The San Francisco Giants have had an offseason full of puzzling decisions, but none so baffling as this one: Glen Kuiper is returning to the booth to do radio broadcasts.
The lesser of the three broadcasting Kuiper brothers (13 years younger than Duane, five years younger than producer Jeff), Glen Kuiper was the primary play-by-play man for the Oakland Athletics from 2006-2023. He was suspended in May 2023 after using a racial slur while describing a trip to the Negro Leagues Museum.
Two weeks later, NBC Sports California concluded their investigation and chose to fire Kuiper. Kuiper responded with a statement expressing his dismay: “I will always have a hard time understanding how one mistake in a 20-year broadcasting career is cause for termination, but I know something better is in my future.”
However, it wasn’t even the first time Kuiper had accidentally said the n-word on the air. Because he also made the same slip of the tongue in 2020 while describing the Negro Leagues.
At the time, Negro Leagues Museum president Bob Kendrick said he forgave Kuiper, while former A’s pitcher Dave Stewart also stood up for him. In his statement, Kuiper said, “It was a terrible but honest mispronunciation, and I take full responsibility. Please know racism is in no way a part of me; it never has been, and it never will be.”
But regardless of what Kuiper has inside of him, it seems like he has a big problem with accidentally saying the n-word. That alone is a reason to keep him off the air! As Tim Kawakami succinctly put it, it’s an issue of competence.
In addition, NBC California’s investigation of Kuiper also revealed “several emails” that violated the employee code of conduct. So it wasn’t just the two on-air racial slurs that led to his dismissal. People may credit Kuiper’s dismissal to “cancel culture” but it seems to more accurately have been “fired for cause culture.”
Here’s what Giants chief marketing officer Rachel Heit told the SF Chronicle:
The Giants are committed to inclusion, respect and earning our fans’ trust. We had numerous conversations about the requirements for excellence we expect from our broadcasters. Glen’s addition to the broadcast team is reflective of how he’s approached his growth and what he’s demonstrated from an accountability perspective.
It’s a somewhat confusing statement. Is the team committed to inclusion for men who keep accidentally saying racial slurs on live TV? What part of hiring Kuiper is earning the fans’ trust?
The real question is, why are the Giants doing this? Kuiper is 62 years old. The team has a deep bench of broadcasters and former players available for telecasts. Clearly they want someone to be able to fill in as Jon Miller, Mike Krukow, and Duane Kuiper miss more games, but it’s very difficult to see what the upside of this decision is for the Giants, aside from doing the Kuiper family a solid, at the expense of antagonizing their fans.
Especially for a team that forced out longtime annuncer Renel Brooks-Moon, then dedicated the announcer’s booth to her with very little fanfare. Fans loved Renel. It’s not clear that Glen Kuiper has that kind of affection from Giants fans. Management doesn’t seem to care.
No one should be faulted for accepting Kuiper’s apology and forgiving him his transgressions. But it’s baffling that the Giants are willing to alienate big parts of their fan base for what feels like a totally unnecessary hire.