A weird story has been developing in Phoenix over the past week after Arizona Diamondbacks television play-by-play man, Daron Sutton, mysteriously disappeared from their broadcasts.
At first the Diamondbacks were tight-lipped about his absence, applying only the "attending to a personal matter" tag, but as the week went along word started to leak out that Sutton had been suspended by the organization for an unspecified reason. That led to speculation ranging from the Diamondbacks front office feeling Sutton was too critical on the air to possible issues away from the ballpark culminating in a reprimand.
Well, we can end all of that speculation now, because as Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reported on Wednesday and Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic confirmed on Thursday afternoon, Sutton was actually suspended for "insubordination" stemming from a series of on-air dress code violations.
And what exactly was Sutton's repeated offense you ask?
Well, Piecoro tells us that Sutton prefers to, and on many occasions has worn a suit and tie while on the air for Fox Sports Arizona, while the Diamondbacks organization prefers — actually mandates — the broadcast crew to wear polo shirts featuring the team's logo.
So yes, the Diamondbacks obviously don't prefer a sharp dressed man in their booth, and they don't love Daron Sutton's suits, either.
Apparently the differing opinions over what constitutes a professional appearance has been a point of contention between the two sides for most of Sutton's six years in the Arizona booth, and the powers that be finally decided to put their foot down after Sutton made what Piecoro termed as a "veiled reference" to the dress code during the June 20 broadcast. Sutton was nowhere to be found for the June 22 broadcast against the Chicago Cubs, and hasn't been seen or heard from on a broadcast since.
Though the length of Sutton's suspension is not yet known, Piecoro says that he's definitely not scheduled to rejoin the Arizona television crew on their current road trip. Crasnick even went as far as to predict that he doesn't see this situation ending well, so it's entirely possible Sutton has called his last game for Arizona. But I guess we'll have to stay tuned to the situation to find out.
On a separate but interesting note, Sutton is still scheduled to call the Diamondbacks game against the Milwaukee Brewers this Saturday for Fox's national broadcast, and, as far as we know, will be allowed to wear his suit. Maybe he'll even borrow a bow tie from Ken Rosenthal to complete his attire.
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