As fellow ESPN anchor Jay Harris noted, "Tell us how you really feel," Linda.
"SportsCenter" anchor Linda Cohn on Tuesday blasted the Cubs' "ridiculous" move to award a 2016 World Series ring to Steve Bartman.
The self-serving gesture did not make up for what Bartman has endured as the evil fan who allegedly cost Moises Alou, and the hard-luck Cubbies, a series-clinching win during Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, Cohn said.
HILLE: Cubs offer closure with ring for Bartman
She said it was a smarmy PR move designed to assuage the franchise's guilt over making Bartman a scapegoat for the club's century of failures before finally winning it all last season. Bartman, who avoided the limelight after the incident, was just one of many fans reaching for the foul ball that night, Cohn noted.
The #Cubs today presented Steve Bartman with a World Series ring pic.twitter.com/WFbxBdHyZw
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) July 31, 2017
The ring is a "peace offering that doesn’t erase 14 years of hell for this guy who had one moment where his brain didn’t work, he did the wrong thing," Cohn said. "Moises Alou would say later he wasn’t able to catch the ball anyway. This is about Cubs fans' guilt, giving him this ring. This is for you, Cubs fans. It's not to help Steve Bartman. He doesn’t get those 14 years back. I thought it was a stupid move."
This is ridiculous. I almost thought it was a joke. Sadly it is not. Obvious peace offering to help alleviate guilt for way he was treated. https://t.co/vgeGbPIvyJ
— Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) July 31, 2017
ESPN guest Dan Le Batard could only marvel at the way Cohn spewed "bile" at Cubs fans during the normally happy "SportsCenter:AM."
MORE: Cubs fans finally in forgiving mood
You know what? I enjoyed Cohn's rant. It was honest and authentic. In fact, I'd like to see more "SportsCenter" anchors call BS when they feel as strongly about a story as Cohn did about Bartman's bogus ring.
The veteran Cohn has become a truth-teller at ESPN.
During the network's recent layoffs of 100 on-air personnel, she told Justin Terranova of the New York Post she's unsure of her future at the Worldwide Leader. She has just one year left on her contract.
Along with John Buccigross and Steve Levy, Cohn is one of the few "SportsCenter" anchors to keep the NHL flame burning in Bristol with ESPN not holding any TV rights. The native New Yorker told the Post she'd like to succeed Gary Bettman as NHL commissioner.
Previously, she admitted to the Post that ESPN's liberal tilt has cost the sports cable network viewers. "If anyone wants to ignore that fact, they’re blind," she said.
What we saw Tuesday was a "SportsCenter" anchor unplugged. After 25 years at ESPN, Cohn's not afraid to tell it like it is, or at least at how she sees it. Good for her.
And enough already with the feel-good Cubs crap that's coming a decade too late for Bartman. As Kyle Koster of the The Big Lead wrote, the ring was an "insultingly transparent public relations stunt that only accomplished the very thing Bartman has fought to avoid" all these years.
"There’s one fly in the saccharine sweet storybook ending. The Cubs could have done this in secret," Koster wrote. "They could have done it without dragging Bartman, who has been dragged through more mud than Miss O’Leary’s cow, back into the spotlight.
Bingo.
