Brinson hears racial slur despite Rockies' incident finding and suggests change
Denver, Colorado - Miami Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson has given his opinion on the recent incident at Coors Field involving himself and a Colorado Rockies fan, who was accused of yelling racial slurs in his direction.
The Colorado Rockies spent one day investigating the perceived racist incident during Sunday's baseball game at its home ballpark Coors Field.
On Monday, the organization found that the accused fan, who was thought to have yelled out the "n-word," was heard in error.
Brinson (27) however, thinks otherwise.
"I personally – this is again my personal opinion – I personally keep hearing the 'n-word,'" he told the Associated Press in a video call on Monday night.
He re-watched videos of the incident "at least 50 times" and believes a slur was used.
"It's not that I want to hear it, I never want to hear it. Personally I’ve never been called that in person to my face on the baseball field, outside the baseball field, ever, so I don’t know what my reaction would be if I got called that," he said.
Miami's claims spark reaction from the Rockies
Marlins personnel, who initially heard the fan's calls from their local telecast feed, first brought it to the Rockies' attention after thinking it was a derogatory term.
The Rockies, later on, released a statement condemning the perceived behavior and noting that an immediate investigation was underway.
The Rockies organization spent the better part of Monday cycling through video and audio footage, calls, and even emails as part of their investigation.
It then contacted the fan, who explained – at least to the Rockies' satisfaction – that everything was indeed a misunderstanding.
Officials determined that the fan did not utter the racist slur, but instead called out "Dinger," the name of the Rockies' dinosaur mascot. The mascot was located two sections away from the audience member at the time.
The fan's voice was heard by both teams' recorded telecast feeds, but the Marlins said neither Brinson nor any other players on the field or in the dugout heard the shouting.
Now that everything's been "said" and done
Brinson appeared to be open-minded in that he wanted to form his own opinion on what he heard in the recordings. And he said he isn't completely closed off to the Rockies' claims that "Dinger" calls actually happened instead.
"I have sympathy. If he was yelling for the mascot, I am sorry for any backlash or any unnecessary attention he’s getting right now,” Lewis said of the fan.
"But this does happen in our game," he added. "I was in shock."
He also isn't against some kind of remedy to fix not only this situation, but countless mishaps like this that occur more to athletes of color.
"Again personally, I've never been called that...but I know a lot of Black players have, and it's disgusting and needs to stop like right now. There's no place for that in sports, there's no place for that in life," Brison said.
"I just don't want to have that situation thrown under the rug," he added.
He loosely suggested that the Rockies consider changing Dinger's name, to at least prevent this kind of debacle from occurring in the future.
It might be better than doing nothing going forward.
As of now, The Rockies haven't disclosed any plans to change their mascot's name.
Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire