot's attention."
"He said he shouted a few times, then the game ended and Dinger was on the field."
"He didn't hear about any of this until his daughter called him today."
"The Rockies had called her - as the seats are hers. He then saw how much the story has blown up."
"He's nervous about what happens next."
Some Twitter users suggested he get a lawyer and sue for damages.
He should sue them.— Nick Skias (@Nick Skias) 1628530840
Many also suggest they change their mascots name to prevent this mistake in the future.
If this is actually true, I think it\u2019s a good sign you need to change your mascots name.— Patrick Kelly (@Patrick Kelly) 1628523399
But will the @Rockies think about changing the mascots name so this doesn't happen again.— JT Sib (@JT Sib) 1628529359
It\u2019s time to change Dinger\u2019s name to Topps after Daddy Topps from Land Before Timepic.twitter.com/Ke2aN1nLVJ— Sergeant Largen22 \u272d (@Sergeant Largen22 \u272d) 1628525196
Welp...looks like Dinger needs a new name-o— Be Loyal (Heidi) (@Be Loyal (Heidi)) 1628522986
The mascot's name, Dinger, actually means "home run" in baseball slang. The mascot being a dinosaur was to pay homage to the dinosaur fossil found near home plate while excavation of the field took place in 1993.