Oakland A’s Broadcaster Glen Kuiper Drops N-Word During Live Broadcast

I've only sat right behind the catcher once and seeing the pitches from there is amazing. It might be worth it to go for that. Those seats will never be that cheap again. 

Went to a game last month vs. the Mets and they brought out the surviving members of the 1973 team.

I have so many memories of the Coliseum back to the 70s, A's games and concerts.

The old Oakland vibe still endures, win or lose, I will do my best to get back out there a time, or two, before it all comes crashing down. Watch the meaningless game and chill with the fans.

I did not watch the clip, but that's too bad for Kuiper if he used the forbidden word, context does not matter. He has been with the A's for a long time. 

I also have fond memories of the 72-3-4 run.  I never really warmed to the Giants, although I'm not as bad as my Dad was.  He was raised in Oakland, and as far as he was concerned, SF teams could lose every game!

Regarding the Opening Day record of Oakland starting pitchers, I was going to pass on that tidbit to some friends, but did a little research first.  Seems in 2017, the A's starting pitcher was Kendall Graveman, who got the win.  Maybe we're talking complete games?  No, I see Casilla got the save...

EDIT:  Ah, 32 games this year!  Wow, I had no idea we were that far into the season.

Carry on...

I think he should be fired.

Not because of that boneheaded mistake, but because he's an eminently mediocre broadcaster.

 He did not even notice it at the time.  He must have said "nigger leagues" regularly in private.

Team moving to Las Vegas.

Worst record in MLB.

Two games that drew crowds of only 2500 this week against Seattle this week.

Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse for the A's.

it could get worse, there are stories that the Vegas deal isn't a sure thing, they're counting on I think 500M from the state like the Raiders got but people in NV are starting to notice that John Fisher is a piece of shit owner who doesn't care if his team wins and they're reasonably wondering if giving him a bunch of their money will change anything.

Agree Mark. He said that way too easily.

He's now been suspended.

As someone who's profession it was for decades to talk all day and often late into the night (and how cool is that?) I can say with certainty that it's easy to make a mistake from time to time.

So now because of one odd mistake we are all absolutely certain that this guy is an evil racist who uses the "n" word all the time and he must be fired and his life ruined.

BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!!!

To me all that knee-jerk self righteous reaction shows is that as a society we are completely fucked up (like I didn't know that already). It also feeds the moron's perception of the "woke mob", which unfortunately does exist and in this case just gives the idiot right something else to yowl about.

It was a bad mistake, but it was a mistake, and by the way, he did notice it, and you can see him choke on it (as did his doofus partner). Given that it was an A's game that maybe two hundred people were watching, the smart move would have been to ignore it and move on without the apology that came later, as almost nobody probably noticed it when it happened.

Suspend him? Fine, then let him go back to work and move on. Because whatever happened to forgiveness, to empathy, to accepting that sometimes decent people are going to fumble the ball?

Besides, no one is paying any attention to him or that team anyway.

"because he's an eminently mediocre broadcaster."

Yeah, worse without Ray Fosse for comic relief.

Once upon a time the A's broadcast team ws Lon Simmons and Bill King.

Lance, I guess you are talking about people's reactions elsewhere, because I don't see anyone here calling for him

to be fired or burned at the stake.

 For me, I stand by my observation that it seemed to roll a little too easily off his tongue...

Of course, shit happens, nobody's perfect, we're all humans.

Yeah Roar, Lon & King were a real good team, for a short time a long time ago.

But you think Ray Fosse was funny??? I always found him cringeworthy, almost desperately UNfunny and the only broadcaster I've ever heard who I thought was possibly a worse "homer" than Monte Moore, the worst homer of all time and another A's announcer.

Giants haters will sight Mike Krukow as a homer, and he is, but compared to Fosse & Moore? He's a bird compared to a 747.

And the big difference there is that Krukow actually IS funny, damned funny, and along with the GOOD Kuiper (poor racist Glen's brother Dwaine, who is the only reason Glen has a job) make the best broadcast duo in the league.

No matter, in this case I'm seriously doubting that the tepid tap water dull Glen Kuiper is a raging racist who deserves to be fired.

I say let's just move on, try to focus on things that actually DO matter, and play ball.

GO GIANTS!!!!!!!

For me, I stand by my observation that it seemed to roll a little too easily off his tongue...

what does this even mean? what would it look like if he made the same mistake but it didnt roll easily off the tongue?

That's kind of my point daylight. When you constantly talk for a living it's pretty easy to slip up occasionally. The vast array of words that are in our heads at any given time can overwhelm any of us for a moment.

Does this one mistake absolutely mean this person is an evil racist?

