Steve Lyons was just on the Score’s Drive This and he may’ve stepped in another pile of shit. While discussing the social habits of his former teammate Ozzie Guillen, Lyons began telling a story about how he and Guillen fleeced a couple of Texans when they were teammates in Chicago. After seeing some big Texans tossing past a bar’s Speed Gun, Lyons approached them and claimed to be able to find a patron who could top their speed. He chose Ozzie Guillen. Being that, this is not a word-for-word transcript of Lyon’s tale, “He looked like he should be in the back washing dishes”, the Texans happily agreed. Ozzie threw 10 Miles faster and Lyons collected $100.
Considering Lyons’ past, today’s storytelling could cause a shitstorm without context. While delivering the dishwashing line, it was clear Lyons was not referring to Guillen’s nationality but his physical stature, being that the Ozzie of old’s stature screamed dishwasher, not professional ballplayer. I didn’t even notice the potential insensitivity of the line until it was pointed out by my buddy. Who knows.
UPDATE: Transcript from the Score Website
Richard Garner: A character for sure…
Steve Lyons: The craziest thing that we ever did was we were in a bar in Texas one time and there were these big cowboys that came in with their little girlfriends and they had one of those speed pitch machines in this bar, ya know, throw it as hard as you can. And I meandered over there while the big guys were throwing the ball and I said, you know what, I bet I could pick out any kid in this bar and they could throw the ball harder than any of you guys are. They said, “Ya, go ahead”. I said, I’ll take that little scrawny kid over there that looks like he should be washing dishes in the back…and it was Ozzie. And he came over and flipped the ball like he was turning a double play and he threw it 10 miles faster than any of those guys could. And I bet them a hundred bucks and walked away with their money.
primoz forever 
I listened to the show and thus heard the quote live. Ozzie and Lyons are buddies and his story was clearly meant to do nothing more than amuse. No chance Ozzie bats an eyelash, nor should anyone looking to fill print the implication.
Derek,
What surprises me most about the story is Lyons’ carefree delivery of the line in question. Considering his past, you’d think he’d be more careful with his choice of words.
Plus, his description of Ozzie was eerily similar to the recent comments of Johnny Miller, who apologized despite Rocko’s assertion that it wasn’t necessary.
And while I agree Ozzie will shrug this shit off, it doesn’t justify Lyons’ generalization of him and those of similar appearance. This “buddy card” shit may play in private, but not in a public forum.