A Major League Baseball umpire is apologizing for a now-deleted tweet that some perceived as threatening.
20-year veteran Rob Drake landed himself in hot water with the league after ESPN received a tweet of his from Tuesday evening threatening to buy an AR-15 and start a civil war if President Donald Trump was impeached. Both the tweet and his Twitter account have since been deleted.
Drake sent a statement to ESPN on Thursday apologizing for the incident, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
“I want to personally apologize to everyone that my words made feel less safe,” Drake said. “I especially want to apologize to every person who has been affected by gun violence in our country. I also acknowledge and apologize for the controversy this has brought to Major League Baseball, my fellow umpires, and my family. I never intended to diminish the threat of violence from any assault weapons, or violence of any kind.
“I’m going to learn from this,” he continued. “Once I read what I had tweeted I realized the violence in those words and have since deleted it. I know I cannot unsay words, but please accept my sincerest apologies.”
Umpire Rob Drake, whose viral tweet yesterday about buying a gun for a coming civil war led to an investigation by Major League Baseball that remains ongoing, sent along a statement to ESPN apologizing for the tweet. The full statement: pic.twitter.com/jPYX8ZHpzO
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 25, 2019
It’s unclear if Drake faces any discipline from MLB.
