As a member of the Oakland A’s television broadcast team, former MLB pitcher Dallas Braden was sitting two feet away when partner Glen Kuiper let a racial slur slip during Friday’s game.
Yet unlike the many people who saw it live live or who viewed a clip of Kuiper’s comment later, Braden seemed to show no reaction to what Kuiper said.
Braden addressed the issue Tuesday in a statement.
‘Several people have questioned my lack of response to an issue that took place during the pregame broadcast of the Oakland A’s game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Friday, May 5th. I believe my silence has been misinterpreted,’ Braden said.
OPINION: Now is not the time to forgive Glen Kuiper. At least not yet.
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Braden went on to explain that he didn’t realize at the time what Kuiper had just said.
‘The nuances of live television mean that sometimes we, as broadcasters, miss some of what you, our audiences, hear. We have producers speaking in our ears about what is next, we are formulating our words to articulate our thoughts, we are moving direction from camera to camera, we are waiting for cues, we are checking sound. We have lots going on that is not always visible to our audience,’ he wrote.
Braden, who tossed a perfect game as a member of the A’s in 2010, said he only realized something was amiss when Kuiper issued an apology in the sixth inning.
Kuiper, who has been calling A’s games for about 20 years and has been their main play-by-play man on TV since 2006, has apologized for his comment and has been suspended from his NBC Sports California duties while company officials conduct a review of the incident.
