No Kidding, They Really Threw Out the Announcer
By Arnold Irish St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When is the last time you saw the public address announcer swing at a member of the visiting team and/or get thrown out of a game? It happened Friday night at the Checkerdome when the Steamers beat Buffalo, 6-4, in a Major Indoor Soccer League playoff game.
Kevin Slaten, the Steamers' public address announcer, tried to punch John Dolinsky when the Stallions' forward arrived in the penalty box to serve a holding infraction shortly before halftime. Referee Heinz Wolmerath promptly pulled a red card, signalling Slaten's ejection.
"The announcer was ejected for violent contact with a player and for using foul and abusive language," Wolmerath said after the game.
"He was ejected for violent contact against a player, nothing else," alternate referee Dan Goldmann revised the wording of his colleague's statement.
"He (Slaten) deliberately punched a player and used language not tolerable," Wolmerath said. "It was bad manners. He made a verbal attack and then a physical attack. An announcer has to be neutral. He cannot be partial."
"The field referee came up to me before the game and told me, 'I hear you're a good announcer but you've got to be impartial,'" said Slaten, who is known for his flamboyant delivery at Steamers' games.
"I told him, 'I'd like you to be fair,'" Wolmerath said. "The guests have a right to be treated honestly."
Said Slaten: "After I made a couple of calls, the referee came over and told me, 'You can't be partial.' I told him, 'You're not my boss. I work for the Steamers.' When Dolinsky came into the penalty box, he told me, 'You're the worst (blank) announcer in the league.' I told him, 'Sit down, you're the guys who gave (Steamers defender Greg) Makowski the cheap shot that knocked him out for the season.' He said, '(Blankety-blank)' and I went after him with a right to the jaw."
Dolinsky said Slaten's punch never landed.
"If I didn't think they'd give the Steamers a two-minute penalty, they'd have had to drag me out," Slaten said.
Dolinsky said, "He (Slaten) kept taunting me, wanting me to lose my cool. He wanted me to fight, but I just laughed at him and he couldn't handle that."
The Buffalo player denied that he swore at Slaten. "I never swear," Dolinsky said. "I have a better vocabulary than that. As I went to the box, he said something to me and I told him what I thought of him as an announcer."
Dolinsky said Friday's incident was his first skirmish with a public address announcer. "My first skirmish with anyone," the Buffalo player said. "I play the game."
Eddie Olson, a minor official who was stationed in the penalty box at the time of th incident, said Dolinsky's epithets angered Slaten.
"The player called Kevin a (blank-blank) homer. When Kevin said something back, I told him to calm down. When the player called him something, Kevin jumped him."
Another minor official, Tom Crawford, corroborated Olson's account of the dialogue between the two principals. Goldmann said Slaten began baiting Dolinsky as soon as he reached the penalty box. "The player probably finally said something," Goldmann said.
Probably? "I couldn't hear him," explained Goldmann, who did hear Slaten.
"He (Slaten) told the field referee, 'You're a (blank blank blank),'" Goldmann said, adding that both he and his colleague will file reports of the incident to the league office.
"I'm sure somebody will teach him (Slaten) a lesson," Wolmerath said, "and he's young enough to learn."
Steamers General Manager Mike Sanger, who met privately with the two referees for 10 minutes immediately after the game, refused to comment. "I'm still sorting out the details," Sanger said.
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