Roger McDowell: A good pitching coach is in deep trouble
McDowell's accusers: The Quinn family of Fresno, Calif., and attorney Gloria Allred. (AP photo)
Roger McDowell, who’s a very good pitching coach, is in deep trouble because he engaged a round of verbal volleying at AT&T Park over the weekend. Four days later, McDowell has been forced to apologize and the Braves have been moved to offer a statement expressing “concern” and even Bud Selig has weighed in.
At the heart of McDowell’s side of the repartee is, according to a family being advised by the famous attorney Gloria Allred, a volley of anti-gay sentiment. The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant was just fined $100,000 by the NBA for directing a gay slur at a referee during a game, but McDowell’s alleged outburst doesn’t seem a heat-of-the-moment thing.
For one thing, it apparently took place before Saturday’s game. For another, it doesn’t appear to have been a one-time salvo. The Quinn family of Fresno, Calif., alleges that McDowell’s side of the dialogue went on for a while and involved physical threats and even the suggestive use of a bat.
Lest we forget, the Braves have been forced to answer for expressed intolerance before — after John Rocker’s infamous Sports Illustrated rant of December 1999. Bad as that was, it was basically just one loudmouth venting. These allegations are worse: At best they involve unprofessional behavior toward paying customers, and at worst they leave this organization open to the charge that its has a homophobe wearing its uniform.
In his apology, McDowell expressed his regret for responding “to the heckling fans” but offered no clue as to what bit of heckling might have served as a trigger. But what could anyone have said to warrant the sort of response the Quinns maintain McDowell offered?
Selig, the commissioner of baseball, released a statement saying “the allegations are very troubling to me.” Also, and ominously, he said: “After I have all the facts, I will make a determination of how to proceed.”
McDowell is alleged to have said: “Kids don’t belong at the [censored] ballpark.” That alone would be enough to make Selig spit out his soda. Hasn’t baseball spent the past century positioning itself as the game for families?
McDowell has done well in following the illustrious Leo Mazzone, and he’s considered a major asset by the Braves. That status is in peril. If these allegations are found to have merit, McDowell will be lucky to keep his job.
By Mark Bradley
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351 comments Add your comment
talk about a racist
April 28th, 2011
2:32 pm
curious george i want to see your bc too. for all i know i could be your daddy.
than again i saw what your mama loooks like. only daddy you could have has to be fug uggly.
Furman Bitcher
April 28th, 2011
2:40 pm
It will be a shame if he loses his job over this. It is all a bunch of bunk and I am prety sure the accuser is full of bunk. He may have said a few crude things but i am sure that he didnt say that kids dont belong at the ball park. if Gloria Alred is involved I tend to go with the other side.
Kyle
April 28th, 2011
2:41 pm
John, I agree with you about the warning on that Liberal Allred but we also need a warning on that family photo as well. What a God awful mess.
Marty
April 28th, 2011
2:43 pm
Sounds like ‘roid rage to me. Did he visit Barry Bond’s trainer before the game?
scott case
April 28th, 2011
2:44 pm
Classic Roger – I think it’s funny, but it will probably cost him his job.
UGA75
April 28th, 2011
2:50 pm
The “so called Homo-phobe comments” are not a big deal. I have a grown gay son who hears worse than that daily, and this could have been banter between Roger and the fans he was addressing. The serious part was addressing, then threatening the man with children present. I can not believe Roger said what he was supposed to have said, he is a father too. It seems to me this jerk is trying to make money off a situation that didn’t even involve him. Why did he jump into a interchange between other folks that didn’t concern him at all? I think this is much ado over nothing.
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
April 28th, 2011
2:58 pm
i’m not buying…just another person looking for some $$. the photo itself speaks volumes…like their lives are ruined by this. give me a break. btw, i still the infamous rocker sports illustrated issue, hilarious!!
Mike
April 28th, 2011
3:02 pm
One needs to look no further than Gloria Allred to realize that this is a steaming pile of poo. I wouldn’t trust anything she or any client of hers said. I think we should find out a little more about this before we rush to judge McDowell.
Broom
April 28th, 2011
3:04 pm
Gloria Allred – The first indication that this is being blown out of proportion. Why is a guy heckling McDowell with his wife a two girls by his side? Something doesn’t quite add up. McDowell is a good guy, let’s get the facts before we judge too hard.
GregD
April 28th, 2011
3:06 pm
I dont get this at all? I saw Roger signing multiple autographs for kids at Turner. What ever they do they shouldnt fire him, look at how good the Brave’s staffs have been under his direction.
