Given his not so tiny role in spreading unattributed allegations about former ESPN analyst Harold Reynolds, Deadspin’s Will Leitch would seem a curious choice for one of the new MLB.com hire’s first interviews. But full credit to Reynolds and MLB Advanced Media — if there’s a P.R. war to fight, they’ve probably picked the right battlefield. I mean, if Leitch can give John Rocker a shoulder to cry on, a balanced approach to Reynolds’ case is no great leap.
In addition to a denial of having taken a course in what Leitch calls “sexual harrassment training” (surely he means “sensitivity training”?), Reynolds demurs on the question of whether or not ESPN is “a difficult place for women to work” (“Anytime you have women in a sports environment, it’s going to be difficult to them. They’re just outnumbered; they become a minority,”) and sadly for Will, rejects a request for a hug (“I don’t think my lawyers would like that too much.”) But here’s the part I found truly sad :
Do you still talk with any of the guys from the show?
Kurkjian and Peter (Gammons) have called, and I speak with them a lot. Ravech has tried to contact me a couple of times. The main people I worked with were Peter, Karl, Krukie and occasionally Kurkjian, and everybody’s contacted me except for Kruk. I’m not gonna sit here and slam him, though.
So there you have it. The next time Sir Kruk waxes poetic about the importance of standing up for one’s teammates, you’ll know that once again, he’s totally full of shit.
The problem is that he actually cannot stand up at all. Give the fat dood a break.
Even Kruk’s wife thought that remark wasn’t as disgusting as it could’ve been.
I was going to post on Screechy Leitchy’s site something like “so is HR pretty good in the sack, Will?” but I don’t have a username and I can’t be bothered to create one. Alas. Have you seen that pic of your best buddy and HR? Will looks like he just swallowed something. I think he got more than just a hug.
“sexual harrassment trainingâ€
That’s hilarious. I read the interview and hadn’t even thought of that interpretation the first time, but it seems pretty funny now. Maybe if he’d had the training he would have been good enough at it to truly deserving the sacking.
Strangely enough, Leitch is kind of on the mark, although “sexual harassment prevention training” is probably a more accurate descriptor. Some states, including Connecticut, require yearly (or some other periodic) training on that specific topic, for all of the employees of companies of a certain size. General “sensitivity training” doesn’t fit the bill.
Mark –
exactly. Even for a firm that hasn’t been the subject of rumor, accusation, etc. , some kind of workplace training is not so unusual. And perhaps it is nitpicky as hell to laugh about a semantic issue such as this. I mean, unless Will was genuinely trying to get a pull quote supreme out of Reynolds (ie. “I’ve had lots of training in sexual harrassment!”), this was fairly innocent stuff.
Rog, I’ve seen the pic in question. Though I’d not thought of that particular circumstance, I thank you sincerely for ruining my breakfast.