ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips is taking a leave of absence amid the sex scandal that he finds himself snared in thanks to former lover Brooke Hundley.

The New York media reported earlier that the former General Manager of the New York Mets was involved in a relationship with the female ESPN employee.

Phillips is married, and lives with his wife and four children, in Wilton, Conn. He had a sexual affair this summer with Brooke Hundley, which he broke off.

This blew up in his face when she allegedly stalked his 16-year-old son on Facebook and dropped off a bizarre letter to Phillips' wife Marni at their house.

The letter pretty much bragged about her affair with Steve, disclosing details about his genitalia and asserting that his marriage to Marni Phillips was over.

After dropping the letter off, Hundley then drove her car into a pilon, traumatizing the family and leading Steve Phillips to file a police report against her.

Steve Phillips is taking a leave of absence from ESPN.

Acknowledging the relationship in a statement, Phillips said:

"I am deeply sorry that I have put my family and colleagues through this. It is a personal matter that I will not comment on further. I have, however, asked for a leave of absence to address this with my family and to avoid unnecessary distractions."

ESPN suspended him for a week and released this statement:

"We were aware of this and took appropriate disciplinary action at the time. We have granted Steve Phillips' request for an extended leave of absence to address it."

The irony here is that Steve Phillips gets paid, presumably a lot, to talk about baseball on TV and dispense opinions on the sport, despite the fact that he was fired as a GM after making some terrible personnel decisions.

Yet he can't do the same because slept with a crazy 22-year-old.