When a Cigar Isn't a Cigar: Butch Stearns, Julio Lugo, and a Stogie

Fox 25 sportscaster Butch Stearns was either plumb dumb exhausted after the Red Sox won the ALCS, or he lost his mind. Via Universal Hub, we learned that after the game he interviewed Julio Lugo. Post-game interviews are always awkward because the players so clearly want to go drink, have a sandwich, bathe in champagne, or dance if they're Jonathan Papelbon. Lugo was no exception--he was celebrating by puffing on a stogie.

In the video at Fox 25, Stearns became inspired and demanded that Lugo puff harder on that stogie. Stearns leers at Lugo as he puffs, and then Stearns releases this unintentionally sleazy little laugh: "Ha-ha-ha-HAAA!"

Maybe that unctuous laugh made David Scott uncomfortable. Scott agreed with the old adage that sometimes a cigar is not a cigar and wrote that Stearns was "cajoling smoke out of an athlete in pornographic terms"!

While Bostonist wouldn't go that far, it was an awkward moment of penis envy among men. Here's Lugo, who frequently holds a symbolic bat and cigar, and there's Stearns, who has only a piddling little microphone. It's times like those when the sportscaster should just step aside or fill airtime on their own without bugging the players because the end result is sycophantic and silly.

Screengrab from Fox 25.