Donald Sterling, the biggest reason the Los Angeles Clippers were a laughingstock during more than three decades as the team’s owner, was infamously removed from power in 2014 following the release of a racist rant he made that was caught on tape.
Apparently, it created inspiration in Miami.
Multiple publications were contacted by an anonymous tipster claiming to have a recorded audio clip — albeit of poor quality — of Miami Marlins president David Samson making derogatory and racist remarks about outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who had been sent to the minors.
In the short recording, an enhanced version of which was published Thursday by Deadspin, a male voice is heard saying: “Let me tell ya, tell [agent Scott] Boras that his client is getting demoted, and that his client is a fat, [unintelligible] lazy, Dominican f—.”
Samson said he had heard the tape and emphatically denied he made the comments.
“It is absolutely not me,” Samson told Deadspin. “It is a complete fake … If I had said that, I would tell [owner Jeffrey Loria] and I would resign.
“Someone is trying to take me down.”
Loria, who was also on the phone call with Deadspin and Samson, said the same.
“I was in the room,” Loria said. “That was not [Samson]. It sounds nothing like him.”
Though the “tip” ultimately was shot down as a hoax, the brazen defamation attempt seemed to expose the depths of enmity in the Miami area for the Marlins’ bumbling brass — and the basic plausibility of the premise in baseball circles.
One baseball reporter opined: “If you told me an executive had been caught on tape saying something fireable, I’d guess it was Samson before you finished your sentence.”