WDIV is reporting that the argument and subsequent altercation started over a chair in the broadcast booth during Tuesday’s game.
The 16-year pairing of Mario Impemba as the play-by-play announcer and Rod Allen as the color commentator may be coming to an end, as sources told Local 4 WDIV that Allen attacked Impemba following the game. Impemba had left the broadcast booth at some point, and Allen followed, assaulting Impemba from behind and choking him.
WDIV reported that viewers may not have noticed anything unusual during the game, but listening to the broadcast, there were numerous long silences, including 43-seconds without talking in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Tom Shaer, the agent for Rod Allen told WDIV:
“We have not commented because Fox Sports Detroit is handling this professionally and thoroughly. But these ridiculous, blatantly false descriptions require me to speak the truth and say they are utter fabrications. Nobody followed anybody, there was no contact from behind, and a “choke hold” is a shamefully untrue way to describe anything which occurred in that very brief altercation.
Anonymous fabrications by others do injustice to the very concepts of fairness and professionalism. Those who give such gross untruths to media should be ashamed of themselves.”