Whit Bazemore denies he was giving anyone "the finger" during Sunday's ESPN2
telecast.
"I was not making an inappropriate gesture to anyone. I was
telling a young fan to wait a minute while I went back into the trailer to
retrieve a Sharpie," Bazemore said. "If you study the TV footage in slow motion
you can see that it is clearly my index finger. It does look suspect in real
time, but I would never flip someone off in the presence of fans, especially
young ones, who had started to crowd around when I walked out behind the car to
pack the parachute.
"Plus, I do not know Scott Kalitta well enough to make that kind
of gesture, even jokingly, and I had no reason to do it anyway.
"I am extremely disappointed in ESPN's lack of discretion to air
something that is so misleading."