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Steve Lyons (baseball),
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Stephen John Lyons (born
June 3,
1960) is a former
Major League Baseball player and a
television sportscaster. He is of French and Irish decent.
He was initially an
outfielder and
third baseman, but found a niche as a utility player. He played 8 seasons in the majors, from
1985 to
1993, during which he was released a number of times. After his retirement, he became a television baseball commentator.
Early life
Lyons was born in
Tacoma, Washington, and grew up in
Eugene and
Beaverton, Oregon. He graduated from
Beaverton High School in
1978, and attended
Oregon State on a partial baseball
scholarship. After his junior year, Lyons was a first round
draft pick (19th overall) by the
Boston Red Sox in
1981.
Professional career
Lyons made his major league debut in April
1985 at age 24.
He was traded to the
Chicago White Sox for aging
Hall of Fame pitcher
Tom Seaver in
June 1986. After 5+ seasons with the
White Sox, he returned to the
Red Sox in
1991. In
1992, his playing time diminished as he shuffled from the
Atlanta Braves to the
Montreal Expos and back to the
Red Sox for a third time. In
1993 Lyons was with the
Chicago Cubs during spring training, and was picked up once again by the
Red Sox in
May. This was his final season as a player.
Lyons has the rare distinction of having played at all 9 positions on the field at the major league level, although in a spring training game. Interestingly, however, his fielding percentage at every position at which he played more than 6 games lifetime was lower than the league average, and his range was similarly limited. After he made 25 errors in 128 games at third base in
1988, no team ever played him more than 28 games at the position in a season.
He also appeared as a designated hitter and pinch hitter. He appeared twice as a pitcher in relief, giving up 4 hits, 4 walks, and 1 run in 3 innings (for a 3.00 ERA).
His career batting totals included a .252 batting average, 19 home runs, and 196 RBI.
Eccentricities
Lyons' colorful personality earned him the nickname "Psycho." He was known for such eccentricities as playing
tic-tac-toe and
hangman with his spikes in the infield dirt during games.
His most remembered incident occurred at
Tiger Stadium in
Detroit on a Monday night in
1990. In a televised game played on
July 16, he created a stir that was replayed countless times. After sliding headfirst into first base to beat out a bunt hit, Lyons dropped his baseball pants to empty the dirt out and brush off his shirttail. After a few seconds (and a reaction from the crowd of over 14,000), he realized what he had just done and quickly pulled them up, humorously embarrassed. Although wearing sliding shorts under his
White Sox uniform, this incident earned him another nickname, "Moon Man" Lyons. At the end of the inning, women in the stands waved dollar bills at him as he came to the dugout.
And the jokes began. cquote|No one, had ever dropped his drawers on the field. Not
Wally Moon. Not
Blue Moon Odom. Not even
Heinie wrote one columnist. Within 24 hours of the "exposure," he received more exposure than he'd gotten his entire career: seven live television and approximately 20 radio interviews.
Lyons himself once stated:
cquote|We've got this pitcher, Melido Perez, who earlier this month pitched a no-hitter, and I'll guarantee you he didn't do two live television shots afterwards. I pull my pants down, and I do seven. Something's pretty skewed toward the zany in this
Broadcasting career
main|Major League Baseball on
After his retirement from the playing field, Lyons became a
color commentator for
Fox Sports' MLB coverage in
1996, working first in a studio pregame show (with
Chip Caray and
Keith Olbermann) and later on game coverage (usually with
Thom Brennaman). He called several
Division Series and
League Championship Series telecasts for the network.
Lyons was fired by Fox Sports on
October 14,
2006 for making ethnically insensitive comments during his broadcast of a 2006 postseason game.
He remains the main color commentator for the
Los Angeles Dodgers on
FSN Prime Ticket and
KCAL.
