The Giants are in Scottsdale getting ready for their first spring training game on Saturday, but the biggest baseball story in the Bay Area doesn’t involve a player from the 2020 squad.
Instead it centers around Aubrey Huff, a key member of the team’s 2010 World Series winning team, who has been banned by the club from attending the team’s 10-year reunion later this year for comments made on social media over the past few months. Huff’s comments have been well documented, you can read about them here, and Huff hasn’t showed any contrition for them in the preceding days. In a statement made on Tuesday, Huff claimed that he is being banned largely for his support of President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, broadcaster Mike Krukow went on KNBR and said that he won’t miss Huff at the reunion on Aug. 16. His partner, Duane Kuiper, hopped on with Murph & Mac Wednesday morning, and while he said he will miss Huff at the reunion, he doesn’t think the former first baseman deserves to be there, and isn’t buying Huff’s claim that the decision is politically motivated.
“There probably wouldn’t be a reunion if he wasn’t on the team, I mean that’s how important he was to that 2010 team,” Kuiper began. “But, you have to accept the consequences for what you say. Remember this is not political. There is not one political thing about this at all.”
Kuiper especially takes issue with Huff’s comments about Giants coach Alyssa Nakken, and that women shouldn’t be allowed on MLB coaching staffs.
“I can’t accept any of the stuff he said about women. My only thought was maybe if he had a daughter, maybe he would’ve thought about these things a little differently. Because if you have a daughter, it changes your world to how you look at it.
“I feel bad for him, and I feel bad for his teammates…When that reunion happens on that day, they’re all going to get asked about Huff. They are, and that’s going to soil that reunion, because that’s supposed to be a great, great occasion.”
KNBR host Brian Murphy played devil’s advocate with Kuiper, asking why the Giants don’t take a more libertarian approach and allow Huff to come without endorsing his comments.
“You want him in the dugout with Alyssa Nakken?” Kuiper retorted. “Look you can play that role, I’m not buying it.
“He’s not going to be there, and that’s the end of it.”
Listen the full interview below.
