There’s been yet another tense moment between the San Francisco Giants and their flagship radio station, KNBR.
Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey went on the “Murph and Markus” morning show on Thursday for an interview as part of the weekly “Giants Executive Show” that rotates through four Giants leaders. Posey last appeared on KNBR eight weeks ago, when he had a testy interview with Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher on May 21.
Posey’s absence was seemingly prolonged as part of the team’s Pride Night fallout. Posey was the first Giants executive to address the Pride Night saga in a news conference on June 23, but he only offered an opening statement and refused to answer any further questions from the media. One day later, KNBR announced Posey would be the guest for the June 25 executive show, but 90 minutes before the planned segment, KNBR posted that Larry Baer would be the guest instead. At the time, SFGATE asked the Giants why Posey suddenly couldn’t do the interview, but the team did not respond.
That brings us to Thursday, with Murphy reminding listeners about the testy last appearance in the buildup to the 7:30 a.m. call. But this time, the 25-minute interview was about as normal as an interview gets for a top executive of a struggling baseball team. Posey addressed the recent MLB Draft and the Giants’ selections at length, talked about the team’s plans for the Aug. 3 trade deadline, and shared his belief that first-year manager Tony Vitello has done “a great job” despite the team’s 41-55 record.
The drama came during the next segment. As Murphy and Boucher dissected Posey’s responses, an unnamed KNBR producer could be heard in the background. The producer did a microphone test, saying “talk” several times before saying, “Yeah, I hear ya, I gotcha. I gotcha 100%.”
The last thing the unnamed producer said was a three-word statement: “Posey sucks, man.”
On the YouTube video broadcast of their show, Murphy and Boucher didn’t visibly react to anything said on the hot mic and carried the segment onto a commercial break. But when Murphy opened the next segment, a caller who went by James in Crescent City immediately referred to the hot mic moment, reiterating that he heard the person say “Posey sucks” as he was listening in.
Murphy and Boucher mostly tried to play the incident off while making it clear the comment didn’t come from them. Murphy said, “We’ll do an investigation behind the scenes.” Meanwhile, Boucher quipped they might’ve been “hacked” and that it might have been “some of that AI BS going on these days,” teeing up a year-old soundbite from Giants legend Will Clark.
As we approach the 50th year of Giants baseball on KNBR in 2028, it is clear this partnership is not without its friction.