Correction: “An original version of this story referred to Antoan Richardson as the Giants’ third base coach, but he coaches first base. KNBR regrets this error”
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Giants first base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected in the third inning of Tuesday night’s game against the San Diego Padres.
While explaining to reporters what led to his ejection, Richardson said Padres third base coach Mike Shildt used a racist phrase. When looking for Giants pitcher Alex Wood, Shildt told Gabe Kapler “you need to control that motherfucker,” Richardson said.
Richardson responded by walking up the Giants’ dugout steps and saying “excuse me” to Shildt and was then tossed from the game by umpire Greg Gibson for “instigating,” Richardson said.
Here’s the full explanation from Richardson:
“What happened was the third base coach from the San Diego Padres was looking into our dugout, and I said, ‘Can I help you, are you looking for somebody?’ And he says to me: ‘I didn’t say anything to you.’ I said ‘I know, I want to know if I can help you.’ At this time, he’s walking toward our dugout. He says, ‘Hey, I was looking for Alex Wood.’ At that point, Kap came over to kind of defuse the situation. I turned to Woody and I said, ‘Hey Woody, Shildt is looking for you.’ At that point in time, Shildt started to walk back toward third base. He yelled ‘You need to control that motherfucker.’ At that point in time, I went to the top step and said, ‘excuse me.’ Because I couldn’t believe what I heard. At that point in time, the crew chief decided to toss me from the game.
“I say this because his words were disproportionately unwarranted and reeked undertones of racism when he referred to me as ‘that motherfucker’ as if I was to be controlled or a piece of property or enslaved. I think it’s just really important we understand what happened tonight. And the second part that’s equally disappointing is that me being tossed by that umpire empowers this coach to continue to have conversations like that with people like me. And that’s really unfortunate that’s what happened tonight.”
Richardson, who is from the Bahamas, added he never used foul language or anything that would have possibly escalated the confrontation.
“The umpire said to me that I was instigating,” Richardson said. “At that point in time, I asked, ‘this person called me a motherfucker and I’m being an instigator?’”
Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters that although he didn’t hear the interaction specifically, he trusts Richardson’s judgement “100%” and said that his ejection was definitely not appropriate.
“I know that Antoan was not out of control at all and that anything that was said to insinuate that he was is totally inappropriate,” Kapler said. “He didn’t instigate any part of this.”
Richardson said he has the full support of the Giants coaching staff and the team.
“I think it’s important we bring awareness to this,” Richardson said. “This, unfortunately, this is what exists in our world and I think it’s important we understand that when we do make comments and we do take actions like this, what that means to communities. I share this story not just for myself, but for other people that look like me.”
When Richardson was ejected, Alyssa Nakken took over for him at first base and became the first woman to coach on-field in a regular season MLB game. Richardson said he’s “really proud” of Nakken.
As of roughly 90 minutes after the game, both Kapler and Richardson said they hadn’t heard from anyone from the Padres.
