Situational comedy that includes gay people and events/misunderstandings/complications that may arise specifically related to the gayness is not homophobic humor. You can make fun of gay people without being homophobic….just like you can make fun of just about any other group without being sexist/racist/classist.

So, you’ve never seen anyone ‘pretend’ to fight? It’s approximately the most common joke in any school. Ditto for trash talking. If McDowell said he had nice big jar of whoop-ass in the clubhouse refrigerator, would we calling for his head? Geez, go watch “Shark Tale” and its obvious that even a 5 year old can understand that threats expressed in a silly way are funny. Did I miss all of the lawsuits against the makers of that film?

Look, I’m not suggesting that he didn’t cross the line – he did. He needs to understand that. He really does. Hence the reprimand, and hopefully further measures to make sure he doesn’t have a problem like this ever again. However, I wholly despise the glee so many people take in ruining a man, regardless if they have taken the time to hear another side, and what else he’s done over the last 2.5 decades. North America is not crawling with saints, and neither is this thread.

Are we sure this guy was really – I mean REALLY – threatening a fan, and not just goofing around? The descriptions I have read can easily be seen as someone trying to clown around, like a comedian dishing back to a heckler in a way that is entertaining for the rest of the audience. That doesn’t excuse insensitive remarks or PG-13 humor, but this perspective is far more consistent with his reputation as a joker and prankster. The guy has no history of violent incidents, but he does have a history of being seen with his uniform pants over his head with his shoes on his hands.

Sure, sure, lapse in judgment. Perhaps so far as a *serious* lapse in judgment. The guy needs to understand that what was funny in the 80′s isn’t all acceptable nowadays. After 26 years of being in and around the game, “Baseball” knows this guy pretty well by now, and if everything was as blatantly fan-unfriendly as we’ve been reading, the guy would certainly be out of a job. To me, that explains the proverbial wrist-slap, and if such is the case, it’s the right call. If McDowell is truly the upright kinda guy I guessed earlier, he’ll learn from this and respect the fact that he’s still in the game that much more.

The media loves roasting people and – sadly – the public likes watching and calling for the destruction of a man. See comments above. For my part, I’d rather see a a guy who put in as much time and good work as McDowell has getting some benefit of the doubt.

SF was the largest West Coast ship building center up until the middle of the cold war, at one point had over 10,000 United Airlines mechanics, etc at their huge SFO hub, it was a city in the middle of an agricultural region, and is still a huge port city. As I said, blue collar foundations.

By the mid ’60′s there were a lot of changes to the demographics, but look at the on location footage from “Dirty Harry” (1971) and you can get a sense of the city’s blue collar past. Or for baseball historians, the shootout scene from “Magnum Force” (1973) where Tim Matheson bites it (Oh, Otter) which takes place in China Basin, now the location of AT&T Park.