what happened to Jimmy the Greek after CBS fired him?

[pstokely]

what exactly did he say? was it any worse than what Limpbaugh said on ESPN?

[Skittles]

1. I think he was hospitalized for being such a nerd

actually, I stole that line from THE BIG CHILL. :7

[mac56]

2. Here's the story of the Greek.

Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was ejected from the public eye in 1988 when, on Martin Luther King's birthday, he said that blacks are better at sports because of slave plantation breeding techniques. "During the slave period, the slave owner would breed his big black with his big woman so that he would have a big black kid–that's where it all started."

This idiotic remark led to his firing as a "commentator" at CBS, where he was in the business of predicting winners and losers from a bettor's perspective.

His brother, John Synodinos, said "He felt he was falsely accused. He was praising the blacks actually."

Snyder was famous for predicting 18 of 21 Superbowl winners prior to his demise. However he also predicted that the Jets would lose to the Colts in the 1969 Superbowl, and that the Orioles would beat the Mets in that year's World Series.

[flamingyouth]

3. I believe he passed away recently

On edit: Not recently - in 1996. Oh, how time flies.

[VOX]

4. Anyone remember Dodger exec Al Campanis on Nightline?

ESPN rates as the #1 worst case of foot-in-mouth:

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/footinmouths.html

On April 6, 1987, "Nightline" devoted its half hour to the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's major league debut...
{On the subject of the lack of African American managers in MLB}

CAMPANIS: No, I don't believe it's prejudice. I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or perhaps a general manager.

KOPPEL: Do you really believe that?

CAMPANIS: Well, I don't say that all of them, but they certainly are short. How many quarterbacks do you have? How many pitchers do you have that are black?

Two days later, the Dodgers fired Campanis.

So went the worst case of "foot in mouth" in sports history -- a terrible interview destroying a long, impressive career in which Campanis did more to advance minorities in baseball than most baseball execs.