bret boone OAKLAND, CA – JUNE 30: Bret Boone #29 of the Seattle Mariners high fives teammates during an MLB game against the Oakland Athletics at McAfee Coliseum on June 30, 2005 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

On Wednesday afternoon, Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Stephen Cohen shared an interesting exchange he had with former Mariners All-Star Bret Boone.

For reasons unclear, Boone had sent Cohen a series of unprompted direct messages, joking about sexual harassment, which the reporter screen-shotted and shared.

“I got sexually harassed twice today. The Starbucks girl smiled at me and the woman at Rite Aid flirted with me. I’m getting a lawyer. Unacceptable,” Boone wrote, albeit with fewer spaces between his words.

When Cohen asked why Boone, a three-time All-Star who spent seven seasons with the Mariners, had reached out to him, the former second baseman responded that he was “sick of all the liberal bs.”

Obviously, Boone comparing smiling baristas with the type of serious, threatening conduct dominating the news drew a fair amount of outrage. A few hours later, he apologized in a more accurately punctuated statement.

“All, there are zero excuses for what I said earlier,” Boone wrote. “None. It was 100% wrong. It was offensive.”

So why the extremely sudden change of heart? We can’t know for sure, but it’s at least worth noting that Boone’s brother Aaron is one of six known candidates for the Yankees’ managerial job. And if you think Bret’s offensive comment couldn’t possibly affect Aaron’s job prospects, consider that the New York Post wrote up the story Wednesday under the headline, “Brother of Yankees managerial candidate mocks sexual misconduct.”

Aaron, for his part, appears to be doing some damage control. When a fan on Twitter said he “bet” Aaron shared Bret’s views on sexual harassment, Aaron responded, “Then you bet wrong.”

The Yankees probably won’t hold Aaron’s idiot brother against him as they pick their next manager, but the two Boones are probably in for an awkward phone call regardless.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

1 thought on “Former MLB All-Star Bret Boone apologizes for Neanderthal-like rant about sexual harassment

  1. Why is this a Neanderthal Rant? We all know that not every accusation is true and that the definition of harassment has changed greatly to meet the needs of contemporary feminists, who have very few other dragons to slay. Remember Duke Lacrosse? Mattress Girl? For that matter, what about all the allegations against Bill Cosby. Sure, many allegations are true, but not all are, and the reality is that–as these witch hunts escalate–the situations Moore described will very easily get classified as “harassment”. Any woman with an axe to grind can blithely destroy a man’s career with a simple accusation, and the penalties for false accusations are minimal. (Mattress Girl is still treated like a feminist hero.) I’ve known plenty of other women who get offended when they’re told they look nice today, or when they’re encouraged to smile. Not the same as Harvey Weinstein or Matt Lauer, yet the court of public opinion is filing all of them away in the same dossier.

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