"A drive into deep left field by Castellanos" is a phrase spoken by Thom Brennaman, a play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, during a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals on August 19, 2020. Brennaman had been replaced in the middle of the broadcast for a hot mic gaffe in which he said "one of the fag capitals of the world". He gave an on-air apology later on, during which Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos hit a home run; Brennaman interrupted his apology to call the home run, describing the hit as a "drive into deep left field by Castellanos", before continuing. The surreal nature of the apology gave it notoriety in baseball internet culture and has led to its use as a copypasta.
Thom Brennaman, a baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, did play-by-play commentary for a doubleheader between the Reds and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 19, 2020. Before the start of the top of the seventh inning of the first game, Brennaman was caught on a hot mic describing an unidentified location as "one of the fag capitals of the world".[1] [2] [3] [4] According to David J. Halberstam, who interviewed Brennaman more than a year after the incident, the location in question was San Francisco.[5]
Brennaman, who was broadcasting from Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati due to COVID-19 travel precautions, continued into a promotion for the Reds' pre-game show and went on to provide play-by-play commentary for the Reds on Fox Sports Ohio into the second game of the doubleheader.[6] [1] [2] The slur was not heard over the cable and satellite feed of the game, but rather on MLB's out-of-market MLB.TV streaming service. Backlash against Brennaman grew as clips of the homophobic incident were shared on social media.[7]
During the top of the fifth inning of the second game, Brennaman was pulled off the broadcast by Fox Sports Ohio.[8] Before being replaced by Jim Day, Brennaman issued an apology on the air (the apology in full context, starting from the top of the inning):[9] During the apology, Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos hit a home run that landed next to a Planet Fitness billboard with the phrase "judgement-free zone".[10] [11] [12]
The Cincinnati Reds issued a statement on Twitter expressing apologies and announcing Brennaman's immediate suspension.[13] [3] Reds pitchers Amir Garrett and Matt Bowman tweeted separate statements in support of the LGBTQ community.[6] [14] The following day, Fox Sports announced that Brennaman would no longer serve as an announcer for the channel's National Football League (NFL) broadcasts.[8]
Some media commentators noted that the apology appeared weak and insincere.[15] [16] [17] [18] Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David described the incident as "unfortunate" and "a reflection of the bias that we still have in our communities", stating that "I think we need to really think about how this is how he felt so comfortable [saying the slur] in the first place."[18] GLAAD released a statement calling the apology "incredibly weak and not enough".[4]
On September 25, 2020, after Brennaman announced his resignation, Reds CEO Bob Castellini issued a statement calling the announcer a "fantastic talent and a good man who remains part of the Reds family forever".[12] Castellanos acknowledged the incident in a February 2023 Instagram post, which showed him practicing his swing in preparation for spring training and bore the caption "And there's a deep drive... Phillies '23".[19]
In a podcast that aired in November 2021, Brennaman expressed disappointment in the popular response to his apology, stating: "But for people to criticize a sincere apology... That's when you know that there is a lot wrong with a lot of people. Not just me – and I've got a lot wrong with me. There is a lot wrong in this world."[20]
After the incident, Brennaman began working with LGBT outreach groups such as the Children's Home of Northern Kentucky and PFLAG. Local leaders of the LGBT community in Cincinnati cited his subsequent work as a reason to support his return to broadcasting.[21]
On July 21, 2024, Brennaman announced that he would return to broadcasting, though now commentating football instead of baseball. On that same day, Castellanos hit a home run, leading to the commentator of the game repeating Brennaman's famous phrase.[22]
Jokes incorporating the phrase "a drive into deep left field by Castellanos" began to circulate shortly after the broadcast, including a tweet by Pablo S. Torre that parodied Richard Nixon's resignation speech:[12] [23]
The use of the apology as a copypasta did not gain traction until after Bob Castellini's September 25 statement praising Brennaman.[12] In March 2021, College of Charleston professor Ryan M. Milner attributed the proliferation of the copypasta to the virality of the original apology and the non sequitur nature of the home run call; according to Milner, the copypasta allows people to jokingly convey cynicism towards insincere statements.[12]