Royals' Guthrie vocalizes his apology for wearing offensive T-shirt
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Prior to Wednesday's Game 4 at Kauffman Stadium, Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie took to the podium in the press room to apologize for a T-shirt he wore in the postgame press conference after Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
Guthrie wore a T-shirt that read "These O's Ain't Royal" as he spoke to reporters Tuesday night following the Royals' 2-1 win over the Orioles.
The line in a pun from a similar line in singer Chris Brown's song "Loyal."
"I came in here (Tuesday night) with no intention of inciting anything," Guthrie said. "It's a shirt that I received yesterday. We get a number of things from the fans. Unfortunately for me, I used a lack of judgment in putting that shirt on after the game. I never changed it, came in here and wore it."
Orioles fans were not amused and let Guthrie know that on Twitter.
"What ensued was not what I intended," he said. "There was no intention to call the attention to the other team, friends and former teammates, certainly not the organization and most definitely not their fans."
The rhyme on the T-shirt comes from an offensive slang in the song.
"There's been a comment on what it refers to, which for the most part I'm pretty unaware," he said. "I know (now) there's a rhyme and that's where the shirt came from ... so I wanted to apologize. I've already apologized to a number of people, because there's no intention on my part ever to offend. If you know me, I'm not a person that likes confrontation. I'm not a person that wants to go out there and get anybody angry with me or my squad.
"This is totally on my shoulders. I take that. That's why I wanted to call you here together and to apologize to everybody. Anyone and everyone that was offended, you'll never see the shirt again. The shirt was sent to me, and it will be sent to the garbage, because that's probably where it belongs at this point."
You can follow Jeffrey Flanagan on Twitter at @jflanagankc or email him at jeffreyflanagan6@gmail.com.
