Plaintiff Stephen Lyons, a former professional baseball player later employed as a sportscaster for Fox TV and the Los Angeles Dodgers, met Stacey Roy while they were both vacationing with their families at a hotel in Hawaii. Following an afternoon of poolside conversation, Lyons followed Roy in the elevator to the floor of her hotel room and took her by the wrist to a hallway alcove, where he asked her to expose her breasts ...

And ... lawsuit. Some more charming excerpts from this court document:

Now, this interaction happened a few years ago, and Roy later reported the incident to local police and hotel security, accusing Lyons of sexual assault. (No criminal charges were filed. She's thought by some to be one of these money-grubbing trolls who likes to trap athletes in these situations.) But Roy sued Lyons for all sorts of damages stemming from the event, and Lyons' official deposition, for the most part, didn't deny they, well, interacted:

On March 10, 2002, Lyons and Roy were both guests at the Westin Maui hotel in Hawaii. They met at the hotel pool, where they chatted for several hours. Lyons claimed that Roy made several references to her large breasts, and to "how everybody loves to see them. And . . . '[i]f you are a good boy, maybe you will.'" When Roy left the pool area to return to her room, Lyons accompanied her. After they both got off the elevator on the sixth floor, Lyons asked Roy to show him her breasts. According to Lyons, Roy said she was afraid of being observed in the hall. Lyons took her by the wrist and led her to an alcove near the elevator, where he repeated his request, stating, "[Y]ou know, you've been wanting to do this all day . . . so let's just move over here." Roy declined because of concern that her husband might come by. According to Lyons, he then walked Roy to the door of her room and returned to the pool area. He denied any physical contact with Roy, other than having held her wrist when outside the elevator.

Lyons did settle the case for $175,000, for some reason, even if he didn't admit doing anything wrong. After the settlement, Lyons apparently filed a suit against Fire Insurance attempting to get a portion of it covered because, the whole incident was an "accident" and, you know, homeowners insurance should cover these types of "accidents." This is perhaps not the best way to keep the case out of the public eye.

When Steve Lyons was fired from Fox Sports in 2006 for his supposedly insensitive remarks about Spanish people and Lou Piniella , it seemed like he was getting the boot a little unjustly. And, Lyons stood up for himself after the incident, claiming it was a joke that wasn't racially motivated in anyway. He apologized for it, he moved on and is now back in the booth at Fox broadcasting for the Dodgers — for now.

The Dodgers did return a call and said that both they, and Steve Lyons, respectfully have no comment on this suit whatsoever.

Full Court Documentation [Deadspin]

This one's from 'Jayski20' on the SpeedTV message board:

Michael (Waltrip) said that 10% of the NASCAR fanbase is Hispanic or Latino and Ray carried on very animated saying he was outside of his mind, saying something to the effect that the only people he sees that are hispanic at the race track were working there and starting babbling in German...and that you have to go to Miami or Texas to see Hispanics.

Someone mentioned Hispanics were 10% of the NASCAR viewing audience and Ray said something to the affect of 'yeah right. The only Hispanics you see at a race track on the ones working there.'

Oh, and by the way: Ray Dunlap, suspended. Steve Lyons, fired.

So what happened? [News-Record.com]
Ray Dunlap Suspended [Insider.SpeedTV.com]
You Can Shove Your Sorrys In A Sack, Mister [Deadspin]
Trying To Make Sense Of Anything Involving Steve Lyons [Deadspin]

But while Russ Hodges' radio call is readily available, Thomas' soon, probably, won't be. Comcast Southeast has already cut it from its pay-per-view rebroadcast of the game, and Thomas hasn't been heard from since. At least in person. We wouldn't be surprised if the YouTube version disappeared soon as well, as their Google overlords continue to prepare earth for colonization. Soon it will be as if Thomas was erased from the landscape, his very existence merely a rumor. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

After his NFL career, Thomas reportedly did apply for an assistant's job with the Hurricanes earlier this year. Thomas may have been a superstar in his new broadcasting career if he had used words such as, 'This is what a lot of 'Canes are thinking right now,' as a preface to Saturday's remarks. Instead, we got a certain 'Canes mind-set unfiltered, and Thomas got himself fired. That came Monday, after the fight with the Thomas soundtrack became an instant YouTube.com classic. These words from Thomas, on the telecast as the fight continued, will linger longer than anything (University of Miami president Donna) Shalala says.

