Giants Radio Host Larry Krueger Suspended for “Racial Remarks”
Larry Krueger, a radio host for the San Francisco Giants’ radio network, has been suspended for “racial remarks” made during Wednesday’s game.
Giants radio host makes racial remarks (MSNBC)
A talk-show host for the San Francisco Giants’ longtime flagship radio station was suspended for a week without pay Friday for racial remarks he made about the team’s Latino players — though a high-ranking station executive said he would not be fired.
On the air late Wednesday after the Giants lost 3-2 to the Colorado Rockies, Larry Krueger of KNBR went off about the struggling club and its “brain-dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly.†Later, he said, “You have a manager in Felipe (Alou) whose mind has turned to Cream of Wheat.â€
I don’t know the backstory here but am rather unsure how these constitute “racial remarks.” Is there some stereotypical tendency of Carribean hitters to hack at slop of which I’m unaware?
And Alou is one of the great managers in the game. That he had any success at all with the AAA caliber clubs he was handed while managing the Montreal Expos is amazing. One imagines that the remark about his mind turning to Cream of Wheat is an indication that the analyst believed he made some uncharacteristically poor decisions.
Now, had he said, “Well, what do you expect when you hire colored managers?” then the “racial” nature of the remarks would be clear.
Update (Aug 10): Radio Host Larry Krueger Fired for “Racist†Comments
There’s a saying that the reason some Dominican players have low walk totals is because “you can’t walk off the island.”
Cream Of Wheat
Blacks
A famous black person in the world of advertising is the man on the Cream of Wheat box.
You’ll find this in most racial slur databases with a simple google search.
Looks like the offense here was mentioning the Carribbean. If he just said “brain-dead hitters” he would have been OK.
The cream-of-wheat thing I do not get why that is offensive. How I read it is Krueger is saying Alou’s mind has turned to mush.
I think they made the right decision to suspend the man, after all his remarks are at least questionable. And why make them? Why not just call it like it is? “So-and-so has had a few bad games.” Why do we have to include nationality in the comments.
As far as cream of wheat, I suppose it might also have a link to racial slurs of a bygone time (see a previous comment). Again, why even raise the question. The man’s job is to call games. So call ’em.
How about including nationality because they’re from the Caribbean? Since when did a geographic location become a race, or indeed an automatic slur? I wonder if the same would have happened if the sport had been hockey and the country Sweden?
There is such a thing?
Why the surprise? When taking offense is a billion-dollar industry, of course there are going to be databases designed to supoport the industry.
This is more hyper-sensitive political correctness garbage, He’s a baseball announcer calling ’em as he sees ’em. His comments are a long way from Marge Schott.
Not really surprised by their existence, just that I haven’t really heard of them until now.
The left will probably organize it into a racial slur handbook eventually and sell them for campaign fundraising or something.
>
If you subscribe to the Billy Beane philosophy, which includes patient hitting and drawing a lot of walks, then you would not conclude that Felipe Alou is a good manager. He has long believed in “aggressive hitting,” and his teams have always had low walk rates and low on-base percentages.
I suspect that Larry Krueger dislikes the approach that Alou uses, and because it has worked so poorly for the Giants this year, Krueger has lost all patience with Alou.
Also, Alou is the kind of manager who will make odd decisions, like pulling a right-handed batter who is set to face a left-handed pitcher, and replace him with a left-handed pinch hitter with a history of struggling against lefties. It’s fair to say that Alou does not play the odds; he goes against the book all the time.
As it happens, the Giants do have a lot of players from the Caribbean area on their team. Seven out of 25. And because they are following the approach taught by Alou, swing first, ask questions later, the Giants really do have a lot of Caribbean players hacking at bad pitches.
In my view, it’s not Alou’s fault that Barry Bonds hasn’t played a game; or that the team he was handed by his general manager is filled with older, broken down players. No manager could win with this group.
Nor is it fair to blame the players (as Krueger did). They are trying their best and doing what their manager is telling them to do.
But it’s outrageous that Felipe Alou would manipulate what amounts to a somewhat unfounded, or even unfair criticism into a racial crusade. That attack belittles actual instances of racial injustice. I can see nothing racist in Krueger’s words.
