Twenty-year Oakland A’s play-by-play announcer Glen Kuiper has been terminated after speaking a slur during a pregame A’s segment on May 5.
Announced Monday, NBC Sports confirmed Kuiper’s firing with a statement: “Following an internal review, the decision has been made for NBC Sports California to end its relationship with Glen Kuiper, effective immediately,” the statement read. “We thank Glen for his dedication to Bay Area baseball over the years.”
Glen Kuiper Apologized, Still Gets Canned
The decision now spawns several questions; mostly around the timing after the A’s conducted “weeks” of investigation looking into Kuiper’s intent.
Kuiper claims he accidentally said the n-word during the telecast as he detailed his trip to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
Moments after the on-air slur, Kuiper apologized to the television audience and admitted to misspeaking. Kuiper said, “I said something that didn’t come out quite the way I wanted it to. I just wanted to apologize if it sounded different than I meant it to be said. I just want to apologize for that.”
The announcer, who joined the team in 2004, was indefinitely suspended a day after using the slur. The A’s put out a statement to rebuke the announcer’s use of the N-word.
After weeks of silence about the broadcaster’s future, the hammer finally came down over the spoken term.
Did Oakland A’s Enforce Too Strict A Penalty?
Reactions to Kuiper’s on-air incident called for his job, but he also gained a swell of sympathizers.
As noted by OutKick’s Ian Miller, the A’s launched an investigation into the on-air slur but failed to provide any progress on their findings, possibly indicating the investigation was used to buy time before tossing Kuiper out on the streets.
OutKick’s Clay Travis has referred to this trend of firings as indicative of a society placing more stock into words over actions, thus upping the penalty for saying the wrong thing.
Though the real-time use of the N-word sounded shocking, proponents stepped up around the announcer and called for grace.
The president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum put out a statement to condemn the slur while also calling for forgiveness for Kuiper.
“I’m aware of the unfortunate slur made by Glen Kuiper,” President Bob Kendrick said in the statement. “I welcomed Glen to the NLBM yesterday and know he was genuinely excited to be here. The word is painful and has no place in our society. And while I don’t pretend to know Glen’s heart, I do know that my heart is one of forgiveness. I hope all of you will find it in ourselves to do the same!”
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