‘IMG_0598’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

On Wednesday night, Rob Dibble opened his mouth during a MASN broadcast of the Nationals and swallowed his whole foot. He said, of two women sitting behind home plate, that they must be talking about shopping. It went on like this for a bit. His broadcasting partner, Bob Carpenter, tried to help Dibble out of the jam, and threw him a rope. Instead of taking it, Dibble hung himself with it.

There have been a lot of column inches and pixels devoted to Dibble’s terrible miscue, and his ill-advised rambling, and we’re not about to join them except to say: In the short history of the Nationals, no one figure, on the field or off, has been so widely discussed and largely disliked as the MASN broadcaster. There’s good reason for that, and his comments Wednesday were pretty much atrocious. They represent the worst sort of bias: the kind that’s laughed off.

In his response today on the MASN website, Dibble once again dodged this issue. In a piece titled, “The Greatness of Baseball”, Rob Dibble does everything but apologize. He concludes the non-apology by blaming those who interpreted his remarks: “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.” Continue reading →