ESPN says Colin Cowherd won’t be on air after Dominican comments

NEW YORK — ESPN says radio host Colin Cowherd won’t be on the air again before leaving the network in the wake of his remarks about major league baseball players from the Dominican Republic. The network said Friday that “Colin will no longer appear on ESPN.” The statement said Cowherd’s comments “do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees.” Cowherd, who attended Eastern Washington, said Thursday that he didn’t believe baseball was complex, saying a third of the sport was from the Dominican Republic, which had “not been known, in my lifetime, as having, you know, world-class academic abilities.” ESPN said earlier this month that Cowherd was leaving the network amid reports he’s going to Fox Sports 1. Cowherd said Friday that he didn’t intend to offend anyone with his remarks. “I realize my choice of words was poor and not reflective of who I am. I am sorry,” he said. Major League Baseball and its players’ union issued statements Friday calling Cowherd’s comments “offensive.” In a statement Friday, baseball says it “condemns the remarks,” calling them “inappropriate, offensive and completely inconsistent with the values of our game.” There were 83 Dominican players on opening-day rosters, representing about 10 percent of all players in the majors. One of them, Blue Jays star Jose Bautista, asked Cowherd on Twitter on Thursday for an explanation. MLB followed Friday, saying: “Mr. Cowherd owes our players of Dominican origin, and Dominican people generally, an apology.” In a statement about Cowherd’s remarks, players’ union head Tony Clark said “to make an ignorant point by denigrating the intelligence of our Dominican members was not ‘clunky’ — it was offensive.”