MLB announcer Keith Hernandez referred to a broken bat as a "dead soldier" during the game between the New York Mets and Yankees on Memorial Day.
Hernandez made the gaffe on Monday when he described a broken bat. Mets hitter Daniel Murphy's bat snapped in half when he swung at a pitch from Phil Hughes of the Yankees in the first inning, Yahoo! Sports reports. Hernandez then said, "Well, folks. That is a dead soldier right there, folks, laying on that infield dirt."
While the announcer meant it as a figure of speech, his timing was especially poor given that the country was observing Memorial Day and honoring the troops abroad. Hernandez didn't comment after the game, but a spokesman for SNY spoke to the New York Times.
"We'll address the matter with Keith," the spokesman said. "It was an honest mistake and a poor choice of words."
Referring to a broken bat as a "dead soldier" has been a figure of speech in baseball for sometime. Yahoo! Sports writer David Brown offers this explanation:
"If the player with the brain is the commander, or the general, directing all of the action, the bat is the infantryman, the grunt, the vanguard. So that's the metaphor. Metaphors are great, or can be. War metaphors, all of them, need to be retired. This one especially."
No formal apology has been issued yet, but one is likely to come in the following days.