It’s not particularly a great time to bring up Adolph Hitler, but one college baseball announcer’s slip of the tongue during an Ole Miss-Jacksonville State game on Tuesday night provided a good laugh for ESPN+ and social media audiences.
JSU pulled off an epic upset, defeating the defending national champion Rebels 10-6 on Tuesday. However, back in the sixth inning, the outcome of the game was still very up in the air. The Gamecocks led 6-5 but Ole Miss’s designated hitter had just stepped to the plate with a chance to even things up.
Or, according to play-by-play announcer Logan Maddox, it was something even more terrifying. Their “designated Hitler.”
Maybe this is why the National League resisted adding DHs for so long. pic.twitter.com/aHEcqr4hB6
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 15, 2023
Kudos to Maddox, who is Jacksonville State’s assistant SID, for catching himself and throwing in a quick “sorry about that, folks” so we could have a laugh about it and not have to wonder if we were about the witness another wild announcer meltdown.
Maddox also acknowledged the gaffe on Twitter later on.
Whoops https://t.co/e4Kfik40mZ
— Logan Maddox (@Logan_Maddox1) March 15, 2023
Plenty of folks around the sports world also had some fun with the misstep, which probably happened because he was trying to say “designated hitter looking” but everything got all jumbled in the excitement of the moment.
One of the most dangerous players in the league pic.twitter.com/plQanSuTMC
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 15, 2023
For the record, we are opposed to this type of Universal DH https://t.co/X81yi7RSky
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) March 15, 2023
https://twitter.com/DawsonDeezKnox/status/1635824065360326658
We’re a bit surprised this kind of snafu hasn’t happened more often, to be honest.