Ethnically Inappropriate

I don't follow baseball, but I came across this article this morning about an announcer fired for making "ethnically inappropriate" comments.

Lyons ran afoul of Fox Sports for comments he made during the game after analyst and former manager Lou Piniella said expecting a player to repeat his performance was like 'finding a wallet on a Friday night and looking for one on Sunday and Monday, too.'

A little while later, Piniella said Oakland A's infielder Marco Scutaro was 'en fuego,' to which Lyons responded: 'Lou's hablaing some espanol there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now.'

Ethnically inappropriate? OK, first of all how are these comments even ethnic. And if they are ethnic, how are they inappropriate? Ethnically inappropriate would be referring to black players as monkeys (Howard Cosell) and things like that. "Fining a wallet" has ethnic connotations?