Rob Dibble has been a lightning rod for controversy since he began working as a color commentator for the Nationals last season, but he got himself in some hot water last week when he made some comments about women who were chatting in the seats right behind home plate.
He finally addressed the situation yesterday in a blog post on MASN where he did his best to diffuse the situation:
The other night I made an off-handed comment, the meaning of which may have been misconstrued beyond what was said. If any fan of this great game took offense, then he or she should know that this was neither my intention nor my history in the game.
I have had the privilege of knowing a great many fans of all backgrounds who are students of the game. Many of baseball's most insightful fans, television viewers, and callers to my radio show are women.
Are you sold on Dibble's apology? Yeah, me neither.
I could go into why Dibble apology just doesn't cut it, but Tom Bridge has already done a fine job explaining why Dibble's apology just doesn't cut it, over at We Love D.C.:
It wasn't an offhanded comment, Rob, it was a number of conversations between you and your broadcaster throughout the game, using two women engaged in watching a baseball game as the butt of your bad jokes. That's just not cool. You ought to have at least apologized to them. This is the sort of behavior that has people calling into question not just your lack of skill as a broadcaster, but your character as well. A gentleman would have said he was sorry. You did not.
If there's anything I've learned in my life, it's that the best way to diffuse a situation is by being upfront, accepting blame for what you said, even if you didn't mean to belittle anyone and try to demonstrate what you will do to avoid a similar incident in the future. Rob did none of those things. With time people will forget about these comments, but unless Rob does more to show he's sorry for his comments, he won't be forgiven anytime soon.
UPDATE: Rob Dibble also talked about his comments on-air this afternoon, here's what he had to say:
"You know, Bob, recently some things have come to my attention that, in cyberspace, some really toxic and hurtful things have been mentioned about me, something I said last week during a baseball game. To anybody that does not know me that was offended, or took offense with what I said in my weak attempt to be humorous during a down time during the game, I truly apologize. That's not truly how I feel about any baseball fan -- men, women, or children. And so I wrote a blog, in my own words, not the words of other people who'd like you to think differently, on MASNSports.com. So, my humble and sincere apology if I offended anybody last week."
That's better, Rob. Still not great, but better.