Three years after losing his job for misspeaking and uttering a racial slur, Glen Kuiper has returned to a Major League Baseball broadcast booth.
Kuiper was a longtime television voice for the Oakland Athletics. However, Kuiper accidentally used a racial slur when trying to talk about the Negro League museum while calling a game in Kansas City. Two weeks later, the A’s and NBC Sports California parted ways with the announcer after nearly two decades calling games for the team.
In the years since, Kuiper has been in search of a second chance. And that has now come thanks to the one MLB team that remains in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Giants.
As reported by SFGate, Kuiper stepped behind the microphone for his first MLB regular season game with the Giants in Philadelphia to visit the Phillies. He called the radio broadcast on KNBR with Joe Ritzo, who has made frequent appearances working away games. Kuiper called the third, fourth, and seventh innings as the secondary play-by-play voice with Ritzo taking the lead. The pair will work the entirety of the Giants’ six-game road trip in Philly and Tampa Bay for the station.
Of course, the Kuiper family has deep ties with the Giants. Glen’s brother Duane has been a fixture on Giants television for decades. Another Kuiper brother, Jeff, has worked in production with the franchise also dating back to the 1980s.
Glen Kuiper first appeared with the Giants in Spring Training earlier this year and was slated to call approximately 10-15 games this season. The team boasts one of the strongest bullpens in baseball when it comes to broadcasting with the likes of Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow, Jon Miller, Dave Flemming all calling games. And now it appears Glen Kuiper will be part of the rotation as well.
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