Breaking News: A Settlement Has Been Reached In Harold Reynolds Lawsuit Against ESPN
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The trial wasn't supposed to happen until 2009, and according to AP it's not going to happen at all. A settlement has reached in Reynolds vs. ESPN.....
BRISTOL, Conn. — ESPN says a settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed by former baseball analyst Harold Reynolds over his firing. Reynolds sued the sports network for at least $5 million in October 2006, three months after he was fired. He claimed he was wrongly fired after a female intern complained about what he called a “brief and innocuous” hug. Reynolds played 12 seasons in the major leagues and worked at the network for 11 years. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. An ESPN spokesman says the suit was settled last week in Hartford Superior Court.Obviously no numbers are going to be released, but you can imagine how big that check for Mr. Reynolds is going to be. And thus ends our long and strange trip that has taken us from Bristol, to an Outback, to MLB, to Connecticut Courts, and now a settlement. We'll never really know what happened and thanks to this settlement there will be no ESPN "Dirty Laundry" (rats), but I hope that Harold Reynolds is at least feels somewhat vindicated by this.
The only reaction I have to this all is.........I really miss Baseball Tonight.
Update: ESPN's "Johnny on the Spot" Spokesman Mike Soltys has made a statement on the Network's behalf....
According to the lawsuit, ESPN terminated Reynolds’ contract “for cause,” but gave no further explanation or specific reasons. ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said the resolution allows the network to spare the people involved any further disruptions and that the settlement was “economically compelling” for ESPN. “Our confidence in both the appropriateness of our action andour legal position never wavered,” Soltys said Tuesday.I wouldn't expect anything else from the "Leader".
Update #2: Here is HR's response....
“My family and I are ecstatic,” Reynolds said in a statement Tuesday night. “This was a matter of principle and I stood on principle and never wavered. All of my goals were met and now I look forward to concentrating on the game I love.”Now if MLB could only put you in a format that I could see. Good for you HR.
Update #3: And now the video....
(Thanks to Anon for the tip. Both quotes via the Associated Press.)
8 Comments:
Harold deserves to have either the spot next to Ernie Johnson on TBS or between Kevin Kennedy & Ms. Bugged Out Eyes on Fox.
HR better get a job as an analyst somewhere, but you have to wonder how this is going to play out down the road for him. What network will hire him? He's a great analyst, yes, but in a field of how many?
Also just saw on the 11 pm sportscenter they ran a short reader about the lawsuit and ESPN's statement in that stated they settled for a "fraction" of what HR was demanding and far less than what it would have cost to litigate the case out.
Good for you HR, I'm sure the boys over at Hugging Harold Reynolds are pumped today.
Frankly, I never thought Reynolds was any good. In fact, I thought he was simply awful.
@ my phenomenal swag.
As far as ESPN's comments, they really mean nothing. "A fraction" could be 4/5's, which would've been $4 mil of the $5 mil sued for. And as far as what it costs to litigate the matter. If this has drug on a few years, it is plausible that a large corp like ESPN has spent a few million already. So with a trial that could take them past 5 million w/o damages.
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As far as Reynolds goes, he was one of the few ESPN guys I liked. He should definately get a job somewhere. He was insightful and brought a lot to the discussion. Better than anybody they have now, imo.
Pretty simple. ESPN was in bad spot. They rode it out looking for other stuff on HR and forcing him to retain attorneys at his expense (ESPN's were in-house). Soon the media would be going after the upcoming case with HR's increasing presence at MLB. Bad PR and more expensive in court for ESPN. ESPN made a smart move. HR gets to move on with his family.
Done.
I swear I thought HR was suppose to be on the TBS show for the playoffs and seriously thought Tony Gwynn ate him. I find out he's on MLB.com with the drunk murderer Jim Leyritz. I believe whenever the MLB will hold true to their word and start their network HR will be apart of it. He really should be on TBS or FOX though.
I liked Harold on Baseball Tonight and was kinda down when he was fired. He should have just sent her a picture of his dong from his cell phone, and they wouldn't have had to deal with any of this.