Kruegergate

If you are a Giants fan and have not been living in a cave, you've heard about the comments KNBR radio host Larry Krueger made about the Giants' "brain-dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly" and the firestorm of controversy that has followed. The excrement hit the fan today when Krueger and two other KNBR employees were fired.

I've been listening to KNBR today and a few things about the whole thing are troubling. First off, I'm half-Mexican, and at first I didn't think the comments were that bad. Then I thought about it, and I could see why Giants manager Felipe Alou and the other Latino players were upset. Then I thought about it some more, and I too wanted to see a stiffer punishment for Krueg. A one-week suspension was so light a punishment for so serious an infraction that it gave the impression that what was said wasn't that bad.

There are several thing wrong with what was said. One thing is he laid the blame for the troubles of the Giants on the Latinos. While I've said the Giants need to learn how to take a pitch once in a while and be more selective, I think players since as Lance Niekro and the recently departed Marquis Grissom are as much to blame as Feliz or Cruz. Secondly, I wasn't aware that being stupid is a stereotype Latin players have had to fight against. Once I understood that, I fully understood why Felipe was making such a big deal about this.

What really bothers me is the number of people calling in to say how Felipe overreacted, Felipe should be fired, etc. etc. For one thing, Felipe played back when there was still REAL racism in the game. If anything, he should be commended for fighting for something he believes in. He has taken a lot of guff for blowing the story out of proportion, but other players were also angered. Omar Vizquel compared Krueger to John Rocker. Alou is doing this for himself, but also to stick up for his players. That's part of his job.

If something similar had been said about another racial group (try substituting "Black" for "Caribbean") there wouldn't have been this controversy. Krueger would've been shown the door before you could say, "Jimmy the Greek". I know if something like that was said at Sun, there would be no week-long suspension and no second chance.

This whole situation could've been nipped in the bud if only the initial punishment had been more stringent. If Krueger had been suspended for, say, the remainder of the baseball season, I honestly don't think Felipe would have taken this as far as he did. But because the punishment was so weak, the mounting negative publicity made Krueger's firing a foregone conclusion.