I think some of you who aren’t offended may wish to enroll in a sensitivity training seminar. You need to learn to wear your feelings on your fingertips (unless you’re a white anglo-saxon protestant – then you’re fair game.)
If somebody called you an Brain-Dead American, you would be trying to start a war with Bush. Don’t even go there about the nationality not being racial. Because your natioanality is just as strong as your race. But some of you have failed to realized that.
If Krueger is interested in becoming the next shock jock sensation, he should consider as an example, the master, Jim Rome. You’ll note that he is careful never to cross that line which puts him in the scary place which Krueger now and forever dwells. Krueger’s right up there with Jimmy the Greek. Hopefully he’ll be fired.
So if the players had been from, say, Rhode Island, and you inserted the words “Rhode Islanders” for Carribbean, would it still be racist?
This is just another way for the attention of underachievement to be taken off the shoulders of Felipe and his free swinging ball club. At least the guy had the decency to swallow his pride and apologize.
Well, it turns out Caribbean hitters *do* tend to hack at slop more often:
http://www.isteve.com/Sports_Baseball_Hidden_Ethnic_Bias.htm
Put Larry Krueger on waivers and not a single station will pick up the bigot. He deserves to hang out to dry. Having grown up in the Bay Area I had {and still do have} friends of all race, religion and beliefs. Just because Larry is frustrated with a sub-par team in the worst baseball division does not make it right for him to make racial comments about the manager and players that play the game. Larry would not have a job without the players but the players have a job without Larry. Put Larry on Waivers for the purpose of giving him his un-conditional release. The baseball fans around the nation deserve better.
The guy calls himself “The L-Dog”. He should be fired just for that.
And I don’t think this is just Alou overreacting. Sports talk radio has an undertone of racism. People might argue that it doesn’t, but it does. It’s a business built on attacking players and managers. Most of the radio hosts are white. Many of the players and managers are black and latino. To the extent that racism exists (and who will argue that it doesn’t), sports talk radio is a natural arena for that racism to be exhibited. It is usually muted enough to keep anyone from getting into trouble, but occasionally a guy will go over the line. When he does, the criticism is magnified because there is a bit of a “gotcha” element to it. I think that is part of what’s going on here. The players and managers are frustrated with the garbage that goes on with talk radio and this is one of the rare opportunties that they have to get peoples’ attention on the story. It may seem overblown to some, but what else can they do.
>>”It may seem overblown to some, but what else can they do.”
They can STFU.
Caribbean players have a different hitting style than players that grow up in the US, as the article I linked above demonstrates. Caribbean players come to the US hacking away at any pitch between the top of the head and the ankles, and Krueger is taking Alou to task for not stopping them. So yes, there are “Caribbean players hacking at slop nightly.” Caribbean players also tend to field ground balls off to the side of their body (some say because of bad fields causing bad hops), which is another bad habit a manager needs to break when they get to the States.
As far as the “cream-of-wheat” comment being construed as racist because there’s a picture of a black guy on the box — well, that accusation borders on retarded.
Does the article also discuss the “brain-dead” qualities of latin players? I noticed you left that part off of your quote. That’s sort of the offensive part, isn’t it Skip. And maybe it’s easy for you to say that they should STFU, but you don’t have to listen to the garbage directed at you every day. And maybe it’s easy for you to blow off the Cream of Wheat business, but that probably doesn’t impact you either. Fact is, The L-Dog is a professional speaker. It is his job to understand the impact of the words that come out of his mouth. Whether he intended it or not, his comments were insensitive and maybe more. To his credit, he seems to understand this and has made an attempt to apologize.
Obviously there are racial overtones that are in play here. Anybody who denies is just standing up for racism.
