Fired Fox announcer Steve Lyons got backing on two fronts Tuesday: He can keep his part-time broadcasting job with the Los Angeles Dodgers if he completes diversity training, and Lou Piniella came to his defence.

Lyons was fired over the weekend for making a racially insensitive comment while on the air with Piniella during the AL championship series.

``There isn't a racist bone in his body. Not one,'' Piniella said after being introduced as manager of the Chicago Cubs. ``I've known the guy personally. He was kidding with me, nothing more and nothing less.''

Piniella called Lyons' firing ``an unfortunate thing.''

Lyons was dismissed after Friday's Game 3 of the ALCS between Oakland and Detroit.

The Dodgers said Lyons would remain on the job for FSN Prime Ticket ``upon the completion of diversity training and under probationary guidelines.'' Lyons works with Charley Steiner on the 40-plus road games that Vin Scully doesn't do.

Piniella made an analogy during Friday's broadcast involving the luck of finding a wallet, then briefly used a couple of Spanish phrases.

Lyons said that Piniella was ``hablaing'' in ``Espanol'' _ butchering the conjugation for the word ``to speak'' _ and added, ``I still can't find my wallet.''

``I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit too close to him now,'' Lyons said.

Lyons claimed he was kidding, and Piniella accepted that explanation.

``If I offended anybody, I'm truly sorry,'' Lyons said. ``But my comment about Lou taking my wallet was a joke and in no way racially motivated.''

The 46-year-old Lyons was a career .252 hitter with 19 home runs and 196 RBIs for Boston, the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta and Montreal.