Now this is an ear-y coincidence.
Miguel Olivo, the journeyman catcher who bit the ear of a Dodgers minor league teammate in a wild dugout fracas on Tuesday, gave an interview during spring training in which he professed his affinity for Mike Tyson.
Asked what he would do if he wasn’t a baseball player, Olivo said, in Spanish, according to SB Nation: “I would like to be a boxer like Mike Tyson but without biting an ear.”
Whoops. Too late. Tyson was issued a year-plus-long ban from boxing and fined $3 million after biting a chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a 1997 bout. Olivo was released Thursday by Triple-A Albuquerque after an investigation into his brawl with teammate Alex Guerrero.
Guerrero is recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left ear and will remain in a Salt Lake City hospital for a couple of days. It’s unclear how long he will be sidelined.
Olivo’s sound “bite” wasn’t the only memorable quote to come out of this bizarre dustup.
Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, when he first addressed the incident, delivered an all-time understatement: “We don’t condone it, and we don’t think it’s constructive.”
And super-agent Scott Boras, who represents Guerrero, a Cuban defector who signed a $28 million deal in the offseason, offered up this gem:
“The custom and practice of a locker room over the course of the season does include confrontation and sometimes physical altercations with your teammates,” Boras said. “But shooting, stabbing or cannibalizing a player is not a part of baseball or being a proper teammate.”
With AP