Let get things rights:
First the latinos (black or white) or whatever smart people like krueger wants to call them are the most VALUABLE ASSET the MLB has, why? if you fire all the latinos players, especially the caribbean ones,the MLB will loose flavor, thinks about PEDRO MARTINEZ, MANNY RAMIREZ, DAVID ORTIZ, SOSA, BARTOLO COLON, PEDRO ASTACIO, ALBERT PUJOS, ODALIS PEREZ, CRISTIAN GUZMAN, TONY BATISTA, RONNY BELLIARD, RAFAEL FULCAR, WILLY MOE PENA, MIGUEL TEJADA, PLACIDO POLANCO, NEIFY PEREZ, MOISES ALOU, BLADIMIR GUERRERO Y WINSTON GUERRERO, with those caribbeans player out the mlb will be OTHER THING…. those player contribute to the entertainment of millions of people around the globe demostrating that the color over the skin is nothing more than that “color”. THEN I would like the japanese invest all the money they can into their baseball and contract all the BLACK LATINS OR CARIBBEANS PLAYER then you will hear Krueger BShiting about the quality of the white players, there is not comparison to those players named here, you can’t find this power in a group of white players, even drinking enough sterioids….
About Alou, there is nothing to say about Krueger in this comment, he has the right to use his mind even if he hurts people, but you should judge him for his mouth, you can’t say all what you think….
The words could hunt you!
For what it’s worth…what Krueger said was that Alou’s brain was turning to C of W trying to make something of this horrendous team. I don’t think he was thinking about the stupid box, that is so ridiculous. He had actually just said that he thought Alou was a great manager, but even the greatest manager in the world couldn’t do anything with the group of hacks that are the giants. I know it’s fun to get offended and feel self-righteous, but a guy’s livelihood is on the line here – let’s try hearing all the facts, first.
These type of comments in 2005?
it’s amazing,
Mr. Larry Krueger would have to know that without Caribbean players MLB lose BIG shine.
FROM DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Gadiel…
I think Larry does know that. In the same broadcast he ripped on Alou for not going after a number of players – all from the Caribbean. He’s not a racist.
Why Larry Krueger doesn’t comment about Barry Bonds’s little professionalism?
Everybody know why he isn’t playing. And there is the first reason of Giants Bad Season.
VENEZUELA
Would all of you speaking out on behalf of Krueger be as forgiving if say…Joe Morgan came out on the air talking about “brain-dead American white boys?” I think not. Calling out an entire nationality and labeling them all as brain-dead is just wrong. If he’s a professional he should know how to craft his message better. As for the Cream of Wheat deal, why couldn’t he have just said “mush” instead. The guy on the Cream of Wheat box is a racial stereotype of years past, just like the Aunt Jemima image on the syrup bottle is actually a throwback to slavery & sharecropping days in the old south.
I live in the Bay Area, and unfortunately listen to Krueger every day because he gets the interviews and reports on my team.
Anyone else out there who does the same knows that Kreuger is basically a sensationalist moron that will say anything to rile up callers. The way that he jumps off the deep end in his reactions just underscores this fact. Being a professional he should (and probably did) know that what came out of his mouth was over the line, and would incite folks.
Even to the degree that if the hitters in question were from Nebraska and I being a Californian got on the radio and said they were “corn fed hick hitters hacking at slop nightly.†that too would incite the ire of the targets in the statement. He knew what he was doing….stupid yes (but that is Krueger), racist I don’t think so. He is just another in media that is lowering the bar to that feared lowest common denominator that has been reached in this era of reality TV and over hyped over testoserone sports talk radio.
having been in radio 23 years, and having to endure the onslaught of immature morning radio personalities, i fail to see what larry did as being wrong or insensitive — the guy was making a statement believing what he said to be true — fire him??? no way! suspend him??? give me a break! the man spoke what was in his mind and has good reason to make the comments —the giants do suck this year and he is paid to fire up an audience — hey, i also heard larry takes steroids and smokes pot! people, get off the sensitivity train and worry about things that are important!
I have also been in radio and actually worked with Larry for 2 years and I can tell you from first hand knowledge that there is no way he would have known anything about the link between Cream of Wheat and racism. He is somewhat clueless on the world outside of sports so i am sure he meant the CoW reference with regards to mush. As to the Caribbean reference, he was taking a term that has been around for a while and tried to use it in a difference context that wasn’t well thought out. If he had said brain dead hitters that hack at everything, he would have been fine. but the fact that he tried to incorporate the perception of the Latin-Caribbean player swinging at everything with a poorly worded sentence does not make him a racist. a dumb-*** but not a racist.
