Tigers analyst Rod Allen allegedly assaulted play-by-play broadcaster Mario Impemba from behind, choking him
Further details about the Tigers' announcers' fight don't look good for Allen.
Further details have come out about the apparent “
physical confrontation” involving Detroit Tigers’ Fox Sports Detroit play-by-play broadcaster Mario Impemba (seen at left above) and analyst Rod Allen (seen at right above) Tuesday after they called the Tigers game against the Chicago White Sox, and it’s not pretty. As per a piece Jason Colthorp and Derick Hutchinson penned for Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV’s
ClickOnDetroit.com website Thursday evening, Allen
choked Impemba from behind:
Sources told Local 4 that Allen attacked Impemba following Tuesday night’s broadcast on Fox Sports Detroit.
On Wednesday, Matt Shepherd and Kirk Gibson called the Tigers game.
Sources told Local 4 that Impemba left the broadcast booth at some point and Allen followed, assaulting Impemba from behind and choking him.
The altercation was because of a disagreement over a chair in the booth, sources told Local 4.
Impemba and Allen have been broadcast partners for 16 years, and it’s amazing to think that “a disagreement over a chair in the booth” could damage that, but as noted in
our earlier piece on this, their ratings in our yearly announcer surveys have dropped significantly in recent years. Perhaps there’s been some growing tension that eventually led to this. But we really need more reporting on just what this “disagreement over a chair” comprised. In any case, “assaulting Impemba from behind and choking him” is a troubling sentence, and one that makes it seem like it will be difficult to put these two back together. And
an earlier report from Katie Strang of The Athletic had them sent home from Chicago separately.
We’ll see where it goes from here, though. The Tigers are next in action with a weekend homestand against the St. Louis Cardinals, which begins Friday. Will Impemba, Allen or both be in the booth? We’ll have to wait and see.