I don't know, but the so often immediate, all-knowing, absolutely certain judgment that exists in modern society wears me out a bit.

And Local, I don't know if this deal is blowing up big/nationally, but my pessimistic (realistic?) nature leads me to believe that it is or soon will be.

Can't we all just lighten up a bit?

Just a little racist.

but

but

"what about rap music?"

>> Does it matter?  I'm just asking the question.<<

maybe go ask bob kendrick and get back to us

I guess I'm in the minority here but I love Glen Kuiper and think he made an honest, albeit terrible mistake.

I don't see how he survives this going forward.  I'm a big A's fan and have been pretty devastated and continue to still be in regards to the 

pending move to Las Vegas, quite possible the worst city ever, in my humble opinion of course.

hey dave does your store sell rap albums?

easy enough question

maybe start there

Societal norms and morality are difficult areas for discussion. but discuss we must or we don't move forward as a society.  Once a word is coined and reaches a certainly level of use it tends not to go away.  Yes, kids are going to hear the N-word from Hip Hop and other sources.  For those raised in racist families they will hear it alot. 

This particular issue doesn't seem complicated to me .  The rule I learned growing up was that White people simply should never use the word; never ever, end of discussion.  Black/Brown people can use it and some choose to. Why it is acceptable for Black people to use may be an interesting conversation, but that reality doesn't give White folks the right to use the word.  That simple rule has started to blur over the last 20 years or so as White supremacy as a ideology has started to surge again in this country and around the world.  

All I meant was you don't make that slip if you don't say that  in private.

Takes a level of either telepathy or self-righteous hubris to reach a conclusion that the guy says that phrase regularly in private, or harbors deeply held racist beliefs. The first syllable of Negro and that other N word are identically pronounced. They both have an "r" sound in the second syllable. Negro is a word that doesn't get used very often at all these days, with the exception of "Negro Leagues." So over the course of talking as much as an announcer does, making shit up as he goes along and trying simultaneously to listen to himself as he goes and think of what to say next, it doesn't seem that far-fetched that his brain glitched as he said the word, and out came a very small mispronunciation. Happens all the time to all kinds of people with all kinds of (usually much less fraught) words.

In a different yet related vein, since this is to a degree an A's thread, very sad news today that Vida Blue passed yesterday.

He really was something else. When I was a kid I loved him when he played for the A's, firing those rocket balls from his cool delivery, a huge part of those great early '70s teams.

I never quite warmed to him when he joined the Giants, maybe because they were terrible most of the years he played for them (maybe also because the Giants traded him for Attlee Hammaker... oh my) but Vida had his moments with the Giants too.

It's a shame that his personal struggles with substance abuse hurt his legacy (maybe a different example of racism and double standards in sports) but he was a unique and excellent player who had a great career and overcame those troubles to settle into a good life. He did lots of charity work and he definitely made his mark here in the BA.

I basically agree with Esse.

vida blue is such a great name.

As a white person I just want to say I'm fine with not being able to use the N Word in exchange for cops not thinking shoot first whenever we have a interaction. I'm pretty sure I got the better part of that deal. 

Funny thing about saying "The N-word" is you think exactly what it attempts to obscure.

Not speaking a name or word is still a powerful tool for humans even though we know in our heads the name or word. As human culture evolved, shunning an individual or in extreme cases banishing an individual as punishment for transgressions was a hugely powerful tool.  I believe often times when a  person was banished or shunned it was also a given that their name was never spoken either. It's not like the people suddenly forgot that person's name, it is just that there is a certain resolve that comes from a community refusing to speak a name or a word. We know what we are not speaking of, but we are gaining a certain type of control over that thing which is not spoken of.   

Control over what's said, but not what's thought, doesn't seem like all that much progress.

RIP Vida Blue.

I don't buy the "slip".   Just about bet the house the N word wouldn't have "slipped" out of his mouth on his first day in prison.

Vida Blue is the answer to a difficult baseball trivia question

Also cool that he was on the same team as Blue Moon Odom

two of the coolest names in baseball history

Unless it's rattling around in there it's not gonna slip out.

Well, I guess the uber righteous feel good about this.

For me, I don't know what to say, except that it's sad that a person lost his job and that his career is ruined over one momentary mistake.

Oh, I get it, it's THAT word, the verboten word, yet a word that is actually used constantly every day. A word that is absolutely inundated in our society, a word that we hear everywhere, all day every day but only allowed, and COMPLETELY allowed, by certain people to use at will.

I'm not saying that it's common daily use is right or wrong, but that's part of my issue with this. Maybe Kuiper has teenage kids who listen to hip hop records, or maybe HE listens to hip hop, where "that" word is used constantly. And I mean CONSTANTLY. And is also used constantly in normal speech among certain social groups that this person is continually exposed to.

