From showing support for NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace to turning NFL ownership over Colin Kaepernick, professional sports face a new frontier. Safer and more welcoming workplaces are at the forefront. Even less than ten years ago, this was unimaginable. Consider the case of former Atlanta Braves throwing coach Roger McDowell.
It had a collapse of epic proportions involving homophobic slurs and sexual gestures. The children were present. Then, a famous lawyer organized a bizarre press conference to reenact the whole thing. McDowell kept his job. This is how one of the most embarrassing moments in sport was born.
From World Series winning reliever to Braves throwing coach
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McDowell earned his streaks as an acute relief from his first MLB season in 1985. He consecrated his name in New York Mets history the following year with his closing instrumental work in the NLCS. He wasn’t that closed in the infamous World Series that followed, but he still played a crucial role in the seventh game.
It looked like the Boston Red Sox had game in their bag. Bill Buckner’s infamous mental mistake of playing a simple slow-roller is the turning point of this game. McDowell held the Mets’ chances together for the seventh frame, allowing no runs and receiving credit for the win.
As solid relievers often experience, McDowell bounced between teams for the rest of his relatively successful career. His win / loss record of 70-70 is backed by a solid ERA of 3.30 and 129 credited saves, according to Baseball-Reference. Even at the end of his career, when he narrowly surpassed the ERA 4.0 score, he was still below the championship average of the time.
His second act after retiring from active play was to become a well-regarded pitching coach. He spent 10 years with the Braves, until 2016. The Baltimore Orioles gave him a chance from 2016 to 2018, reports the Baltimore Sun. However, it’s a strange moment in the middle years of his Braves run that he’s best known for.
Roger McDowell’s offensive actions and bizarre press conference
Throwing coaches are moved regularly, essentially the first to go whenever a bullpen goes south. The fact that McDowell has stayed with the Braves for a full decade speaks well of his quality as a pitching coach. The quality of his character, however, is a bit more controversial.
In 2011, when the Braves were in San Francisco to play the Giants, McDowell had a verbal dispute with fans. Apparently it got ugly. He shouted homophobic insults to the public, explains Bleacher Report. He focused on one family in particular, getting into a screaming match with the father of a family of four. In front of the man’s two young daughters, McDowell used a baseball bat to make a sexual gesture.
Somehow, things get even weirder from here. The backlash from fans and media has exploded. The disgruntled fan’s move was to hire famous attorney Gloria Allred, who recommended organizing a televised press conference on the matter.
With both children of Giants fans in attendance, Allred repeated McDowell’s statements. Even stranger, he mimicked McDowell’s offensive baseball bat display, Sports Illustrated reports, complete with a clinically detached expression.
Would Roger McDowell’s career survive this incident today?
After the double weirdness of McDowell’s bizarre outburst and the bizarre public response from the family lawyer, not much has happened. He apologized publicly. The Braves have received a simple two-week suspension. This is less punishment than it would likely happen today.
Even before the recent, rapid changes in the social order of sports, things were taking a turn. McDowell lasted with the Braves for years after his accident reported USA Today. But another pitching coach, Chris Bosio, immediately got the boot for racist comments in the Detroit Tigers clubhouse. McDowell is unlikely to survive his 2011 ordeal by keeping his job if it happens in 2020 and beyond.
