Baseball-Oakland bench coach apologises for offensive gesture
ByReuters
Published 07/08/2020 at 07:23 GMT
Aug 7 (Reuters) - Oakland Athletics bench coach Ryan Christenson has apologised after making a gesture which the Major League Baseball team said "looked like a Nazi salute" following Thursday's 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.
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Christenson raised his arm to make the gesture as players walked off the field. Pitcher Liam Hendriks pushed Christenson's hand down and bumped his forearm, before the 46-year-old coach turned around and raised his arm a second time.
"I made a mistake and will not deny it," Christenson said in a statement https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/1291576043824795649 on Twitter.
"Today in the dugout I greeted players with a gesture that was offensive. In the world today of COVID, I adapted our elbow bump, which we do after wins, to create some distance with the players.
"My gesture unintentionally resulted in a racist and horrible salute that I do not believe in. What I did is unacceptable and I deeply apologise."
The team said in the statement they were deeply sorry over the incident.
"This is incredibly offensive, especially in these times when we as a club and so many other are working to expose and address racial inequities in our country," they said.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford )
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