Former Oakland Athletics broadcaster Glen Kuiper hasn’t broadcasted an MLB game since parting ways with NBC Sports California in May of 2023 following an incident where he used a racial slur during a broadcast. But that doesn’t mean that he is giving up his ambitions to return to a MLB booth.
Damon Bruce, who a long time Bay Area media radio personality, recently spoke with Kuiper in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
During the conversation, Kuiper first spoke about his regret about the infamous moment, saying that he often thinks about the moment and wishes he could take it back.
“Yeah, it’s something that I think about every day,” said Kuiper. “I wish obviously with all my heart that it hadn’t happened. But I haven’t talked about kind of the nuts and bolts of what actually did happen and how it did come out the way that it did. I made a mistake and I’ve worn it for a long time and I’ll wear it for the rest of my life. You know, that’s just the reality of it and I’m okay with it.”
Later on, Kuiper expressed his desire to one day call MLB games once again if an organization will take a chance on him again.
“Oh man, I’ll tell you what, I really hope so,” said Kuiper when asked by Bruce whether he thought he would ever call another baseball game. “I miss calling games, I do. I’m not gonna deny it. I hope that I do. I hope that somebody is willing to, you know, partner up and do this. I hope an organization is open to it.
“I think I’m a good announcer but I don’t know. It’s a tough world right now. It’s not always a forgiving world and I understand all that. But I’ve been in sports for over 30 years and I would very much like to broadcast again. If not, I’ll do something else in sports. There’s a lot of things to do out there and stay in the sports world because it’s a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed it.”
Recently, we’ve seen someone like Thom Brennaman who was similarly removed from his duties for a homophobic slur back in 2020, receive broadcasting opportunities recently. Albeit in a different sport for him, as he is now calling Mountain West college football games on The CW.
We may potentially see Kuiper get an opportunity to similarly resurrect his broadcasting career in the future. But for the time being, people will associate him with that unfortunate moment.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.