Steve Phillips Apologized to Lou Piniella

So Steve Phillips has done two games in the booth for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, and I think he deserves a big round of applause from baseball fans everywhere. It's not easy to make Joe Morgan sound smart and Phillips has been doing it with ease since joining him and Jon Miller. Congratulations, Steve.

Of course, when not making Morgan look good, it seems that Phillips has spent the rest of his time backpedaling. You may remember that back in March Phillips said Cubs manager Lou Piniella did a bad job of handling Kosuke Fukudome last season, and that Piniella took exception to Phillips' comments. Well, like any good analyst would do, Phillips apologized to Piniella for having an opinion on Sunday before the Cubs took on the Brewers in Milwaukee.

ESPN analyst Steve Phillips sought out Lou Piniella in the clubhouse before Sunday's game to clarify his criticism of the manager's handling of outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.

Phillips basically told Piniella that what he was said was taken out of context and not to believe what he read. Of course, it's pretty hard to have something taken out of context when you say it in a radio interview in a direct response to a question about Fukudome's struggles during his first season in Chicago.

In case you've forgotten, Phillips said "My view is Lou doesn't have a great deal of patience for assimilation into culture, assimilation into the team. He is just not the most patient guy around, and he tends to verbalize his frustrations in an angry way. I think that may have affected Fukudome a little bit."

See, when Phillips started his comment by saying "my view" what he meant was "What somebody who is not Steve Phillips is saying..."

Seriously, Steve, changing your mind is one thing. Sometimes you have an opinion and then upon gaining more information on the subject you see that you're wrong, and you develop a new opinion. There's nothing wrong with that, it's called learning.

But don't backtrack on something everybody heard you say. It just causes you to lose what little credibility you have.

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