A native of
Racine, Wisconsin, Kuiper was drafted out of community college by the
Cincinnati Reds in the 10th round (243rd overall) of the 1982 amateur entry draft. He turned it down and continued his education. Kuiper later attended
University of New Orleans before spending two years as an infielder (primarily at second base) playing minor league baseball with the
Spokane Indians and
Erie Cardinals. He moved to the Bay Area in the late 1980s and graduated from
San Francisco State University with a
bachelor's degree in broadcasting. Kuiper first started appearing on A's TV broadcasts in 2004, and for the first two years, served as an on-field correspondent and fill-in announcer. He became the primary announcer in 2006. Kuiper was occasionally the TV play-by-play announcer of A's nationally televised games on Fox. From
1996 until
2000 Kuiper hosted
Giants Lite and ''A's Lite'' on
SportsChannel Pacific and later
FSN Bay Area. The programs were 30-minute condensed highlight shows of the games and gave a synopsis of games that had not been televised. In addition to baseball, he was a sideline reporter for select
NFL telecasts for Fox as well as the
San Jose Sharks. Kuiper also handled various collegiate assignments for
NBC Sports Bay Area and the
Golden State Warriors of the
NBA.
Suspension and termination On May 5, 2023, during a pre-game broadcast on
NBC Sports California for a game between the A's and the
Kansas City Royals, Kuiper was enthusiastically discussing what he and broadcast partner
Dallas Braden had done earlier in the day in
Kansas City, which included a visit to the
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Kuiper – referring to the museum, which is commonly referred to as the Negro League Museum – appeared to misspeak and instead said the words "
Nigger League Museum". Upon returning from a commercial break at the top of the sixth inning, Kuiper apologized for the remarks, saying, "A little bit earlier in the show, I said something, didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to, and I just wanted to apologize if it sounded different than I meant it to be said. I just wanted to apologize for that." Following the game, the A's issued a statement on Twitter denouncing Kuiper's remarks, saying, "The language used by Glen Kuiper during today's pregame broadcast is unacceptable. The Oakland Athletics do not condone such language. We are working to address the situation." On May 22, 2023, NBC Sports California announced that Kuiper would no longer be working for the network, having been terminated for the incident following an internal investigation. Kuiper released his own statement the evening of his firing, saying he "will always have a hard time understanding how one mistake in a 20-year broadcasting career is cause for termination... ." ==Personal life==