A’s Broadcaster Apologizes After Apparent Racial Slur

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Oakland Athletics broadcaster Glen Kuiper apologized after uttering what sounded like a racial slur while describing a trip to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

In a pregame segment on NBC Sports California before the A’s played the Kansas City Royals on Friday night, Kuiper talked about a trip to the museum with colleague Dallas Braden but seemingly mispronounced the word “negro,” making it sound instead like a slur.

Oakland A’s television broadcaster Glen Kuiper, right, and A’s analyst Dallas Braden. (Twitter/Bob Kendrick)

Kuiper’s On-Air Apology

Later in the game, Kuiper apologized on the air without getting into specifics.

“Welcome back to Kauffman Stadium. I just want to … a little bit earlier in the show, I said something, didn’t come out quite the way I wanted it to,” Kuiper said. “And I just wanted to apologize if it sounded different than I meant it to be said. And like I said, I just wanted to apologize for that.”

The A’s later issued a statement, calling the language used by Kuiper “unacceptable.”

“The Oakland Athletics do not condone such language,” the team said. “We are working to address the situation.”

Kuiper has been calling A’s games in the Bay Area for about 20 years. He is the younger brother of former major leaguer and Giants announcer Duane Kuiper.