If he is not fired, I will leave the Detroit Tigers head coach, as he has a misunderstanding with his player.

If he is not fired, I will leave the Detroit Tigers head coach, as he has a misunderstanding with his player.

I’ll quit as head coach of the Detroit Tigers if he doesn’t fire me because he misunderstands his player.

Pitching instructor Chris Bosio was let go by the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday for allegedly making “insensitive remarks to a team employee,” but he thinks it was just a miscommunication.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today was told by a “shocked” Bosio on Thursday that he was let go for using the word “monkey” when an African American clubhouse attendant overheard him. Saying he was referring to white pitcher Daniel Stumpf by his “Spider Monkey” nickname, he clarified that he did not use it in a racist way:

Monday afternoon, someone in our coaches’ room questioned me about Stumpf. “Oh, you mean, ‘Spider Monkey?'” I asked. That’s his call sign. When he works out, this tiny white child, who is slender, makes all these hilarious faces.

The youngster mistook our conversation for one about him. He became rather irate. Obviously, he thought we were discussing him. Not at all, I said. We are discussing Stumpf here.

And with that, it was done. On my parents’ graves, I promise, there was nothing more to it.”

Though it did not help him preserve his job, Bosio tried to make amends with Detroit general manager Al Avila on Tuesday:

“I stood by it. But it was aimed at Stumpf and the expression he makes when he lifts weights. All done.

We have all of our facts, Al said, and we are firing you for your disrespectful remarks. What comments, I asked? One person said something. And the youngster wasn’t even the target of it.

Al declared, “There is a zero-tolerance policy between Major League Baseball and us.” “Al, I have no problems with anybody,” I replied. I stayed inside the bounds. I apologise sincerely, but that is not my intention. I find this incredulous.

Speaking on Wednesday, Avila said:

Bosio had spent the last six seasons with the Chicago Cubs before being hired by Detroit this past winter. He was a member of the 2016 squad that ended the Billy Goat Curse and brought the team its first World Series victory since 1908.

In the new manager Ron Gardenhire’s Tigers, he signed. Less than a year into his contract, though, he was let go.

Bosio now tells Nightengale he wants to clear the record:

I have to somehow defend myself since this is really hurting me. I must struggle on my own behalf. Everyone knows this is not me. I kept it clean. Nothing was slangy. There was no N-word. Nothing ethnic. It was a remark and a player nickname we gave him.