Marly Rivera, national baseball reporter for ESPN, was fired following an incident at Yankee Stadium where she directed the words “f-king ct” at a fellow reporter who was expecting an interview with Aaron Judge.
Rivera had previously worked as a dugout reporter for the Home Run Derby and some “Sunday Night Baseball” television shows, and had also served as an analyst for ESPN Radio during MLB playoff games.
ESPN credited Marly Rivera, who is bilingual and brings a unique point of view to the network’s television shows, especially when communicating with Latin actors, to their digital platforms.
However, they confirmed that she was no longer employed by the company. ESPN provided a statement to the Post stating that the incident in which Rivera made derogatory remarks occurred at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday of last week.
According to reports, Marly Rivera and Ivón Gaete, both journalists, had a disagreement before the Yankees-Angels game.
The dispute arose when Gaete arrived to question Aaron Judge, who had already agreed to an interview with Rivera.
Rivera attempted to inform Gaete of the arrangement, but Gaete ignored her. During the argument, Rivera used the offensive phrase “f-king ct”, which was caught on video. Although Rivera tried to apologize afterwards, Gaete refused to accept it.
In a statement to the Post, Marly Rivera took full responsibility for her actions and acknowledged that she shouldn’t have said what she did. Although she cited extenuating circumstances, she made it clear that there was no excuse for her behavior. Rivera pointed out that she has a solid reputation in the baseball industry as a professional, but feels that she is being unfairly targeted by a group of individuals with whom she has a history of professional disagreements.
It should be noted that Ivón Gaete, who was the target of derogatory remarks by Rivera, is a freelance journalist and the wife of MLB Vice President of Communications John Blundell. Gaete was covering Shohei Ohtani’s assignment for Tokyo Broadcasting at the time of the incident.
According to Marly Rivera, she had professional disagreements with John Blundell over the years, which is why she believes this incident escalated and led to his firing.
Blundell declined to comment on the matter and Ivón Gaete was not immediately available for comment. Rivera had worked with ESPN for 13 years, reporting on MLB with a focus on the Yankees.
She has worked as both a writer and on-air personality for English-language platforms and ESPN Deportes.
