Nick Kurtz has probably heard comments about his name all his life.
The No. 4 MLB Draft pick, who is now in the majors with the Athletics, is an easy target. Kurt’z full first and last name, said together too quickly, sound like an unfortunate racial slur. So it was believable when, on Tuesday after the Athletics called Kurtz up to the big leagues, an MLB news account on X posted about a warning for announcers when calling A’s games.
An account that appeared to be associated with popular Jomboy Media podcast Talkin’ Baseball claimed that NBC Sports California, the network that broadcasts Athletics games, had issued a warning to its announcers to be careful when saying Kurtz’s name on air, “in order to avoid any unfortunate mishaps.”
The popular sports blog Sporting News rushed to publish an article on the remarkable headline. Sporting News even cited the Sacramento Bee, which the X account claimed first reported the news.
However contrary to what the post on X and the Sporting News article led MLB fans to believe, the report about Kurtz was not true. There was no Sacramento Bee article about it. And the X account was, like NBA Centel or Ballsack Sports, a parody account.
Count Sporting News as another victim of X parody accounts. But while the whole incident can be chalked up to fake news, the post likely had the same effect as if NBC Sports California actually did sound an advisory to its announcers.
Everyone will be on high alert when Kurtz plays this season.