Andy Rooney has always been a curmudgeon in his columns and 60 Minutes rants, but was he always a racist curmudgeon? (Yes.) In his latest column, about why he doesn’t like baseball, Mr. Friendly has found a new reason to dislike America’s former pastime-competent and strikingly similar Latinos!

I know all about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but today’s baseball stars are all guys named Rodriguez to me. They’re apparently very good but they haven’t caught my interest. I also think baseball needs some rules changes, too.

We’re sure he intended to continue that line with “Like kicking out all the non-whites in the game, even those who aren’t all the way black.” As for the faceless Rodriguezes, we were actually waiting for the comment about them being all cousins, but apparently we’ll have to wait for Mencia to make that joke. In all honesty, however, we really can’t blame the senile old fool though for his outlandish claims. He did also say this:

Sometimes it seems as though the New York Yankees are the only team that ever wins the World Series.

We really shouldn’t rag on someone who’s awake every nine years.

COLUMN — Andy Rooney — A no-hit game for me [The Stamford Times]