Let me say this: I am a long time listener of Larry Krueger in the Bay Area. I am a huge Giants fan and have been as long as I can remember AND I am a huge fan of what he has to say most of the time.
In this case, this was a generalization of the Latin players on the ball club. I am all for what he has to say. Plain and simple he was referring to the Latin players on this team being crap hitters. All they do day in and day out is first ball swing, get behind in the count, then strike out on a garbage ball in the dirt. I know this as a fact that these players: Moises Alou, Deivi Cruz, and Pedro Feliz swing at trash almost everytime at the plate.
Larry’s comment about Carribean players may have been the wrong term to use to point the finger at these players, but to get “offended” because someone points the finger at you and says “you’re swinging at garbage every day”? Come on, grow up! I think these guys are more upset that someone actually called them out and told them to quit playing like crap then to be “offended” by being called Carribean. Is that really so bad, to be called Carribean???? I can understand the offensiveness if they weren’t actually from the Carribean area but these guys are in fact from the area. Whatever, over sensitive, overpaid whiners.
I am also curious to know how many people actually know that Larry was on his show the very next night at the beginning of the show, apologizing for his comment thinking that some folks might have considered it offensive. In these times of super Political Correctness, I guess everyone should have to apologize for every comment that leaves their mouth for who knows what group of people my comment about kittens might offend. Over sensitive people, grow up, thicken your skin, and leave the guy alone.
Mr. Krueger’s only mistake here was addressing the players as “Caribbean”. He should have called every one of them individually by name and this would be a non-issue. Saying that Felipe Alou’s brain has turned to cream of wheat is his opinion and he has a right to express it. It amazes me that people are so hyper-sensitive that referring to the geographic region they are from insults them. GROW SOME THICKER SKIN PEOPLE!!! I think the important question here is whether or not the statement about the players swinging at slop is true or not. But no one is even talking about that, looks like the players got their way by playing the race card and turned this all around on Mr. Krueger. I guess when someone refers to me as American I should be offended too?
I heard the hype about the outrageous racial remarks larry kreuger made. After actually reading the text of the remarks, I don’t understand what the problem is.
If “players from the carribean” hack at every pitch as a style of play (and from reading a bit on the internet, it seems to be a general fact that many carribean players are aggressive when it comes to swinging at questionable pitches) then why is it an issue to “tell it like it is?”
The world is becoming overly PC. If you said “those negros swing at wild pitches” then that would be offensive. He didn’t say that. There is no “carribean race.”
If he had stated “the players from the carribean are swinging at to many pitches, which is a common style of play from players of that region” then it wouldn’t have been deemed offensive, I don’t think. But I’m sure somebody somewhere would have found it offensive, and would be calling on Kreuger’s head.
**Extreme** Liberal Political Correctness is destroying our country. Destroying our country to the point that we can’t even fight to win wars properly because somebody somewhere might be offended. Thank god this level of BS Political Correctness didn’t exist during WWII.
We would all be speaking german right now.
If merely one person is offended by any particular comment, that comment becomes offensive. The severity of how offensive a comment is, can be directly related to how many people are offended by it… Mr. Kreuger’s comment’s has seemed to offend many.
His remarks are offensive.
I listen to krueger on occasion.I do not believe he is a racist I think he is a passionate Giants fan as most fans are.He spoke from his heart.I am also Latino and was not offended by the comments.It is a known fact that most Latin American players are free swingers.Feliz,Cruz, and Alou are prime examples.However ,I,believe that given the fact we are seeing much better baseball across the bay(moneyball) it makes it more frustrating to see these guys routinely not get a runner in from 3rd with less than 2 outs.Krueger should not be catching so much heat he should be praised for calling it like it is.The game has clearly passed Alou Sr by and his it been highlighted more this season w/no Bonds
i know larry personally
there is absolutely no chance on God’s green earth larry was trying to be a racist
larry has been reading the sports section of the local sf paper since he started to read — he played some sports in high school, but was a very good observer — he fits the mold for a good evening sports talk guy —- he’s not trying to offend anyone – especially his beloved giants, who he is just frustrated over this season — my god, the guy is a great family man and father to his kids – he married and stayed true to his high school sweetheart – he has been offered many a sports broadcasting job – but he loves his san Francisco teams – and he just doesn’t play the homer card in his opinions — he is brash, harsh, loud and quite frequently incorrect, but he is no racist, bigot or whatever! i believe his longevity on the air at knbr has proven that out —- he can be very entertaining and does incite people to call — he has a great listener base – all he knows is sports and his family! let the guy do his thing – he apologized the following night BEFORE any schit hit the proverbial fan — he’s a decent guy and meant zero harm — i say cut him some slack people!