But beyond the shallow knee jerk reaction to "that" word or the predictable monetary response to a professional broadcaster letting it slip out, I just feel bad for this guy being completely ruined by one mistake.

Personally, I'm not a fan of his, I think he's a mediocre broadcaster at best, but where is the forgiveness? Where is the empathy? Where is the understanding that we live in a complicated world? A world where we all make mistakes?

Eh, FUCK him! He used THAT word! He's obviously a racist.

BURN HIM!!!

Well, he's burned.

Feel better?

>Eh, FUCK him! He used THAT word! He's obviously a racist<

>Unless it's rattling around in there it's not gonna slip out<

I believe both of these statements are true.

Lance, that word has never slipped out of my mouth. If a particular word it's mistakenly uttered, it's likely that the same word has been intentionally used

I'm not sure about others, but i do not mistakenly utter a word that is not part of my spoken vocabulary. 

Some folks have the privilege to ignore racism/bigotry 

 > Maybe Kuiper has teenage kids who listen to hip hop records, or maybe HE listens to hip hop, where "that" word is used constantly. And I mean CONSTANTLY. <

Oh Lance, I often listen to rap/hip hop. 

Just listened to this yesterday...

MF DOOM X TATSURO YAMASHITA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E8pHAQc4rxA&pp=ygUZbWYgZG9vbSB0YXRzdXJvIHl...

>>>And is also used constantly in normal speech among certain social groups that this person is continually exposed to.

I think you are projecting here.  To imagine this guy is continually exposed to these social groups or this language .....I have my doubts.    Especially when he heads home to Danville with its 78% white and nearly 15% Asian demographic make up.  

I would have more consideration for him and the situation if he had caught it in the moment and apologized profusely.   But he didn't.  He just said it like it was any other day.  

But does it matter anyway?  A's suck, A's are gone, and so is he.   It all wraps up in a nice little package fuck Oakland package.   It's a sad day for that city.  

I'm just saying, I don't know anything about this guy. 

And neither do any of you.

Definitely not based on one moment.

Ultimately, I'm not talking about racism, or the command of the English language, or even our unwavering belief in our ability to immediately KNOW with absolute certainty, despite most often actually knowing almost nothing about the given situation; I'm talking about the willingness to give a person a chance to make a mistake.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

I don't think that's a hip-hop lyric, but there's some truth in that.

> I'm talking about the willingness to give a person a chance to make a mistake<

He didn't get a name wrong, he didn't unintentionally use profanity.

Like I wrote, some people have the privilege to ignore racism/bigotry. 

 "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time"

ive accidentally said the N word in front of black people before

He issued the following on Instagram post-firing:

^ oof 

" I take full responsibility"

but....

my god, dude

He should've just blamed it on rap

I don't believe ANY words should be forbidden.

The seven dirty words are seven English-language curse words that American comedian George Carlin first listed in his 1972 "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" monologue. The words, in the order Carlin listed them, are: "shit", "piss", "fuck", "cunt", "cocksucker", "motherfucker", and "tits". 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

Some words are undoubtedly impolite in some settings, and all words have great power. Choose your words carefully.

In private industry, the employer has all the power and can fire at will. Unless the employees organize collectively.

What about in literature and art? Should Mark Twain be canceled for using the word in depicting how some characters actually spoke in the 19th century?

In the 20th century, Bob Dylan uses the word in his song "Hurricane." Should the song be erased? Should Dylan's body of work be canceled? How about Elvis Costello, who uses the word in his song "Oliver's Army" ? Perhaps we have got to cancel that damn Elvis Costello!

^the examples in the post above are not relevant to Kuiper's situation.  

People are free to be as bigoted as they please, however, there may be consequences. 

Elvis said he's never playing it again and i believe requested it be removed from radio consideration.

Bob is a civil rights icon with a black daughter. he wrote blowing the wind he can do whatever the fuck he wants.

i was however shocked to hear hurricane over the speakers in newark airport last summer

Glen Kuiper probably isn't confused anymore as to whether or not it's ok to say the N word. 

some are so white, they think this about baseball 

"the examples in the post above are not relevant to Kuiper's situation."

Those examples are of drliberate use of the word for artistic purposes.

There are many more.

I did not actually hear Kuiper's faux pas (did any of you?), so don't know if he mispronounced, or what, but having listened to the guy off and on the lst twenty years, though cringe-worthy as a broadcaster, he never remotely said anything that sounded bigoted. Now not only is the guy out of a job, but will be tarred a racist by some people.

Some of them, apparently, right here on the Zone.