Lewis Brinson Suggests Changing Dinger the Mascot's Name
One of the greatest stories of all time took place this week, and it had nothing to do with a 97.5 the Fanatic host lambasting an Eagles security guard on Twitter.
It was the non-saga involving what was originally thought to be a Rockies fan shouting the N word at a black Marlins player, only for the investigation to reveal that he was trying to get the attention of a mascot named “Dinger.”
That should have been the end of the story right there, but people are wondering if the name of the mascot should be changed, including Lewis Brinson, who was the non-target of the non-slur.
Lewis Brinson says it’s time to retire “Dinger” — or at least change the Rockies mascot’s name — explaining the Colorado character’s moniker is just too similar to the n-word.
The Miami Marlins outfielder spoke in-depth with reporters on Monday for the first time since Sunday’s drama in Denver … and it seems his solution to the issues that were created at Coors Field would be for the Rockies to just move on from the mascot’s current name.
“Maybe change the mascot’s name,” Brinson said. “It sounds a little similar, especially on video.”
Nah. There’s nothing wrong with the mascot’s name. Dinger has been around since 1994 and this is the first instance of people confusing its name for a racial slur. Folks need to just accept the fact that this was a misunderstanding. It was investigated properly, deemed a coincidence, and put to bed.
There’s no logical reason to change a word because “it sounds similar” to a bad word. We’d have to go through the dictionary and rip out half of the pages.
“So I watched the video at least 50 times in the past 15-16 hours,” Brinson said on a videoconference call before Monday night’s game at San Diego. “I watched it a lot, especially when I heard that he said Dinger instead of the N-word.”
“I personally — this is again my personal opinion — I personally keep hearing the N-word. It’s not that I want to hear it, I never want to hear it. Personally I’ve never been called that in person to my face on the baseball field, outside the baseball field, ever, so I don’t know what my reaction would be if I got called that,” he said.
“But to now, saying that again, I haven’t talked to the Rockies or that fan personally. If that’s the case, then I’m sorry for any backlash or anything he’s getting right now,” he said.
Well, with all due respect to Brinson, he can hear what he wants to hear, but only one thing was said, and it wasn’t the N word. It’s pretty obvious from the audio and video that the guy was saying “Dinger.” He is not even looking at Brinson as he turns to the side and makes a waving motion at the mascot:
Here’s the video by the way. I’ve highlighted both the fan and Dinger in the the first clip, then zoomed in on the fan in the second clip. And Dinger in the third. pic.twitter.com/ul14jQjavx
— Steve Staeger (@SteveStaeger) August 9, 2021
If you’re still not convinced, read this entire Twitter thread from Staeger, who is from NBC Denver.