Radio sports talker Tony Bruno calls baseball players 'pansies'

Left to right: Ass, Tony Bruno, Pansy

Radio sports talker Tony Bruno was widely criticized and suspended by DirecTV for one week for falsely describing a San Francisco Giants relief pitcher as an "illegal alien" after the Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies were involved in a brawl August 5. Ramon Ramirez, the pitcher of whom Bruno was speaking, pitches in the major leagues with a valid work permit.

Although the implicit racism in Bruno's illegal alien remark drew an apology from Bruno on the air and on his Facebook account, he did not apologize nor has he been suspended for a casual homophobic slur shortly thereafter. Reports Roger Brigham in the Bay Area Reporter:

Talking about the brawl between the Phillies and the Giants, [Bruno] said, "Luckily, most baseball players are pansies and don't throw punches so nobody gets hurt."

Ex-squeeze me?

When referring to people, as virtually any online urban dictionary or fifth-grade student can tell you, pansy means sissy, fag, fairy, or any other term to indicate an effeminate, homosexual man. It's a fightin' word of the intellectually ineffectual.

Helen Carroll, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights Sports Project, responded,

"It is interesting to me that when men in the sports world throw an angry temper tantrum – and I am referring specifically to sports radio host Tony Bruno's comment that, 'most baseball players are pansies' – they still believe that the worst name to call an athlete refers to his sexual orientation as gay.  How many negative examples do we have to endure? Perhaps I should say, how many young athletes questioning or coming to terms with their sexual orientation have to be subjected to an action that has been proven time and again to be harmful and detrimental? I am glad we can all continue to see these remarks for what they are: a hateful, inexcusable tirade that has no place in sports."

Bruno's remark can be heard on the archived podcast of his August 5 evening sports talk show.