Posted on August 8, 2005

Giants Upset Over Radio Show Remarks

C. J. Bowles, MLB.com, Aug. 5

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants’ clubhouse was abuzz with something completely unrelated to their game against the Astros at SBC Park on Friday night.

Late Wednesday night, after the team’s game against the Rockies, talk-show host Larry Krueger of KNBR — the flagship radio station of the Giants and a partial owner of the franchise — made a tirade about the struggling team and its “brain-dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly.”

The radio personality also said: “You have a manager in Felipe [Alou] whose mind has turned to Cream of Wheat.”

Alou was made aware of the comments Friday and was visibly shaken by them when he addressed the media during his pregame question-and-answer session.

“It made me sad to know that 40, almost 50 years later, we have comments like that, especially in San Francisco, which is a city with so many people from different [nations],” said the 70-year-old manager, who was the target of racism in the South as a player. “There are more countries [represented] in San Francisco now than when I was a player here and I never heard anything like that here.

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Krueger said that he apologized on-air for his comments Thursday and that he would apologize in person if given the opportunity.

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The Giants released a statement before Friday’s game that said: “The San Francisco Giants take offense to the racially charged comments made by local radio personality Larry Krueger on his Wednesday evening show.

“As an organization we wholeheartedly back the statements by manager Felipe Alou which he made to the media regarding this topic today. As a baseball team that has a very deep and rich Latin history, we want to let our fans both here in the Bay Area and around the world know that these types of characterizations of members of our organization are unacceptable.”