DODGERS: LYONS TO STAY WITH TV TEAM.

Byline: VINCENT BONSIGNORE Staff Writer

Embattled baseball broadcaster Steve Lyons will keep his job as an analyst on Dodgers telecasts, the club and FSN announced Monday.

Lyons was fired by Fox Sports over the weekend after making what has been cast as a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella's Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

Piniella made an analogy to the A's offensive contributions from unlikely players to the luck of finding a wallet. Several minutes later, Piniella went on to use a few Spanish-speaking phrases, which prompted Lyons to respond by saying Piniella was ``habla-ing Espanol'' then added, ``I still can't find my wallet'' and ``I don't understand him,'' and ``I don't want to sit too close to him now'' in regards to Piniella.

Lyons claimed he was just joking.

Nevertheless, Fox pulled him from its playoff coverage the following day.

Lyons has been part of the Dodgers' broadcast team for twoseasons, and his status with the club came under question following his dismissal from Fox. However, the team and FSN released a statement late Monday announcing Lyons would stay on.

According to the statement, the Dodgers and their broadcast partner, FSN Prime Ticket, have determined that upon the completion of diversity training and under probationary guidelines, Lyons will remain on the broadcast team for the 2007 baseball season

This was not the first time Lyons had made controversial remarks on television. In 2004, he chided Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green, who is Jewish, for missing twogames that during the Yom Kippur holiday.

Earlier this season, Lyons made fun of a fan who was wearing large glasses at a NLDS series game between the Mets and Dodgers. The fan turned out to be nearly blind.

Lyons was in the final year of his contract with Fox. He has one year remaining on his contract with the Dodgers and FSN.

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