Major League Baseball has concluded its investigation into last Saturday’s debacle involving the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus.
MLB found what we all found a few days ago:
The Department of Investigations has concluded that the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus has performed the Star-Spangled Banner multiple times before a Padres game; that Saturday's regrettable situation was a product of human error; that the situation was exacerbated by the fact that the lead entertainment supervisor was involved in a car accident on Friday night and thus was unable to work on Saturday and handle his typical responsibilities; that employees involved in the matter were handling new duties with which they were insufficiently familiar; and that the employees involved had no malicious intentions and, in fact, universally relayed contrition for how the incident unfolded and the adverse impression that it created.
Padres president and CEO Mike Dee said they will now hire back the person who took complete responsibility for the mix-up.
"Based on MLB's findings, as well as the support of the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus," Dee said in a statement, "DJ Art Romero has accepted our invitation to continue to provide services for the team, in a role to be determined."
Now the only thing left to put this entire incident behind us is for the Chorus to return to Petco Park to sing the National Anthem again. Outsports is told that team management has requested to sing along with the Chorus this time in a show of solidarity, even if they won't sound very good.
