HOUSTON, TEXAS - MAY 05: Manager A.J. Hinch #14 of the Detroit Tigers checks his lineup before playing the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on May 05, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
If he is not fired, I will leave the Detroit Tigers head coach, as he has a misunderstanding with his star player.
The head coach of the Detroit Tigers had a misunderstanding with his best player; if he is not sacked, I will step down.
Pitching instructor Chris Bosio was let go by the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday due to “zero tolerance” for the “insensitive comments” he made against a different team member. Bosio, who stated on Thursday that he used a word that was supposed to refer to a white player but was misunderstood as racist by a black clubhouse worker, insists that everything was a great mistake.
“I’m completely devastated,” Bosio said to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “I still find it hard to believe we’ve reached this stage. I’m stunned.
The issue is that another team member saw the encounter and, according to Ken Rosenthal and Katie Strang of The Athletic, the attendant was the target of the insult. Additionally, according to several sources cited by Rosenthal and Strang, “Bosio was provided an opportunity to apologize to the attendant after his outburst but declined to do so.”
“On Monday, someone inquired about Stumpf in our coaches’ room,” Bosio said to Nightengale. “Oh, you mean, Spider Monkey,” I responded. He goes by that moniker. When he works out, this tiny white child, who is skinny, makes all these hilarious faces.
“The clubhouse attendant’s child believed we were referring to him.” He became quite angry. He thought we were referring to him. “No, no, no,” I replied. We are discussing Stumpf.
And that concluded things. Nothing more to it, I swear on the graves of my parents.
There was more to it for the Tigers, who stated that before general manager Al Avila of the organization chose to sever Bosio’s contract, they interviewed individuals connected to the incident with legal counsel. “We’ll see where it goes from there, knowing what we did and why,” Avila said to Nightengale.
“What we did was the right thing to do,” he continued. “Things were at play here.”
Stumpf said he was ignorant of the term when questioned about it on Thursday. While rehabilitating from an injury, the 27-year-old pitcher for the Tigers’ Class AAA club said to the Detroit Free Press, “Spider Monkey is not a nickname I have been called or I am familiar with.”
Stumpf chose “Donald” for his moniker when MLB permitted players to use them on the back of their jerseys during a special Players Weekend in August of last year. His minor league colleagues gave him that moniker because they felt his last name sounded like “Trump,” according to MLB.com.
The Tigers did not disclose the details of Bosio’s remarks when they announced his termination. After Bosio revealed that it was “monkey,” the team withheld any additional official remarks on Thursday. However, Bosio said that he had made his case to Avila and other team executives, adamantly stating that he “didn’t cross the line.”
“I need to safeguard myself in some manner, as this is extremely harmful to me,” declared the former pitcher, who pitched a no-hitter for the Mariners in 1993, adding that he intends to carry on as a coach. “Everyone knows this is not me,” Bosio declared, stressing that he had not used “vulgarity,” “any profanity,” or the “n-word” or any other racist slur.
Bosio remarked of the attendant, “I had a great relationship with this kid.” I told the child who had been making fun of me all spring, “You’re offended now that you’ve heard the word’monkey,’ or ‘Spider Monkey,’ and it wasn’t even meant for you.'”
Every day, we make fat jokes about our trainer. Baseball clubhouses are places where all kinds of things are uttered. And for me to experience this? I know I don’t deserve this, but I’m at a loss for words.
