St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray will not be disciplined after accidentally saying an anti-gay slur on air, according to Front Office Sports.
The offending term came in the top of the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds, with Caray reading a promo for the Cardinals’ Disability Pride Night. Caray appeared to immediately realize what he had done, as more than 30 seconds of silence followed while Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray pitched to Spencer Steer.
Caray eventually began speaking again as if nothing had happened.
FanDuel Sports Network Midwest reportedly declined comment to FOS, but the outlet reports the network considers the situation to be an “honest” mistake by the announcer.
Caray, the son of broadcaster Skip Caray and grandson of Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Caray, is in his third season as the Cardinals’ play-by-play man and has regularly worked in MLB broadcasting since the 1990s, most notably for his father’s old Atlanta Braves team and his grandfather’s old Chicago Cubs team.
While under different circumstances, there have been two incidents similar to Caray’s flub of the past five years.
Cincinnati Reds announcer Thom Brennaman, another son of a longtime broadcaster, entered sports infamy in 2020 when he was caught on a hot mic using an anti-gay slur regarding San Francisco. He profusely apologized in the second game of the doubleheader, becoming a meme in the process, before getting yanked off air.
The Reds suspended Brennaman after the game and he eventually resigned, after apologizing again. Brennaman spent the next four years as something of a broadcasting pariah before joining the CW as a college football announcer last year.
In 2023, Oakland Athletics broadcaster Glen Kuiper appeared to flub the name of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the worst possible way. Like Brennaman, Kuiper apologized on-air and was later suspended indefinitely.
The A’s fired Kuiper two weeks later after an internal review reportedly uncovered additional information, which played a factor in his termination. In his own statement, Kuiper said he “will always have a hard time understanding how one mistake in a 20-year broadcasting career is cause for termination.” He has not worked as a broadcaster since then.
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