Update: Spider Monkey Is Still A Good Nickname, Calling A Black Man A Monkey Is Still Extremely Racist

The Athletic - Former Tigers pitching coach Chris Bosio directed a racial slur toward a clubhouse attendant following a game this past week, The Athletic has learned, precipitating his firing Wednesday.

Bosio called the attendant, who is African-American, a “monkey,” according to four team sources. The remark was directed toward the young man, who was collecting towels from the coaches’ room at the time, during a post-game gripe session in which Bosio was lamenting about a pitcher.

During this exchange, Bosio made a derogatory comment about one of the Tigers pitchers and then gestured toward the attendant before adding, “like this monkey here,” the sources said. The attendant pushed back at Bosio for the comment, and an additional team employee witnessed the exchange. Bosio was provided an opportunity to apologize to the attendant after his outburst but declined to do so, according to multiple sources.

In his first public comments following his dismissal, Bosio told USA Today on Thursday that he was “in shock” over what had transpired and the 55-year-old former MLB pitcher said that his comments were misinterpreted. Bosio claimed that he was referring to Tigers reliever Daniel Stumpf as “Spider Monkey” because of the strange faces the lefty makes when he works out. Bosio claimed that this is Stumpf’s nickname, and that the clubhouse attendant heard the word “monkey.”

Stumpf told The Detroit Free Press Thursday night that he was not aware of that nickname. All four sources who spoke to The Athletic disputed Bosio’s account.

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Well, here is the other side of the story I was waiting for. In yesterday’s blog I wrote the obvious thing- there are always two sides to stories like this. Bosio claimed he was referring to pitcher Daniel Stumpf as a “spider monkey”, the black clubhouse attendant thought he was referring to him as a monkey, and the Tigers swiftly fired Bosio over a misunderstanding. A ridiculous reason to fire someone, right? For calling a pitcher a “spider monkey”? It would bring down the entire Barstool empire if you couldn’t say Spider Monkey anymore.

And now- the other side has spoken. First, Stumpf said he had never heard that nickname used for him before. But more importantly, The Athletic is claiming 4 different sources saw Bosio refer to the man as a monkey, and that Bosio did not apologize for it.  That my friends, makes him a racist, and also importantly, gives me back the good spider monkey name. A racist fired and Spider Monkey free from the scrutiny- doesn’t get much better than that.

Now, we have a game of he-said, she-said. And in this game, the side of “4 sources say he called the black man a monkey” is going to win, every single time.