Insensitive remarks while broadcasting
Lyons maligned outfielder
Shawn Green, who is
Jewish, for sitting out a game on
Yom Kippur in
2004, saying: cquote|He’s not even a practicing Jew. He didn’t marry a Jewish girl. And from what I understand, he never had a
bar mitzvah, which is unfortunate because he doesn’t get the Lyons was suspended briefly without pay after his remarks, and the network apologized for Lyons' comments, though Lyons never made an on-air apology.
[http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:vAMyfh7O4NEJ:www.cantstopthebleeding.com/%3Fm%3D200501+%22steve+lyons%22+green+yom+kippur+blind&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4]In
August 2006, while working an
Angels-
Yankees game, Lyons discussed Yankees' catcher
Sal Fasano, and the fact that he had to shave his moustache to accommodate owner
George Steinbrenner's grooming code. Responding to a comment by his fellow Fox sportscaster about how one doesn't want to cross Fasano, Lyons replied: cquote|Well, you know Fasano is the type of guy "who knows a guy that knows a
[http://twojakes.blogspot.com/2006/08/steve-lyons-is-idiot.html]Lyons and fellow sportscaster
Thom Brennaman made fun of a 64-year-old
New York Mets fan wearing an unusual device over his eyes at a game during Game 1 of the
2006 National League Division Series between the
Mets and
Dodgers, with Lyons saying: cquote|He's got a digital camera stuck to his The man turned out to be nearly
blind, except for limited peripheral vision in one eye, and this headgear were special glasses (a "
JORDY," a magnifying device) that allowed him limited vision with which to see the game. Brennaman later apologized to the man and his family on-air during Game 3 of the series.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2006-10-14-fox-lyons_x.htm?POE=SPOISVADuring their broadcast of Game 3 of the
2006 American League Championship Series, broadcast colleague
Lou Piniella made an analogy involving the luck of finding a wallet, and then briefly used a couple of
Spanish phrases. Lyons responded by saying that Piniella was "hablaing Espanol" -- butchering the conjugation for the Spanish phrase "to speak" -- and added, cquote|I still can't find my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him
FOX firing
On
October 13,
2006, FOX fired Lyons for making the above remarks, which FOX determined to be racially insensitive, during Game 3 of the
American League Championship Series.
[http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-alcs-fox-lyonsfired&prov=ap&type=lgns]Lyons was replaced for the last game of the series by
Los Angeles Angels announcer
Jose Mota. Lou Piniella later stated that he thought that Lyons was just "kidding" and that Lyons was, per Piniella's experience, not bigoted.
[http://sports.aol.com/mlb/story/_a/piniella-comes-to-defense-of-fired-lyons/20061017183209990001]On
October 16,
2006, the Dodgers announced that they would keep Lyons as a commentator for their road games. The team said that they gave Lyons probationary guidelines and that he would undergo
diversity training.
[http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2006/news/story?id=2629160&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines] wikiquote|Steve
Trivia
Was named the worst sportscaster on TV by Giant Magazine in October, 2006.
http://www.giantmag.com/2006/10/tv/whos-the-worst-sportscaster-on-tv/Autobiography
Lyons wrote an
autobiography titled
Steve Lyons: PSYCHOanalysis that was published in
2001. (ISBN 1-58261-360-5).
References
External links
*
http://www.sportsbusinessnews.com/_news/news_352132.php SBN's take on Steve “Psycho” Lyons – Finally Where He Belongs, on the Outside Looking In
*
http://www.sportsbusinessnews.com/_news/news_352331.php SBN's take On Steve "Psycho" Lyons - He was Warned and he Paid the Price
*
http://www.sportstricities.com/sportstc/24hour/story/3394738p-12481281c.html Fox fires Lyons for insensitive comment*
http://www.freestevelyons.com FreeSteveLyons.com - Online petition to get Steve Lyons his Fox commentator's job back
*
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=lyonsst01 Baseball-Almanac.com*
http://www.sermons.org/illustrations/a/abandon.htm July 16, 1990 Pants in Detroit
*
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0529173/ Steve Lyons IMDB Profile
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