Media lead charge to smear Rockies fan they falsely accused of using racial slur toward Marlins outfielder

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Several media figures and others in the baseball establishment are being slammed for hastily and ultimately falsely accusing a Colorado Rockies fan of repeatedly yelling a racial slur at a Miami Marlins player who is Black, with some later making an about-face on the matter.

When the Marlins' Lewis Brinson, 27, was at the plate in the ninth inning on Sunday, microphones at Coors Field in Denver picked up the fan repeatedly yelling something many critics immediately declared to be the n-word, ostensibly directed at the opposing team's batter.

A review of the situation found that the fan, who has not been identified, was in fact shouting "Dinger!" at the Rockies' purple triceratops mascot. The man was reportedly trying to get Dinger's attention so that it could take a photograph with his grandchildren.

But many on social media circulated video of the incident assuming that the man was yelling a racial epithet.

Former ESPN sportscaster Keith Olbermann, also once a left-wing fixture on MSNBC's primetime lineup, decried the alleged slur on Twitter – calling for the Rockies organization to prove that they "apprehended the racist and what they did to him."

Olbermann further called for an investigation by Major League Baseball, noting it is "responsible for the conduct of their patrons."

By Monday, the outspoken commentator had changed his tune somewhat, referring to the unnamed grandfather as "the supposed 'Dinger' screamer", and calling the situation "obviously confusing" as the Rockies had not yet retracted their initial statement criticizing the fan.

In its initial statement, the team also condemned the fan, saying they were "disgusted at the racial slur by a fan directed at the Marlins' Lewis Brinson."

"Although the subject was not identified prior to the end of the game, the Rockies are still investigating this incident," the initial statement continued.

However, on Monday, the Rockies advised via Twitter that they had finished conducting the aforementioned probe, and also concluded that the fan was trying to get Dinger the Triceratops' attention.

"There was never any racial slur that occurred," they said.

ESPN also neglected to couch their initial coverage of the unclear audio, declaring in their original headline that "fan uses racial slur" toward Brinson.

Brinson himself said he did not hear the man shouting while he was at bat, and later reviewed the tape that by then had gone viral.

"So I watched the video at least 50 times in the past 15-16 hours," Brinson said on a Zoom call before Monday night’s Marlins-Padres game in San Diego. "I personally — this is again my personal opinion — I personally keep hearing the n-word. It’s not that I want to hear it, I never want to hear it. Personally, I’ve never been called that in-person to my face on the baseball field, outside the baseball field, ever, so I don’t know what my reaction would be if I got called that."

"But to now, saying that again, I haven’t talked to the Rockies or that fan personally. If that’s the case, then I’m sorry for any backlash or anything he’s getting right now," he added.

Regarding other media coverage, Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross screenshotted the Washington Post's initial coverage – which blared that the "n-word was shouted multiple times" at Coors Field.

"No equivocation whatsoever," Ross said. "They could have thrown in a qualifier somewhere, but chose not to."

The Post later led with the conclusion of the Rockies' team investigation being that the man was indeed shouting at Dinger and not a slur at Brinson.

Marlins' play-by-play announcer Paul Severino also quickly called out what he thought to be hateful language directed at Brinson:

"I’m absolutely disgusted at the language that was picked up by the mics late in the game today. The level of hate that was displayed has no place in this world. Unfortunately it’s still far too prevalent. We need to be better. And soon. Awful," he tweeted, in a message that was later deleted.

Severino later addressed the deleted statement, writing that he heard "what, in the moment I believed to be a racial slur."

"I quickly asked our production crew if they heard what I thought I heard. They agreed and we decided to apologize on-air immediately. In the moment, I didn't have the benefit of a full review. I'm relieved I was wrong, that what I thought I heard was a mistake," he said, going on to personally apologize to the fan in question and lamenting the backlash the grandfather received.

Washington's WMAL radio host Larry O'Connor condemned the Rockies and the media for their hasty reaction to the incident, saying that the MLB team was cowed by the "social media mob" into declaring one of their fans a bigot, lest they be swiftly criticized online.

"The Rockies were compelled to throw their own fans under the bus as despicable racists lest they suffer the 24-hour cycle of rage on Twitter," O'Connor said.

"They opted to call their own fans bigots to appease the social media mob. Think. About. That."

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The team later said fans who were seated nearby contacted the club in defense of the fan after it put out a statement saying it was disgusted by epithets hurled at Brinson when he was up in the ninth inning of the Rockies’ 13-8 victory in Denver.

Steve Staeger of 9NEWS in Denver said he spoke to the fan, who doesn’t want his identity released. The man told Staeger that he was at the game with his wife and grandkids, and he wanted all of them to take a picture with the Rockies’ mascot.

Staeger says the man was "devastated" that people heard him the wrong way. The man reportedly didn’t hear about any of the news until his daughter called him today because the Rockies called her about the incident.

Fox News' Daniel Canova and the Associated Press contributed to this report.