Fox Red-Faced After Airing Manager’s Taped Expletive

Score it E - Fox. Joe Torre was livid, Fox Sports was red-faced and baseball’s Executive Council must be rethinking its marketing strategy.

In an effort to bring fans closer to the game, the council voted to mandate that managers and field personnel must cooperate with Fox and wear microphones if asked or the team would be fined. So Torre, the New York Yankee manager, agreed to wear a microphone for the network’s opening broadcast Saturday afternoon. But Fox producers goofed and allowed a taped expletive from Torre to reach the air. “We’re embarrassed. It was a human error and we apologized,” Fox spokesman Lou D’Ermilio said after the game.

Here’s what happened: After Paul O’ Neill homered in the top of the seventh in Boston, he had a dugout conversation with Torre, in which the manager said, “The ——- worm has turned.”