MIAMI – Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson told his side of the story on Monday night.
This after a bizarre incident in Colorado, where a fan was heard during the broadcast of the game Sunday appearing to use a racial slur.
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The Colorado Rockies investigated and found that the fan was calling for “Dinger” the team’s mascot.
Brinson said he did not initially hear the fan.
After the game, Brinson was working out when he was approached by the Marlins PR team.
Brinson said he saw that social media was blowing up, he said, “My initial reaction was I was upset man, no one wants to be called that. It’s a disrespectful, disgusting word that belittles my people, black people. It’s a disgusting word and no one wants to hear it... I was in shock.”
Brinson said he watched the video at least 50 times.
Brinson said, “Watched it a lot. Especially when I heard that he said Dinger instead of the N-word. I personally, again this is my personal opinion, I personally keep hearing the N-word. It’s not that I want to hear it, I never want to hear that word. Personally, I’ve never been called that to my face on the baseball field or outside the baseball field ever, so I don’t know what my reaction would be.”
Brinson said he hasn’t spoken to the Rockies or the fan.
However, if the fan did say Dinger, Brinson said he’s sorry for any backlash that the fan is getting right now.
The outfielder mentioned that he’s getting a lot of love and support on social media.
Brinson said he has sympathy for the fan, “If he was yelling for the mascot, I’m sorry for any backlash... this does happen in our game. I don’t know if a lot of people know this. Again, personally I’ve never been called that on the baseball field or off the baseball field, but a lot of players have. It’s disgusting, it needs to stop, like right now. There’s no place that in sports, there’s no place for that in life... I just don’t want to have that situation thrown under the rug. It does happen.”
Brinson said that once a month he’s called the N-word, “By cowards. They don’t show their face, they don’t tag themselves on the initial post or the DM they send me... I know a lot of black players get a bit more... try to block it out but it’s a disgusting and degrading word.”