Truth in Advertising
April 28th, 2011
3:06 pm
Roger was only saying what the Chick-fil-a Cows are thinking (but unable to spell).
oldbravefan
April 28th, 2011
3:06 pm
Who choreographed that picture???…….the innocent babe with hands held so piously as if she were walking down the aisle for her 1st communion…..give me a break! But, her father has no qualms in putting his daughters in the middle of this whole debacle!
just wondering
April 28th, 2011
3:51 pm
Since when did san francisco become known as a homosexual city ?
Skitty Fritty
April 28th, 2011
3:56 pm
If you are going to heckle someone then you have to be prepared to get heckled back. I think this man & family need to grow up or stop heckling at ball games.
Skitty Fritty
April 28th, 2011
3:56 pm
Just Wondering:
When has San Francisco not been known to be a “Homosexual” city?
DawginLex
April 28th, 2011
3:57 pm
Hire an attorney because he wouldn’t man up after he heckled a Braves coach? He thought the coach wouldn’t respond since he was sitting in the stands, that is what happened.
My wife would laugh at me if I didn’t go whip Mcdowell’s a$$ and that is exactly what I would have done if he had said it to me and my family.
I would have needed an attorney but for a different reason………….
Harry Callahan
April 28th, 2011
3:59 pm
I would have shot him if I were the baseball coach and put a gun in this Punk’s hand !
Maurice
April 28th, 2011
4:11 pm
Enter your comments here
KK
April 28th, 2011
4:22 pm
KK should be the new pitching coach
Maurice
April 28th, 2011
4:28 pm
Where we are different people, we are individuals with different views. Just as human choice/nature allows homosexuals to be individuals, Roger is just as “human” in his views as they are. No person or law can tell a grown man how to feel or behave. It’s his nature to act the way he does. I don’t condone his “public behavior”, but privately, I understand.
Not A Hewitt Fan
April 28th, 2011
4:30 pm
What makes me mad about the whole thing is that McD didnt get his question answered….so was the grp of boys a couple or a threesome? Which was it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Birdman
April 28th, 2011
4:31 pm
The major lapse in judgement does not warrant being fired, but the reality is that this organization will not stand for the public relations hit it will take as this escalates through the ambulance chasing lawyer. And sorry if this sounds like I am not supporting my pitching coach, but if it detracts from the team chemistry and performance, then its lights out for Mr. McDowell. Unfortunately not even if he was provoked is there any defense for it when it gets into the court of public opinion. The Braves are the definition of a “family” organization, but because of this we will get ridiculed more by “family Support” or “Religious Lobbyist” than the cities where you would not dare take your child to see a pro game.
doug
April 28th, 2011
4:41 pm
Forget Mazzone..he is way overrated because he had great pitchers at Atlanta. Check out his time at Baltimore..a complete failure when having to work. p.s. he is awful on the radio!
CaptainMudderland
April 28th, 2011
4:44 pm
I did some research on Ms. Allred and her past legal matters and I have come to the conclusion–Roger M. must be given a second chance and the benefit of any doubt regarding this matter–in my gut, I believe the father in this case is a “horses tuchus,” and the fast track he took to Allred’s den signifies his goal is mullah….just a matter of overkill in my opinion—give Roger a break everyone!
Big Earl
April 28th, 2011
4:45 pm
It just doesn’t pass the smell test:
1)Roger telling this dweeb and his 2 little girls that “kids don’t belong at the ballpark”? C’mon man!
2)Roger threatening this dweeb and his 2 little girls? C’mon man!
3)Roger making homophobic remarks to this dweeb and his 2 little girls? C’mon man!
4)The dweeb hiring the queen lawyer b!tch of all time….oh yea, it’s starting to add up.
And since when is being homophobic a bad thing? Most men don’t like homo’s. Deal with it.
chuck
April 28th, 2011
4:45 pm
I wonder what was said to Roger. It would be interesting to know,. Roger you should have made a slur toward christians and nothing would have been said about it.
Gay. A beautiful word you can’t use anymore, because it is being used to describe homos.
Kyle
April 28th, 2011
4:50 pm
to the person who said gay slurs are the same as racial slurs. homosexuals are not a race. homosexuality is a lifestyle choice. At the same time McDowell shouldn’t lash out at fans.
D Fence
April 28th, 2011
4:53 pm
Reprimanded, sent to training, whatever you need to do. But let him go? Please.
ATL Sports Fan
April 28th, 2011
5:01 pm
As a former minor league player, I will tell you just like I used to tell hecklers that would heckle myself or players. Feel free to heckle all you want, but when you go to far you better expect in return. Also, do you want me to come to your place of business and your office and heckle you all day? Didn’t think so.
I think this guy heckled McDowell and, he got a dose of his own medicine and didn’t like it.
