Longtime Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman said Marshall University’s president must be “queer for softball,” saying he favored the sport over the school’s baseball team. Brennaman now says he could have used a better choice of words. From the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia:
On Saturday night during Marshall University’s preseason baseball banquet and fundraiser at the Cam Henderson Center, Brennaman – the keynote speaker – determined that Marshall’s president [Stephen Kopp] must be “queer” for softball since the university managed to open a $2.5 million softball facility in March 2008, but baseball is still traveling for home games.
On Saturday night during Marshall University’s preseason baseball banquet and fundraiser at the Cam Henderson Center, Brennaman – the keynote speaker – determined that Marshall’s president [Stephen Kopp] must be “queer” for softball since the university managed to open a $2.5 million softball facility in March 2008, but baseball is still traveling for home games.
Brennaman backpedaled, sort of, the next day, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer:
“I probably could have made a better choice of words, but in no way does that reflect my opinion about gays at all. It’s just a comment I made about the president of the university.”
Brennaman, 68, is approaching his 38th season as Reds play-by-play radio voice.
“People are going to think what they’re going to think,” Brennaman said. “My point was he’s willing to spend ($2.5) million for girls’ softball, but he won’t even attend a baseball banquet trying to raise money to build a baseball facility.”
Using “queer” when discussing softball is an odd choice of words, and I will give Brennaman the benefit of the doubt that he did not mean it in a homophobic sense. But the traditional definition of queer means worthless, questionable or weird, so the announcer was still taking a shot at Marshall’s president.
I don’t know the goings-on at Marshall, so I don’t know why softball has a facility and the baseball team has to travel 45 minutes to home games. Neither team had a winning record a year ago. The Brennaman quote has a no-big-deal quality about it, and I wonder what you think.
Hat tip to Sports Fat for alerting me to the item.