Meanwhile, happier news. After Lou Piniella came to his defense on Tuesday, Steve Lyons is getting a portion of his job back. Fired by Fox for, well, we're not sure what during game 3 of the ALCS, FSN Prime Ticket says that he will return as the part-time TV announcer for the Dodgers. In a statement, Fox said: "And that's what we're talkin' about. You don't come into the Fox booth, baby. We've had a couple of down years, but you don't come in here talkin' smack."

UM Feeling Media Backlash [Miami Herald]
1951 National League Playoff [MLB.com]
Brawl Will Finish Off Miami's Coker [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Lamar Thomas Speaks [Kind Of] [Deadspin]
Piniellla Say Lyons Was Just Kidding [Yahoo! News]

This is not to imply that we don't think Lyons should have been fired. He should have. In fact, it might have been nice if he had not only been fired, but perhaps tickled in the public square until he urinated on himself. But that's neither here nor there.

The real question involves his remarks. We're not saying they weren't racist; we're just saying we don't have the foggiest idea of what Lyons was talking about. To quote the exchange, from the New York Times article:

Piniella said that expecting similar production (from A's shortstop Marco Scutaro) would be "like finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too." Four minutes later, they had moved to different subjects and Piniella said something in Spanish. "The bilingual Lou Piniella," Brennaman said. Lyons said: "Lou's habla'ing some Espa ol there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him and I don't want to sit close to him now." The three laughed and continued calling the game.

That is racist in the same way that "the Asian man ate some food and boy, isn't food great, folks? You know what else is great? Candles!" is. That is to say: It is nonsensical babble. If you started firing sports broadcasters for nonsensical babble, well, jeez, maybe Vin Scully would be left ... but probably not.

Please do not take this as a defense of Steve Lyons. At all.

Lyons Fired [Associated Press]
He Definitely Won't Have To Sit Next To Lou Piniella Anymore [Deadspin]

(UPDATE: Gelf Magazine has a good roundup of Lyons reaction.)

Piniella said that expecting similar production (from A's shortstop Marco Scutaro, who hit well in the divisional series against Minnesosta) would be "like finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too."

Four minutes later, they had moved to different subjects and Piniella said something in Spanish. "The bilingual Lou Piniella," Brennaman said.

Lyons said: "Lou's habla'ing some Espa ol there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him and I don't want to sit close to him now." The three laughed and continued calling the game.

After the clever "habla'ing some Espa ol" line, I'm not sure I even understand what Lyons is saying there. He doesn't want to sit next to Lou Piniella because he's speaking Spanish? Lou Piniella steals wallets because of his Hispanic heritage? I don't know what he's saying. I don't get the joke enough to even know how much of it's racist, and how much it's just Steve Lyons being a total doofus. Given his track record, though, I don't blame Fox for pulling the plug.

It was about a month ago that he made fun of a fan with low vision who was using a magnifying device to watch a game, and Lyons also got into some trouble for things he once said about Shawn Green's Jewish heritage. You can find that passage in the Sandomir article, too.

Fox Fires Lyons Over Racial Comments [New York Times]

Anyway, now that that's done, our intrepid blogger is continuing to tilt at the proverbial windmill: He's set up a bracket for the most loathsome non-ESPN sports personalities. Currently, Steve "Psycho" Lyons is hammering Craig Sager; earlier, Tim McCarver — an early favorite — drilled hapless Dan Marino. Go vote!

The Road From Bristol (NIT Version) [BravesBeat]
The Road From Bristol (Final ESPN Bracket) [Braves Beat] (PDF)