The Truth
April 28th, 2011
5:01 pm
I was there and was about 2 people away from this guy with the complaint. He was actually the one being the instigator. It all started with McDowell and David Ross being heckled by 3 guys in the bleachers because they wouldn’t throw batting practice balls into the stands. McDowell had a bat with him and was hitting the BP balls back to the infield. McDowell then turned to them and asked if they were a “gay couple” or a “threesome”. He then took the bat and made stroking motions with it and thrusting his hips and he asked the 3 hecklers if that was what they were going to do to each other later that night. Everybody in the stands were laughing. Then a few minutes later, this Quinn guy yells “hey coach, my kids want to know what that means”. Then he was saying that McDowell shouldn’t be doing that stuff in front of kids. Then Quinn yelled out “come over here and say it to me”. That is when McDowell started walking over to the wall. Quinn’s family then started to pull at him and told him to stop. Quinn then turned to his wife and said “what’s he going to do? come up here?”. Then McDowell was telling him that if he didn’t want his kids hearing stuff like that hen he should have said something to the 3 hecklers that started the whole thing. Quinn just kept going on and calling McDowell a “joke” because he should know better. McDowell told Quinn that he should tell the 3 hecklers to not say anything if he was so offended and Quinn said back “where are they?” as if he never even heard the heckling himself which would be outrageous since everyone in the bleachers heard the hecklers. Not once did Quinn look like he feared of getting harmed since he was the one that called McDowell over to him plus the fact that Quinn was in the bleachers and at least 5 ft higher than McDowell. Quinn instigated the whole thing. I don’t even remember McDowell saying that kids don’t belong at the ballpark. Maybe he did but that would be pretty stupid to say considering he was probably at the ballpark all the time when he was a kid.
Yes, McDowell was wrong doing that stuff but this guy Quinn is crying wolf about being a victim when he instigated the whole confrontation. And getting Allred to represent him and calling a press conference is a complete joke.
Progressive Humanist
April 28th, 2011
5:02 pm
Kyle, you need to get an education. Homosexuality is not a “lifestyle choice”. You’ve been listening to too many “ignant” preachers.
Progressive Humanist
April 28th, 2011
5:05 pm
ATL minor leaguer (you’ve said you played in the minors like three times today and it’s still not impressive)- You may want to read the actual account. It was other fans who heckled McDowell; the father only asked McDowell not to use profanity in front of his daughters, which any father would do.
Big Jim
April 28th, 2011
5:06 pm
To Hell with Gloria and her buddies.
ab initio
April 28th, 2011
5:21 pm
No one reading this article, or reading and writing these comments, knows definitively, or with a certainty, the events that took place on that day.
Mr. Bradley, wants to be taken seriously. The only thing serious here is the use of words like ‘homophobe’ and ‘intolerance’, and how Bradley abuses them both. Mr. Bradley, I strongly suggest that if you want to report on a story, that you make your personal assumptions as clear and as far away from the facts of a story as you possibly can.
The only thing that I can clearly understand from your article is that anyone who is ‘anti-gay’ is a homophobe, and regardless of whether they object to the homosexual lifestyle and its effects on loved ones or friends matters not; you will attempt to skewer them with your own intolerance. Thusly, you prove Thomas Paine’s statement on tolerance in this situation, even though he was addressing religion, apropos.
You should find a new line of work, sir.
The Truth
April 28th, 2011
5:24 pm
@ ab initio – ummm, I was there and gave an account of what happened.
braveslover
April 28th, 2011
5:25 pm
He’s gotta go. This outburst cannot be tolerated by a professional team. There is zero tolerance at Academy Sports + Outdoors for violence even if just threatened. Academy is a major sponsor of the Braves. Atlanta is the gay/lesbian/transgender capital of the U.S. with more “out” of these folks percentage wise than any other city. Mr. McDowell should resign and let the Braves organization move on. If he doesn’t then the Braves have to fire him. He is not an ambassador for the Braves or MLB. Unbelievable that he made these remarks and threatened someone’s teeth. I guess the man’s teeth are worth Mr. McDowell’s job. He’s gotta go either voluntarily or fired.
MitchC
April 28th, 2011
5:32 pm
Mark, I just read Dave O Brien’s column about the situation last season where another fan said McDowell abused them in a similar manner. I felt strongly that he should be fired before I heard about the incident from last year. Now, considering the fact that two seperate incidents occurred of a similar nature, I’m absolutely sure that the Braves should get rid of him. Apparently, McDowell has serious personality issues. The guy should take time off from baseball positions of any kind (If he could get hired again), and get some counesling. He needs it!
ab initio
April 28th, 2011
5:33 pm
“@ ab initio – ummm, I was there and gave an account of what happened.”
