It wasn’t the foul language that made La Mirada baseball coach Kim Brooks’ 15-minute recorded tirade so troubling. Every player who was in that room hears or says many of those same words every day at school, at practice, walking from class to class or at lunch. They hear worse in the music that blares from car stereos. They hear worse on a nightly basis on HBO or Showtime.
What made Brooks’ profane outburst so troubling was its belittling, bullying nature and his loss of perspective. He quickly moved beyond trying to motivate his players after a poor performance and began to attack.
“If you can’t f***ing dive for a ball in the infield, f*** you! Can’t make a routine play? F*** you! Let somebody else try to make a GD f***ing routine play! You’re gonna f***ing b**** and complain to the f***ing umpire? … F*** you! Get off the GD mound. I want a man out there!”
F*** you? From an adult, from a teacher no less, to a high school kid? Sorry, but that’s unacceptable. This isn’t an example of thin-skinned, spoiled youngsters who can’t handle stern criticism, or the further feminization of males in this country, as far too many keyboard tough guys have commented. It’s an example of teens being bullied by someone in a position of authority, by someone who should know better.
When reached for comment Tuesday, Brooks acknowledged his language was “inappropriate,” and he apologized for its use. He said his intent was to motivate his players after what he felt was a selfish performance, and at times his words – salty as they were – went in that direction.
“You’ve gotta own it,” he told them. “(If) we play hard, and we lose, I can accept that. … (But) you don’t play like that for me. You don’t wear the (La Mirada) uniform and play like that for me.”
A perfectly acceptable chewing out at that point, and one it sounds like the team deserved that day. But the tone descended quickly from there. There was no encouragement, only ridicule.
Brooks has plenty of support in the La Mirada community. Twitter is full of parents, students and former players who have got his back, and many marched in front of the campus Tuesday night. Comments online have noted the positive influence Brooks has wielded for many years on his students and players, young men and women who went on to college and productive lives with his help. There is no reason to believe all those things aren’t true, and it would be a shame if Brooks’ legacy was reduced to a secretly recorded audio tape.
But he’s the one who chose those words, he’s the one who screamed “f*** you” to a room full of teens, and he left the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District little choice.