I’m a bleeding heart liberal and stand behind Krueger 100%. It’s not like he tested uranium-enriched weapons in the Caribbean, or said that it’s great how the U.S. govt has ruined the economic structure and cultural heritage of this region. But, the prickly response is more than understandable, considering the rampant ethnocentrism in this country. Maybe we should take the opportunity to look at the inequality in the work force and in the global market? It’s class, not race, that will dictate the living conditions of our future.
The Krueger story is sad for an abundance of reasons, not the least of which is that he is most probably not a racist and is certainly one of the better sports talk show hosts in what is, admittedly, a profession that has few requirements. But one of those requirements certainly must be to be sensitive to the sensibilities of the audience, and in this respect Krueger failed. He failed because he singled out (by implication, if not expressly) an ethnic group, attacked that group in stereotypical terms and then used a racist reference (Cream of Wheat) to single out a leader (in the sport) of that group.
Felipe Alou’s reaction is noteworthy because he represents that generation that had to bear much of the opprobrium of racial prejudice when he was playing at the major league level. Alou’s career began in 1958, only eleven years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. As a rookie, Alou played on a team managed by Alvin Dark who probably was a racist. Dark refused to allow his Latin players to speak Spanish, insisting that only English be spoken in the clubhouse and on the field. Suffering the indignity of not being allowed to speak his native tongue was probably only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the insults Alou had to endure.
America has made tremendous strides in the last fifty years in the area of racial and ethnic prejudice, but one need only consider the anti-immigrant sentiment that many politicians are pushing to understand that latent prejudice still exists in too many places. When it surfaces, even innocently, as in Krueger’s remarks, it is no less ugly.
Some have suggested, in Krueger’s defense, that Alou and others who took offense are too sensitive, that Krueger was just trying to spice up his show, and that stripped of their ethnic references the comments are an accurate indictment of the Giants’ performance this year.
All of those points miss the point. First, Alou is entitled to be “too†sensitive. In fact, it’s important that he express his outrage as forcefully as he has. Unless people are called to task for racial and ethnic stereotyping, that stereotyping will continue. And behind every stereotype is an excuse to discriminate. Labels like “lazy†and “slow†may be well used in describing an individual, but when used stereotypically, they reflect and promote ignorance and intolerance
Krueger is not an amateur. He has been at his craft (at KNBR) for eight years. He is paid to be a professional. Spicing up a show with ethnic stereotyping isn’t professional, nor is it acceptable. I recall a similar incident on the Dodgers flagship station in Los Angeles back in the mid-1970s. A caller inquired of the talk show host then why there weren’t more Asians in baseball. The host replied, “Maybe they can’t see the ball well enough.†He was fired the next day.
As for the Giants’ performance this season, yes, they stink. Their pitching has been fair to poor, as has their hitting. And their defense isn’t a whole lot better. They miss Barry Bonds, certainly, but they also need an infusion of talent and youth. A good talk show host (which Krueger usually is) would emphasize their weaknesses, even do it passionately, without denigrating entire ethnic groups with stereotyping or casting aspersions on the manager’s mental capacity by using a racial reference.
Krueger probably realizes all of these things now. He’s probably going to return (and here’s hoping he does return) a much better talk show host than he was before this incident. He’s talented, and I, for one, will continue to listen to his broadcasts.
But no one should discount the seriousness of the concern that people like Felipe Alou are expressing. If baseball is still America’s sport, then Larry Krueger’s August 3 statements on his talk show reveal much more about the state of the nation than he intended that they would reveal about the state of the Giants.