You may have been, but until I see your statement in an official document, or an official press release from MLB and Selig’s office, then you can understand my skepticism, yes?
Patrick
April 28th, 2011
5:37 pm
I’m pretty shocked too the Roger would do that
But I can’t help but not feel sorry for these “fans” they-I’m sure-are not innocent in all this and also went right to a lawyer that seems to have the stature of Johnnie Cochran. Seems fishy
However, there have been many that have lost their job for saying something stupid. Harold Reynolds, Rob Dibble, Steve Lyons, etc…
reality
April 28th, 2011
5:39 pm
Most people would be fired from their jobs for a reaction like this. I love the Braves and McDowell has done a great job. But he needs to go. You only get one strike for something like this.
The Truth
April 28th, 2011
5:44 pm
“You may have been, but until I see your statement in an official document, or an official press release from MLB and Selig’s office, then you can understand my skepticism, yes?”
I guess you don’t believe in God either unless he showed up on your doorstep with a notarized birth certificate.
ab initio
April 28th, 2011
5:53 pm
“I guess you don’t believe in God either unless he showed up on your doorstep with a notarized birth certificate.
But, you are not, God. You are a nameless, faceless, individual posting a story on an internet chat forum. The proof (or, birth certificate) I’m waiting on, is to see your comments verified by a credible source. Until then, your story means as much to me, as Bradley’s ramblings in this article/blog meme.
The only difference in this story, is that Bradley, for some reason, gets paid for it.
The Truth
April 28th, 2011
6:00 pm
How about my ticket to the game and the text to my brother to meet me at the outfield wall during batting practice at that same time? Sorry I didn’t get any video for you since I only have an iphone 3g that doesn’t have video. You are just as nameless here as I am so I don’t know why you think your opinion about me or Bradley matters to anyone either.
BoSoxRock
April 28th, 2011
6:02 pm
“Got to love free speech”
Go to the lobby of your place of work, hand out your business card and have something on your body representing the company you work for and start hurling anti-gay or racial slurs then play the free speech card – as you’re being escorted off the property. Oh, then come back on here and tell us what your lawyer says when you want to sue for wrongful termination. Good luck.
Delawares Only Braves Fan
April 28th, 2011
6:09 pm
It’s amazing how some candy a$$ fudge boy who wants his 15min of fame.Will do anything to get it.Someone should ask him if thats the worst thing his kids supposedly heard that day.knowing the fan base of the giants I say NO!!!I say tell him,his lawyer,and the rest of the lynch mob to pack it.
ab initio
April 28th, 2011
6:12 pm
“You are just as nameless here as I am so I don’t know why you think your opinion about me or Bradley matters to anyone either.”
Indeed, I am. Which begs some questions; first, what do you want? Second, why are you so intent on selling me the story you posted here? Third, if Selig himself states, ““After I have all the facts, I will make a determination of how to proceed.”, what do you have against my rationale in waiting for your comments to be verified? Finally, when did I ever say that your comments weren’t accurate?
You responded to me. I never responded to your original post. In fact, it is quite possible that you posted your story at around the same time I was articulating my response to Bradley. In fact, your original comment had me read your story, for which I was anything but interested. You should be glad that I even gave it a thought. But I’m not going to take your word for it.
LLUGA
April 28th, 2011
6:29 pm
@ TrishaDishaWarEagle – You wrote “So now gays are utterly protected by law from being offended. screw that..nobody has a right not to be offended. Offending the thin skinned is one of life’s greatest pleasures.” Do you work for a living? Do you understand that what McDowell says at work while wearing a Braves uniform reflects on the entire organization? Do you understand that the Braves may not be happy with McDowell? Do you seriously think anyone should have carte blanche to offend, intimidate, bully, or belittle anyone they want? Are you that stupid and cruel?
BravesTigersgirl
April 28th, 2011
6:32 pm
If true, what RM did was wrong, but the media has no business in shaping public opinion as well as corporate opinion in the punishment of RM. 5-10 years ago, if proven, RM would be subject to substantial suspension, fine and counseling as it should be! But now we have the media inflaming public opinion without a full set of facts and demanding his ouster just because Gloria Allred requests his firing. That is just as wrong as what RM is accused of doing in SF.
bigdawg
April 28th, 2011
6:35 pm
Sorry, Roger! You live in a town with one of the higher LGBT populations in the U.S. Gay slurs are equivalent to racial slurs. You may be a good guy…so am I…but I’ve made mistakes, too, and have paid for them by losing a job!
Joey
April 28th, 2011
6:36 pm
Fans are allowed to say what they want but when a coach or a player lashes back then the damn world is coming to an end. If you not gay then dont let it bother you. If you are, get over it. Its just words. It shouldnt define you.