He’s benched!
Married ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips yesterday began “an extended leave of absence,” after admitting he had sex with a 22-year-old production assistant who allegedly stalked his family in “Fatal Attraction”-fashion when he dumped her.
“I am deeply sorry that I have put my family and colleagues through this,” said the ex-Mets GM, 46, confessing to a tawdry three-day stand in July with Brooke Hundley.
“It is a personal matter that I will not comment on further. I have, however, asked for a leave of absence to address this with my family and to avoid any unnecessary distractions through the balance of the baseball playoffs,” said the father of four, a former Mets general manager.
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Last night, an ESPN source told The Post that the network does not expect this to end the matter — because Phillips is suspected of sleeping with several ESPN employees.
Phillips last appeared on air Tuesday night, hours before his dalliance with Hundley was revealed in yesterday’s Post.
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The scoop included the text of a taunting letter Hundley left Phillips’ wife, detailing their affair and attempting to prove it was true by citing birthmarks on intimate parts of his anatomy.
Phillips’ decision to take time off echoes an eight-day leave he took as Met GM in 1998 after admitting he had consensual sex with a team employee who was suing him for sexual harassment — as well as with other women.
His beautiful, blond, green-eyed wife, Marni, 40, last month sued for divorce after learning he had again strayed. Days before, he had deeded her their five-bedroom, multimillion-dollar home in Wilton, Conn.
ESPN yesterday said, “We were aware of this [the latest affair] and took appropriate disciplinary action . . . We have granted Steve’s request for an extended leave of absence to allow him to address it.”
The sports network refused to detail the discipline.
Meanwhile, Hundley is still employed but is no longer being assigned baseball broadcasts.
Police suspect she used computers at ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters to stalk Phillips’ 16-year-old son online by posing as his high-school classmates.
The scandalous and scary series of events began in mid-July, when the handsome Phillips had sex with the shlubby Hundley after meeting her for the first time on assignment in St. Louis.
Phillips told cops in Wilton that Hundley became “obsessive and delusional” after he ended their affair.
“I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself,” he said.
Police records show Phillips’ wife in early August received phone calls from a woman she believed was Hundley.
Then, on Aug. 19, Hundley drove to the Phillips’ home, where she dropped off the frightening letter before speeding off when she Marni arrived, hitting a stone post on the way out.
“I have a crazy woman who is involved with my husband and she’s come to my house to harm me and my children!” a rattled Marni told a 911 operator.
Hundley’s letter ramblingly detailed the affair, talked about the couple’s kids and suggested that she was the better woman.
The Phillips’ teenage son soon revealed that for weeks, he had been repeatedly questioned about his family over the Internet by people he believed to be classmates, but who actually was someone hiding behind fake online identities.
When cops traced electronic trails, they learned at least one account was created on an ESPN computer, police records show.
Despite, Hundley was not arrested because the Phillips family said they did not wish to press charges.
Rosemarie Arnold, a lawyer who specializes in sexual-harassment cases, said, “You would think she’d be fired for this.” But Arnold, who is not involved in the case, noted that ESPN might be afraid that Hundley could claim to be a harassment victim if she’s booted.
The involvement of ESPN employees in the scandal is yet another black eye for the network, which has previously fired on-air personalities — including former baseball All-Star Harold Reynolds — after sexual-harassment allegations.