Krueger + 2 Fired

Ratto was more correct than I imagined.

Krueger's verbal brainfart left the station in an untenable position.  I have no idea about the morning show, or what they did.  KNBR's Giant cheerleading drives me nuts, but now the station's shaky credibility really takes a hit.  

Who will dare criticize the Giants now?  

And if no one does, because it gets you fired, how will anyone - even Giants fans - take them seriously?

I am surprised that cooler heads didn't prevail.  But it seems the Giants will brook no dissent on their station.  

The freakin national media is to be blamed for this travesty also. I try to watch highlights of the A's game against the Royals and Sportscenter made the Krueger comments its top story.

All this bad publicity made it clear that heads were going to roll and it's just sad that one of KNBR's better talkshow host had to go.

Also, didn't Knapp have a column saying how Alou handled this situation with dignity yesterday?  That must have been written before the Satan comments were made.

Shake up or mediocrity to reign?

KNBR has been the PR arm of the Giants for over 25 years, and this is part of the "deal with the devil" they've made.

But if the Giants think KNBR will bring back Frank Dill and Mike Cleary they have another thing coming.

Felipe's 100% right to want his head on a platter.  I'm happy to see a piece of crap like Krueger on the soup line.

Now everybody can make a mistake and KNBR was right for initially giving Krueger a 7 day suspension. But Krueger, having opened the wound, must have had a death wish by rubbing dirt in it with his satire coming on the first day back at the job. And Agnew was doubtless fired because he approved Krueger's inclusion of the South Park "satanic" sound bites.

A few words about Bob Agnew. He was general manager at KCBS when I wrote news for that station in 1980. Agnew was feared and hated by EVERYONE in the newsroom. He was called Bob Dogdoo because he was like a lamebrained fraternity boy. Worst of all, he knew nothing about news and won't the newsroom to focus upon gossip and sensation. Most of us refused.Agnew "resigned" from the station in 1982 and turned to sports broadcasting in Philly for awhile until KNBR hired him.

In the newsroom and in numerous comments, Agnew expressed nothing but contempt for minorities and women, so I can see this carrying over into his approval of the Krueger "satire". Among KNBR's rank and file, I have little doubt that his firing was applauded...

I'm Asian - I've lived in the melting pot of the East Bay my entire life - and I NEVER KNEW THAT!!!! Can anyone verify that?

Almost nobody really even knew Krueger's comments were that bad until Alou went insane. And the morning show bit had it on the mark. "Messenger of Satan"? He's out of his mind.

All that said, the truth is in the posting above. It's all about the guys at corporate and the sale of the station.

Radnich is not liking the Giants right now. He just referred to Krukow's morning bit as stupid drivel. And he just tore off a terrific insult at Barry.

Rick and Rod will have nothing of interest to say about this.

What will Barbieri do? He had a fairly eloquent defense of Krueger yesterday. (Disclaimer: I hate Barbieri.) Easy prediction: Barbieri will blame it in large part on the national media that covered the story. He won't blame the station; he won't blame Alou; he won't blame the Giants; he won't blame Krueger. He'll stupidly blame the messenger.

What a bunch of braindead idiots. Too bad this will all blow over and the station will get back to ass-kissing business as usual.

1. Sabean built an old team around a 40+ year old jerk, who is now injured and may decide to not show up in a Giants uniform ever again.
2. The new stadium draws fans who would be better suited for watching the latest flick at the Metreon.
3. Giants lose games repeatedly and management distracts fans by continually unveiling statues of former players. Note: most fans have little idea who these players were.
4. Krueger, an intelligent baseball guy torn by his allegiance to KNBR and the Giants, snaps from watching this Giants monstrosity -- and  actually becomes critical of Alou's poor management and the ineptitude of the Giants management.

Instead, Alou says Krueger is Satan, and Alou is held up like a freaking Civil Rights hero.

What an irony. Making fun of the "Satan" remark is treated more harshly than the Satan remark itself, which, more accurately described, receives no retribution.

Alou should be fired for destroying three men's careers, which come to think of it, is a worse offense than a single adverb in a four-hour radio program.

BTW, journalists are supposed to present both sides of a story. I learned that in High School journalism class, for crying out loud. I have yet to see ESPN et al quote people who are willing to defend Krueger.

I heard a national radio guy talk about how some teams absolutely forbid criticism of the team and its employees on their flagship station.  I used to think that's what the Giants were doing here; were using this incident to make an example of Larry to restrict criticism of the team on KNBR.  I'm sure the Giants are happy to see Krueger go, especially since they don't have to be the heavy.  The Giants benefit, they have a critical voice off the air at an important renewal time for their season ticket base, but they're gonna get some backlash.  I think they would have preferred that a chastened Larry Krueger stayed on the air.  A neutered Krueger would have been an ongoing symbol to not mess with the Giants.  Who knows who they get as a replacement?

Will KNBR feel a need to hire a critical voice in order to maintain the perception of their integrity?  Somehow, I doubt it.

Seriously though, do we really want Satan to have a nightly radio show?

Yes, that is a racial think to say. I've always thought what he said was racist, but I've also thought it wasn't very serious. In a way, Alou himself is making a racial judgment about such players, as is the entire national media, in how they are typically characterized. Krueger just ran with that and called that style of play, that baseball mentality, "braindead."

And please, "Dick Williams," don't cite Bobby Abreu to make an argument--isn't that simpleminded and anecdotal? Really, one worthwhile thing that could emerge from this nonsense would be to examine whether Alou, Krueger, and so many other people are right or wrong in their characterization of such hitters as a group. Because, you see, Alou's right their with Krueger--Krueger just said it was braindead.

And, finally, the sort of racist impulse Krueger and Alou and so many others easily fall victim to is all around us in sports.

Quick, if I say a player is a thug, what color is his skin? What if I say he works very hard without a lot of talent? What if I say he's a lunch-bucket guy? Or scrappy? If I say an NFL receiver has pure athletic talent and speed--what color is he? If I say the guy that lines up opposite him runs precise patterns, what color is he?

But to really get to him, we could use that terrible, terrible word:

"Pon-son is Ca-rib-be-an!"

But what strikes me, after listening to KNBR and reading the papers, is the desperate effort to distance the Giants from all of this.

The Giants, we are told, didn't demand that Krueger be fired.  Shoot, even Alou wasn't demanding that.  It was all just an unlucky "confluence of events" - the Krueger comment, the morning show bit, the station sale, et cetera.

I do not like it when someone insults my intelligence.

The only reason the morning show sketch would have prompted anything is that KNBR management would have worried that Alou was going to use it to renew his attacks on the station, keeping the issue in the news.

Last I checked, Felipe Alou is a Giants employee.  The Giants could have told him to pipe down, that he had made his point already.  But they wouldn't or did not believe he would listen to them.

Alou and the Giants are being disingenuous.  Right now, he (and the team) should be saying: "Good.  A racist was fired, and I'm glad."  Instead, he and the Giants are dancing away from the whole thing, claiming they had nothing to do with it.  KNBR is telling the same story, but it doesn't hold up even if you believe their version of events.

The truth?  Alou wanted Krueger fired.  That's what the whole "messenger of Satan" thing on ESPN was about.  It was to turn up the heat, as was his decision not to accept Krueger's apology or meet with him.  The Giants wanted him gone too, both to support Alou and because he was an inconvenient dissenting voice (tolerable when he was bashing Dusty Baker, but not now).

The Giants are entitled to throw their weight around and dictate what happens on their flagship station.  They don't get to avoid responsibility.  These people were fired because of the Giants, period.