Did anyone take the simple step of looking up the Giants stats on Yahoo? Moises Alou leads the team in walks. The worst plate discipline stats probably belong to Lance Niekro. One of the worst on the team was Mike Matheny 21 walks 295 at bats 53 ks who has a reputation as a smart player. Devi Cruz had just 9 walks in 183 at bats, but the whole team Latin and non-Latin just doesn’t walk a lot. The team currently has 305 walks, they’ve given up 403. Last year Barry Bonds drew 232 walks by himself.
No one has spoken to my earlier point: if Joe Morgan or Stephen A. Smith would have come on the air and said “you’ve got brain dead white boys like Lance Niekro hacking at slop nightly,” would ALL OF YOU still come to their defense? Hell no…and by Caribbean players he meant Latin players, same thing as calling them out by race. Good point by chancelucky here earlier that actually points out correctly that this year, the most plate disciplined of the Giants is a Latin player (Alou) so Krueger’s statement is crap anyway.
The comments are and should be pointed to as deragotory. This man has insulted an entire race. He gets what he deserves. No more knbr for me.
We can interpret Krueger’s comments in one of two ways:
1) All Caribbean hitters have poor strike zone judgment, and the Giants have given too many plate appearances to such hitters this season.
or
2) The Giants have too many hitters with poor strike zone judgment, and they happen to be from the Caribbean.
Those who accuse Krueger of racism, including Felipe Alou, assume Krueger meant it the first way. I’ve listened to Krueger for several years, and I’ve even called in his show and spoken with him directly 4 or 5 times, and I’m absolutely convinced that he meant it the second way.
To those of you who say that he’s a professional sports pundit who needs to be more precise when he chooses his words, I agree. But compared to the invective you year up and down the AM radio dial, Krueger sounds like a model of multi-culturalism. His own station, KNBR, use to air Rush Limbaugh’s show, so I hardly think the station is in a position to criticize Krueger’s remarks when you compare him with Limbaugh.
Larry’s mistake was using the word Carribean, even if, in fact, some of the players are from the Carribean. Saying Carribean made it sound like a slam on Latinos. Who in fact, don’t have the greatest of obp but pointing that out is considered racist now.
re: Joe Morgan: If he said “Brain Dead Americans” (not “white boy”, that would be racist, right Haines) who hack at slop nightly would there be an outrage? Only because they thought Joe was being silly and bragging about his own obp. They might accuse Joe of being anti-american, so there might be a little grousing…
The Cream of Wheat mark had only to do with mush, not a box top of black person. That one has been completely misconstrued by some. But even Felipe didn’t take offense at that.
Bottom Line: I respect Felipe Alou’s reaction. He is obviously still senstive to what happened to him growing up, and rightly so. Larry Krueger made a dumbass remark. But not really racist. A week sitting down and taking lots of hell from cyber jockeys nationwide is a good enough penalty.
If Howard Stern said this, they’d turn him off for being too non-contorversial.
I’m a KNBR fan. I’m a Larry Krueger fan. He screwed up and he needs to face the music, and I completely agree with this. BUT… I don’t know how many of you actually heard the entire show, or even bothered to ask about it, but I did. Krueger also defended Alou to no end based on the team the Giants front office gave to him. Then the guy goes to the ballpark and wants to apologize in person, after first apologizing on the air before anybody ever made a stink. Alou says NO WAY. So does the rest of the team. I know Alou has faced some real adversity in his day but heres a guy stepping up to the plate and standing up to his mistakes, taking it like a man, and all the Giants have to say is ‘we’re not interested.’ So, Giants, being a charter seat holder in your glorious ballpark, why don’t you get off your high horses, let the poor guy fess up to his mistakes, and move on, or I can go become an A’s fan where at least they can call a spade a spade, aplogize, shake hands, and move on. You can hate this guy if you want, but TRY ACTING LIKE MEN like he’s trying to do, agree to disagree if thats where your heads are at, and get past it! Quite honestly I watch this team swing at crap day in and day out (as I write this in fact), but its not about that. Just one guy and a bad choice of words. Try judging the guy on his entire body of work, which is EXTENSIVE and generally extremely supportive of the Giants and ALL their players. Nobody comes to his side when he says how great you all are, but you crucify him the first time a mistake comes out of his mouth. Granted, he’s a professional, and I hope he learns from this. But I’m tired of the barrage of negativity about this guy when most of the people talking never heard what he said to begin with. I’m italian. I get called a whop but I take it in stride, because I’m proud of who I am. Maybe the rest of the world can take a lesson. This is ridiculous.
