Dan Warthen Taken To Task For Use Of Racial Slur

The Mets latest public relations nightmare is a racially oriented one.  In a dinner time post to the Wall Street Journal, reporter Stu Woo described an exchange in the Mets locker room in which the team's pitching coach, Dan Warthen, used the term "chinaman".  As it read's, Warthen recently used the term to describe the Daisuke Matsuzaka's interpreter, Jeff Cutler.  Warthen then approached Cutler and jokingly apologized for using the term to describe him, as oppose to apologizing for using the term in general.  Cutler is of Japanese descent. 

All of this occurred in front of Woo, who is a Chinese American.  When Woo approached the team's Director of Media Relations, Jay Horwitz, he was promised a meeting with Warthen in the team's dugout this morning.  That meeting never occurred, with Warthen declining to address the issue.  Tonight's story was the result.

Now the the story has gone public, the Mets have released the following statements:

"On behalf of the entire organization, I apologize for the insensitive remarks made

 by one of our staff members.  the remarks were offensive and inappropriate and the

 organization is very sorry." ~ Sandy Alderson

"I apologize for the thoughtless remarks that I made yesterday in the clubhouse.

  They were a poor attempt at humor but were wrong and inappropriate in any

 setting.  I am very sorry." ~ Dan Warthen 

Its difficult to see Warthen losing his job over this, especially with the start of the season drawing near.  Nonetheless, this is the type of story that will follow him for some time and could serve as a distraction tot he team for the next few days.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was impressively stupid by Warthen and inexcusable.  It was also 100% avoidable.  Failing to address the issue only compounded the problem and should have never been allowed to happen.  The Mets really shouldn't have to deal with this type of stuff year in and year out, but nonetheless here we are..again.