….and that’s because he oughta save it for a blog. And not just any blog, mind you. You see, MLB Network’s Matt (above) is taking no shortage of abuse today for his ill-advised, wildly off-topic remarks last night comparing an unidentified, dark-skinned EMT worker to Donovan McNabb. Deadspin‘s Dashiell Bennett was quick to note Vasgersian’s “poorly executed brand of ‘humor.'”
I’m not entirely clear how Vasgarian’s unfunny observation was altogether different from Deadspin’s founding editor giggling over Aaron Neville’s alleged resemblance to Cleveland from “Family Guy“. Unless it’s a all a matter of context (ie. Matt Vasgersian’s transgressions are more mock-worthy because he’s not handing out any links).
A commentor on CSTB used to refer to Ken Singleton as “Dr. Hibbard.” I think that there are degrees of offensiveness. For example, I remember reading in SI once where a football player called one of the Grammatica brothers a “greaseball” and neither the writer of the piece nor any of the readers seemed to be offended; I was. That was much worse than the Cleveland/Aaron Neville comparison. But worse of all of them was the racial crap that Will Leitch got called on during that infamous NPR interview. Deadspin calling out Vasgersian is pot/kettle for that much more than for the Cleveland reference.
Leitch is definitely top-shelf offender in that business. Vasgersian is a poor excuse for the new-generation announcer that actually has some good people like Jon Sciambi, Dave Pasch, Dave Flemming, and Andy Freed among others. It kind of reminds me of the inauguration when Brian Williams mixed up Reggie Love and Craig Robinson but that was an honest mistake and Williams had a friendship with Love so it seemed like an honest one. Vasgersian thinks that playing the look-alike game as an icebreaker is supposed to be funny. Anybody who laughed at that has no right to think anything else is funny or unfunny.
all white people are full of shit and racist so who cares. i love white woman.
What gets lost in all this is that Deadspin has admitted to making a poor judgment call in this situation because…get this…Vasgersian is a commenter on the site.
I don’t like that guy anyway (hate the sound of his voice, he just seems to be way too smarmy), but that just makes me hate him even more. Thank (insert deity) that ship is rapidly sinking under the weight of its own frattiness.
I wasn’t aware Vasgersian had commented on this at Deadspin, but I did see an apology / “don’t go racial on me” comment attributed to him at Kissing Kyle Korver.