My take:
Larry is a professional broadcaster.
I believe when he made the “Caribbean and Cream of Wheat” remarks, he did not use them with the intend to hate or hurt based on racial. More like a guy madly shouting insults or madly swing a hammer around.
Since it wasn’t premeditated insult:
1. I believe Alou should gave him the benefit of doubt and accept his apology.
2. But Larry is a professional, he ought to be fired for his action. ie how can a carpenter who uses the hammer as tool of trade,going around madly swinging the hammer?
Larry did not come across as a racist but as an undisciplined broadcaster. Therefore he should be punished as a racist but as an undisciplined broadcaster.
My take.
Krueger’s been on the air in the SF Bay Area for 8 years. He is NOT a racist, at least from what I’ve ever heard. What he was trying to say is that there is an aggressive style of baseball practiced in the Caribbean where batters swing instead of taking pitches outside the strike zone. (I’m not enough of a fan to know how true this is.) He said it badly. His point was that ball players in the majors need to take pitches.
I do believe that Felipe Alou is truly angry, and considering what he had to suffer during his days in the minors, I can understand his reaction although I think he is misinformed and owes it to himself to go back and look at the transcripts of the show. I’ve got my questions about the motives behind why this has been amplified in the media. Krueger is a fan as well as a radio talk show host. This year the Giants suck and Krueger has been pretty constant in his criticism, although more with the management’s failure to produce players in their farm system rather than the current roster, exposed as aging and very mediocre without Barry Bonds in the lineup. I am sure that the Giants front office would have welcomed Krueger’s firing.
Racism is the big secret of America. When these things erupt, the great divide between how whites and those members of oppressed minorities view incidents like this emerges. At best, some whites have an intellectual understanding of evils of racism, not the emotions of the oppressed.
But Krueger’s not a racist.
How many times have you heard talk radio hosts say that European Basketball players are ruining the NBA? Larry Krueger’s remarks were not racist, last time I checked the Carribean was a bunch of islands, not a race.
Now Larry has been fired. After the statements that Alou made on ESPN’s Outside the Lines Monday night, I regret that I will not be renewing my Giants season tickets. Of course it dosen’t help that this ball club is going nowhere except right towards a 100 loss season.
Not even BALCO could save them now.
Time to rebuild with some younger talent, why not start with the teams manager.
I am making my comments mainly to Bill who made
comments on August 7, 2005 around 22:54, but they
are to everyone in general. We in this country have become spineless weasels. You Bill are the racist. Saying that a WHITE sports talk radio host
cannot criticize a black or a latin player is ridiculous. Most of the time they do not criticize because of there race but of there actions, but I guess atheletes do not do anything wrong in this world.
One more thing, If atheletes and coaches cannot take the criticisms given by the media, they should get out of the business, at my job I criticized everyday. Bill I think you are an idiot and HAve a Nice Day!
Hey Bill:
>>”Does the article also discuss the “brain-dead†qualities of latin players? I noticed you left that part off of your quote. That’s sort of the offensive part, isn’t it Skip.”
Sure, if you’re a hysterical PC-Nazi.
If you swing at bad pitches, radio talk show hosts are entitled to call you “brain-dead.”
>>”And maybe it’s easy for you to say that they should STFU, but you don’t have to listen to the garbage directed at you every day. And maybe it’s easy for you to blow off the Cream of Wheat business, but that probably doesn’t impact you either.”
You seriously think there are anti-Caribbeanists out there hassling people every day? And that the Cream of Wheat comment had anything to do with race?
This blog is getting terrible, with brain-dead non-Carribeans posting slop nightly. Bill, your mind has turned to Cream of Wheat.
Now please report me to the NAACP for reeducation.
I am taken aback at Phillipe’s refusal to accept, or even bother to listen to, Larry Krueger’s apology… As a Christian man, I have been taught to forgive others transgressions. Krueger’s comments were insensitive, at best… They require an apology. More so, Alou has an opportunity to show that he is the better man by simple forgiveness.
