This MLB season, the Athletics will begin their three-year pit stop in Sacramento on their way to Las Vegas. If Spring Training is any indication, baseball announcers, either by accident or to make a point, are going to have a hard time letting the Oakland days go.
On Tuesday in the Cactus League, San Francisco Giants announcers Jon Miller and Duane Kuiper insisted on referring to the team as “Oakland” over multiple innings on the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast.
In the top of the third, Miller addressed the mess head-on by pointing out that the team is currently playing in Sacramento, but is choosing to go by simply “Athletics” during its pit stop.
“I know they’re going to go with just ‘Athletics’ … I’m going to say Sacramento, simply because I don’t want to just keep saying Oakland twenty times during this telecast, from habit,” Miller said.
His concern over repeating himself ended up being prophetic.
Duane Kuiper & Jon Miller going through the four stages of grief when it comes to calling them the “Oakland” Athletics.
Step 3/4: Frustration. pic.twitter.com/OZqmZFWR7e
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2025
In the bottom of the third, Miller absent-mindedly stated a foul ball went over the “Oakland” dugout before he was reminded by Kuiper that the team no longer called the East Bay its home.
“I’ll be saying it when I don’t even realize I said it,” Miller said.
But it would not be the last slip-up.
Duane Kuiper & Jon Miller going through the four stages of grief when it comes to calling them the “Oakland” Athletics.
Step 1/4: Realization. pic.twitter.com/hhuuNA4jIQ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2025
By the fifth inning, Kuiper was fed up. Signing off for the middle of the inning commercial break, the announcer gave it to the NBC Sports audience straight.
“Bottom of the fifth coming up, it’s the Giants 3, the A’s should still be in Oakland, 1,” he said.
Duane Kuiper & Jon Miller going through the four stages of grief when it comes to calling them the “Oakland” Athletics.
Step 4/4: Out of F*cks to Give. pic.twitter.com/u3oLAbIgOc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2025
Now, Kuiper and Miller and the entire Giants broadcast teams have a unique connection to the team’s move. After watching the A’s situation worsen from across the Bay Bridge all these years, they are making a pointed comment from the standpoint of the Bay Area community.
But other MLB announcers are bound to make the same mistake all season long. The Athletics were in Oakland for nearly six decades. Nobody calling baseball has ever called it any other way.
So when you combine those innocent slip-ups with the MLB community’s remorse for the A’s and their fans, the way that announcers approach the change is going to be a storyline throughout 2025.
