Chicago White Sox announcer John Schriffen made a regrettable error on Tuesday night while calling a routine play between the Sox and Houston Astros.
As Jose Altuve popped out to center field, Schriffen was on the call. While he meant to say that Altuve had been “retired,” he instead used an outdated word for people with intellectual disabilities. He immediately caught and corrected himself to say “retired,” but not in time to get his original misspeak back into his mouth.
whoops pic.twitter.com/H8GEgN8GYv
— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) September 2, 2026
Listening in real time, it’s pretty clear that it was a simple accident on Schriffen’s part, but it’s an unfortunate slip of the tongue nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, the clip immediately made the rounds on social media, shared with varying levels of immaturity.
It’s far from the first time an announcer has had such a moment in the booth. Chip Carey suffered a similar blunder last year while calling a game between the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals, and Baltimore Orioles announcer Gary Thorne made the exact same mistake as Schriffen did back in 2015, with Albert Pujols taking the spot of Altuve.
It is not a good look to have this sort of slip, but it’s also demonstrably better than some of the hot-mic moments we’ve heard from announcers who didn’t realize their words were still going out to viewers at home.
Schriffen didn’t address the comment afterward, and given how quickly he caught his error in the moment, he probably didn’t need to. Mistakes happen, even if some sound way worse than others.
About Tyler Lauletta
Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.