Look who’s got a new job, less than four months after resigning for uttering a homophobic slur during the broadcast of a Cincinnati Reds game: Play by play announcer Thom Brennaman has his headset back on his head and a paycheck with his name on it again.
Brennaman is now calling games for the Roberto Clemente League in Puerto Rico, according to media reports.
MLB on Fox reporter Ken Rosenthal broke the news on Twitter Tuesday.
The Roberto Clemente League in Puerto Rico has hired Thom Brennaman as its play-by-play man for the 2020-21 season, which starts tonight. Brennaman, a longtime major-league broadcaster, resigned from the Reds in September after using an anti-gay slur on air.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 8, 2020
If you missed it in August, here’s the replay: Brennaman was suspended for using an anti-gay slur on the air during a Red-Royals game, calling some city someplace “the fag capital of the world.”
Not long after, Brennaman started to apologize for the slur, but then paused to call a Nicholas Castellanos home run, before concluding that he was “very, very sorry.”
Thom Brennaman apologized on-air and handed the broadcast off pic.twitter.com/fMXMmQz7Kd
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 20, 2020
The longtime broadcaster apologized again after the game in articles and interviews and privately in conversations and meetings with out LGBTQ celebrities in local and national media.
The Reds and Fox Sports Ohio, which produced the television and radio broadcasts associated with the team, suspended Brennaman, who resigned a month later.
The Roberto Clemente League currently has five teams and plays for a few months, according to Awful Announcing. The league advertises streaming for U.S. audiences on its site; it’s possible those broadcasts are the ones Brennaman will be calling. Subscriptions start at $9.99 for a game or $69.99 for a season pass.