It seems a little redundant that we take offense to a comment about one race or another. What if he said Pollocks? I’m sure no one would go “overboard”. Besides, what are we really saying. We as a country will travel overseas to slaughter Arabs because they are of a different religion. Can Arabs play baseball?
And yet,……The Giants still suck!
The caribbean and in special the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC has given some of the best baseball players ever seen. For you to remember some of them:Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Albert Pujols, Moises Alou, Pedro MArtinez, Juan Marichal, Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Mesa, Miguel Tejada, the big PAPI David Ortiz, Luis Castillo, Jose Reyes and many others have given a lot of joys in this sport so i do not understand why they are treated like that when it is well known that (WE) caribbeans have demonstrated that we are not dead-brain hitters if any doubt check these guys’ stats. byyyeee. racists…
How would you like growing up and finding out that the only Blacks advertised were buck wheat, aunt Jemimah, Uncle Ben and the Man on the cream of wheat box? Can you imagine being in an all black Market and having only Betty Crocker and the man on the oat meal box as representatives of your race?
As I grew up, stereotypes prevailed.
The fact is that the comments were offensive, maybe
not to some of you, but they were racist and without foundation. As couple of people pointed out look at the stats – the Giants suck, but not because of the carribean or latin players. Also look at different stat categories and the top players of those categories. Surprise! a very large percentage are from the carribean/latin america. Also for those of you that are talking about freedom of speech, can you go to a crowded place (i.e. a baseball stadium) and yell there is a bomb? (You can but you probably go to jail.) The moral… don’t say every stupid thing that come to you head… Caribbean players are among the best in the MLB, people need to stop talking crap about them. If an individual sucks call that person out, bnot a whole region. DC
I think that everybody needs to slow down and take a minute to think about the number of times that they have said things that have been taken out of context. The papers are giving you two lines form Larry’s whole show and prosecuting him on that alone. He’s been doing this job for a long time and has said many compliments about Alou and the “Caribbean playersâ€Â. Correct me if I wrong, but it seems to me if he had said something like, “those American players” nobody would have anything to say about it. And the Cream of Wheat comment, please. I am an American whom has been eating Cream of Wheat for as far back as I can remember and it is plainly obvious to anyone whose brain isn’t mush – that there is no racial slur there!
Toughen up people!!!
A lot of you make my point for me when you choose to make the “small” omission of the word Caribbean from Krueger’s statements. Using the word Caribbean specifically calls into question ONLY the players of Latin origin on the team and makes it racial. Hence, my earlier point about someone like Joe Morgan calling into question ONLY the white Americans on the team. You can’t leave out the worst part about what Krueger said like it makes no difference (right Zig?). So I say again if someone black like Joe Morgan made a comment about BRAIN-DEAD (don’t forget that part since Krueger basically called them stupid as a group he was just too much of a punk not to REALLY break out and say Latin)American WHITE Players (you can’t just say Americans because that includes a hell of a lot more groups than Caribbean does)hacking at slop, I would call for Joe’s head too. Of course calling all white players brain-dead wouldn’t be offensive to me personally (since I’m black), but just because it’s OK to me doesn’t mean it’s not offensive to someone else, and I should just discount those who don’t agree as childish or intolerant. I think a lot of whites in this country are starting to feel a bit persecuted these days for what in some cases really is for no good reason. Well you know what? Just like a lot of you say here…I don’t see the big deal get over it. Sucks when the shoe is on the other foot doesn’t it? I hate some of the PC crap too (that’s why I call myself black I’m not an African-American, I’m Black and from America [go back to Africa? sorry, never been can’t afford it] – I’ll accept Black-American) but you can’t have the problems in this country with race relations and act like everything is all apple pie, rainbows and the ‘ol red, white and blue. I’m tired of far left liberals and far right conservatives, because reality is probably somewhere in the middle. All that being said, they shouldn’t have fired the guy though. A suspension without pay for an indefinite period would’ve sufficed.
>>”i do not understand why they are treated like that when it is well known that (WE) caribbeans have demonstrated that we are not dead-brain hitters if any doubt check these guys’ stats. byyyeee. racists…”
People from the Caribbean are so poor, they can’t even afford capital letters!
Nah, I’m just kidding. I’m only racist against New Yorkers.