Garfinkel addresses "Rain Man" comment with Darren Smith

Mighty 1090: Tom Garfinkel interview with Darren Smith (MP3)

• "I feel horrible." Garfinkel has been talking to families affected by mental illness today. He knows he offended them. "It certainly wasn't my intention to do that."
  
• The incident happened at a Season Ticket Holder event. "I'm usually very candid. The mistake wasn't being candid with them about my feelings about the unfortunate incident, that I wish never happened, on the field on Thursday. The mistake was, what I said, some of my remarks were insensitive and whether it was a private setting or a public setting really didn't make a difference. They were inappropriate remarks."
• "I was emotional that day, I was defending our player. I felt Carlos was being attacked in a lot of different places. I was trying to provide context for why a 3-2 count in a 2-1 game wasn't an absolute and how I felt about what had happened the day before. In that setting I chose some of my words very poorly in how I characterized Zack."
  "I feel horrible." -Tom Garfinkel
  
  
• "In trying to explain how smart I think Zack is I made a reference to Rain Man and it was inappropriate and offended a lot of people and that certainly wasn't my intent."
• Garfinkel got the transcript of the tape yesterday morning, he didn't remember exactly what he had said. Upon reading it he immediately regretted it.
• "I should have known better, Again, the issue wasn't that I was recorded. The issue was that I made remarks that were inappropriate, whether it was a private setting or a public setting. A couple of things I said I shouldn't have said. I can't use the recording - I can't be upset about that."
• "It's not about the recording. It's on me, I shouldn't have made those remarks."
• Garfinkel apologized to Zack Greinke and Stan Kasten. He also has reached out to other people.
• "I'm a human being I make mistakes. Sometimes we say things we wish we could take back. In this case I certainly do and it's less because of having to go on the radio here and having to deal with it publicly and more about the emotional reaction I got from some parents."
• Moving forward he's going to learn more about mental health disorders.
  
• He hasn't been able to talk to Greinke directly. He said he talked to President Kasten of the Dodgers and Kasten said Greinke "was good". He'll try to talk to him personally in the future.