Tuesday night at Oracle Park, San Francisco Giants first base coach Antoan Richardson accused San Diego Padres acting third base coach Mike Shildt of yelling an expletive that had "undertones of racism." Richardson was ejected for "instigating" in the third inning, which led to Alyssa Nakken's historic debut as MLB's first on-field female coach.
Richardson told reporters, including NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic, he and Shildt had an exchange when Shildt was looking into the Giants dugout. Here are the details, from Pavlovic:
Richardson said Shildt was staring into the Giants dugout in the third inning and Richardson asked, "Can I help you? Are you looking for somebody?" Shildt told him he was looking for Giants pitcher Alex Wood and manager Gabe Kapler came over to see what was going on. Richardson said Shildt yelled words he believed were meant for Kapler.
"He yelled, 'You need to control that motherf***er,' " Richardson said. "At that point in time I went up to the top step and I said, 'Excuse me?' I couldn't believe what I heard. At that point in time, (Greg) Gibson, the crew chief, decided to toss me from the game. I think that his words were disproportionately unwarranted and (had) undertones of racism when he referred to me as 'that motherf***er' as if I am to be controlled or a piece of property or enslaved. I think it's just really important that we understand what happened tonight.
"The second part that's equally disappointing is that me being tossed by that umpire empowered this coach to continue to have conversations like that with people like me, and that's really unfortunate that that's what happened tonight. With that being said, I'm really excited that Alyssa (Nakken) got her opportunity to make her Major League debut and I'm very proud of her. I think she did a really wonderful job and we got a win, so that's the most important thing."
Kapler said he did not hear what Shildt said, but added: "I trust Antoan's judgement on the matter and 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. He didn't instigate any part of this."
Wednesday morning, Shildt and Richardson had what appeared to be a cordial discussion on the field.
"I just want to make it very clear that in no way do I believe that Shildty is a racist," Richardson told reporters, including MLB.com's AJ Cassavell, on Wednesday. "What I was trying to do is just bring awareness to how words impact certain communities even though they might not have ill intent. This was just helping us to be more aware of what those things mean."
"This is more something we both want to use as an opportunity to bring awareness -- that sometimes words that are harmless are very insensitive to others," Richardson continued. "And it's just really important that we are conscious of the things that we are saying. Once again, Shildty's been a big supporter of the Black community. I appreciate him taking ownership and understanding the impact of his words."
Shildt, most recently manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, joined the Padres as a player development consultant this past offseason. He is currently filling in for third base coach Matt Williams, who is recovering from hip surgery.
Richardson, who is Black, retired as a player in 2016. He joined the Giants as a minor league instructor in 2019 and was named their first base coach when San Francisco hired Kapler after that season.
This is the first of six series between the NL West rival Giants and Padres this season.
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