The Oakland Athletics said they are “working to address the situation” after play-by-play announcer Glen Kuiper apologized on the air for appearing to use a racial slur during a pregame segment before Friday’s game at the Kansas City Royals.
Kuiper appeared to say the slur on NBC Sports California when he referred to a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Before the start of the sixth inning, Kuiper apologized.
“Welcome back to Kauffman Stadium. I just want to … a little 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.”
It appeared that Kuiper mispronounced the word “Negro,” making it sound instead like a slur.
In a statement, the A’s called Kuiper’s pregame language “unacceptable.”
“The Oakland Athletics do not condone such language. We are working to address the situation,” the statement said.
Kuiper is in his 20th season calling A’s games and has covered baseball in the Bay Area for NBC Sports California since 1992, according to Oakland’s media guide.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
