Costas gives self an ‘E’
BOB COSTAS is one of the most respected voices in baseball.
But even legends strike out on occasion.
The veteran broadcaster told the Daily News that he regretted his over-thetop criticism of Chicago reliever Pedro Strop on Friday during his call of the Cubs-Cardinals game for MLB Network.
Strop entered in the eighth inning with a 2-1 lead and proceeded to surrender a leadoff home run before hitting a batter and walking another. He was pulled after just one-third of an inning.
On his way off the field, Strop pointed to the sky. Costas took exception with the gesture and expressed his feeling on air.
“We can only ask, or wonder, that he is asking some departed relative for forgiveness for this atrocious performance,” Costas said.
Costas was blasted on social media when the commentary surfaced.
Before seeing any Internet reaction, however, Costas told the Daily News that he had already taken action to reconcile the situation.
Costas said his producer, Chris Pfeiffer, notified him late Friday night that the comments had come across “a bit more harshly” than intended. Costas immediately retrieved the tape from the game and re-watched the segment in his hotel room. “I winced,” Costas said. Costas called Peter Chase, the Cubs’ assistant director of media relations, at 10:30 Saturday morning to request a meeting with Strop on Sunday to apologize. Chase agreed to set it up.
Costas said he would have met with Strop on Saturday, but had previously planned commitments.
“The tone of it was not what I intended. I intended it as a kind of sarcastic comment about this overall thing where everybody seems to be pointing toward the heavens for every accomplishment, large and small, or even for no accomplishment at all,” Costas said. “I inadvertently appeared harsh toward Strop. That wasn’t my intention. And so I owe him an apology. And I will apologize to him (on Sunday).”
Costas was adamant in saying his reaching out to Chase had nothing to do with the Internet backlash.
“We can be disingenuous about it if we want, if it suits our purposes, but we all know this: We live in an age of faux outrage, of disproportionate outrage. Everything is shocking, over the top. ‘He savaged Pedro Strop’ — I mean, come on, come on. Let’s get a handle on this,” Costas said. “I could have done better and I will apologize. But . . . that’s just Internet stuff. I’m going to take care of it the same way I would have taken care of it if it was 1986. And that’s going to be that.”