More discord out in Bristol today, as fan favorite Scott Van Pelt has been suspended from his ESPN radio show. His crime? A swear word? Several swear words? Going Bobby Knight and dropping effenheimers all over the place? No, according to DEADSPIN, who’s breaking yet another ESPN story, it was a biting rant on Bud Selig and his $18.5 million salary that raised the ire of ESPN execs.
(This is a rather unfortunate picture, in retrospect.)
Nobody seems to have audio of the segment in question (yet), but evidently it was personal enough to warrant a measure of discipline from ESPN.
Now, we can’t help but notice that ESPN and MLB just so happen to be rather pleasant business partners, so that sliding scale of professionalism might be a little different for baseball commentary than with, say, hockey, which ESPN has conveniently forgotten about since dropping their TV deal with the NHL. Said Deadspin:
Selig does have close relationships with many of ESPN’s top execs ( they are currently locked in an 8-year, $2.4 billion broadcast deal from 2005 for Sunday Night Baseball and have other contracts with MLB) and the initial story was that Selig himself heard the remarks and was personally offended by them, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
But while a suspension from the radio show seems harsh, it’s actually little more than a slap on the wrist.
That’s because–as far as we know–Van Pelt still has his seat at the SportsCenter desk, anchoring the show. Furthermore, this radio suspension can’t last for more than six weeks, because as we reported last month, Van Pelt’s show is already being phased out of the ESPN radio rotation anyway.
So Van Pelt’s got a little more than a month left before they axe his spot to clear room for Colin Cowherd’s ever expanding ego; why wouldn’t he take the opportunity to drop a few bombs on the sports radio world from here on out? As long as it doesn’t affect his anchor spot, that is; nobody wants to see him commit career suicide over a medium so dead it makes the newspaper business look like the oil industry.
As soon as anyone finds audio of the rant, we’d love to hear it; anything that elicits a suspension and a Deadspin commenter saying “It was 100% [fornicating] spot on and the only intelligent thing I’ve heard on ESPN Radio… maybe ever” and involves Bud Selig and a “pimp cup” is must-hear material.
4:23 pm on February 7th, 2009
Pimp Cup?
SVP is the man.
11:07 pm on February 7th, 2009
Van Pelt IS Espn. the man's words are pure gold and that's even without the genius commercials he's in.
Best. Sports personality. Ever
11:25 pm on February 7th, 2009
THAT is another reason why the muckety-mucks at espn are total douchebags.
9:18 am on February 8th, 2009
If Colin is going to be on instead of SVP, I'm going to kick Chris Berman in the balls. Although I wouldnt need an excuse.
12:06 pm on February 8th, 2009
1. 4 hrs of colin is too much already.2. what happened to freedom of speech? 3. bud. it's way too much money, but then again, it seems as though nobody else wants his job. might as well cash in on it.
1:32 pm on February 8th, 2009
What a bunch of crap. Selig is a joke and ESPN becomes more a joke every day. Having Colin on the radio at all is bad enough..
8:52 pm on February 8th, 2009
so lame it's scary
10:02 pm on February 8th, 2009
Anyone else see the similarities between ESPN & al Jazeera?
11:06 pm on February 8th, 2009
I heard the segment. SVP basically said that Selig didn’t deserve twice as much money as Stern and Goodell. That was the premise of the whole thing, that they were better commissioners than Selig and he didn’t deserve the amount of money he was getting when you compared him to those guys.
But a guy who talks sh*t about someone the day after they die is getting another hour? Stay classy, ESPN!
7:21 am on February 9th, 2009
Audio Link.
http://deadspin.com/5148743/espn-is-giving-scott-van-pelt-some-quiet-time
10:26 am on February 9th, 2009
ESPN….when you want your sports filtered through the egos of crusty old white guys who are trying to keep their pockets full of cash by not upsetting other crusty old white guys
10:56 am on February 9th, 2009
Does anyone even listen to sports radio anymore?
11:50 am on February 9th, 2009
Van Pelt is the best Sportscenter anchor they have. John Anderson & Neil Everett run a close second.
12:52 pm on February 9th, 2009
How dare anyone speak their mind!
5:49 pm on February 9th, 2009
Bud spelt in jewels………. almost pissed myself. The third reich of bristol,ct at it again. Seic……….ESPN
8:39 am on February 10th, 2009
Selig is a joke of a commissioner, I haven't heard VanPelts remarks as he made them, but regardless of the business relationship between ESPN and MLB you can't suspend a guy who is a journalist. His job is to be critical of the sports world in general and to hand-cuff the guy based on his comments shows what a joke ESPN has turned into over the last number of years. It's riddiculous to pay a commish $18.5 million for being an accomplice to fraud that has been baseball under his reign. I understand ESPN and MLB have a lot of money, but that doen't make it right to condemn the reporter and praise the rich commish. Give it a rest ESPN and MLB and start accepting the fact that you should be held legally liable for fraud at this juncture.
4:54 am on August 8th, 2009
seems that someone has mentioned that the king has no clothes and the result is to put the teller of truth in the punishment box - ummm, time off - please throw me in the brier patch too!
i may not agree with all that svp said, but will defend to the death his right to say it!