An Atlanta Braves broadcaster who previously came under fire for ‘liking’ a tweet from the Proud Boys has once again drawn controversy for a clumsy on-air comment.
CJ Nitkowski, a former MLB pitcher who has been with the Braves since the 2024 season, was in the booth to call Atlanta’s 10-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.
At one point in the broadcast – which aired on the team-owned BravesVision network – play-by-play man Brandon Gaudin mentioned how outfielder Jose Azocar was designated for assignment following the return of a teammate from the paternity list.
Right fielder Eli White and his wife recently welcomed a newborn and Nitkowski’s choice of words was criticized on social media.
‘Congratulations to Eli on number three. I was trying to talk him into more kids already when we were in San Diego,’ Nitkowski said on the air.
‘He and his wife, they’re just such great people. I said, “We need more great people in this world. The more Whites, the better off we’re going to be.”‘
Braves broadcaster CJ Nitkowski is under fire for a clumsy remark many believe was racial
Nitkowski congratulated Braves outfielder Eli White on the birth of his third child and said on air, ‘The more Whites, the better off we’re going to be.’
Nitkowski’s comment sparked fierce backlash on social media from baseball fans
Neither Nitkowski or the Braves have made any public statement regarding this incident. The Daily Mail has contacted the Braves for comment.
On social media, especially on the r/baseball sub-Reddit, many drew the conclusion that Nitkowski’s comment was racial in nature.
‘Ok. Let his a** go,’ said one user on the sub-Reddit who identifies as a Braves fan. ‘I didn’t know about the Proud Boys thing. Don’t need that s*** associated with my team.’
‘Not much to say when the players name is “White” but he knows what he’s doing,’ a Reddit user said.
Another Braves fan in the comments posted, ‘… It does feel like he took a very deliberate route to arrive at that exact phrase.’
Another user on the sub-Reddit wrote, ‘Man what is this year in baseball. So much chud behavior. I know tons of people who follow and play the sport are hogs but this seems egregious.’
College football writer and Tennessee native Spencer Hall posted to BlueSky, ‘I know it’s our most racist major franchise but this man cannot be an announcer in the Atlanta Metropolitan area.’
‘If he didn’t have a history, we could say it was a dopey unintentional phrasing problem and move on. But he DOES have a history and loses the benefit of the doubt,’ one Reddit user believes.
Nitkowski previously drew controversy with the Rangers when he ‘liked’ a Proud Boys tweet
The ‘history’ in the comment refers to Nitkowski’s incident where he clicked ‘like’ on a Twitter post from the Proud Boys – a far-right, neo-fascist militant organization which has been named a ‘hate group’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center and designated as a terrorist group in countries like Canada and New Zealand.
The post was a photo of the Team USA women’s hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics where one player made the ‘okay’ sign upside down. The Proud Boys account circled the gesture, which was being promoted on 4Chan as a symbol to support white nationalism.
Nitkowski, who was with the Texas Rangers at the time, told the Dallas Observer in 2018 that he believed this symbol was in association with the popular ‘circle game’ trend and had nothing to do with white nationalism.
‘The insinuation that the sign the women’s hockey player flashed was anything but a game that athletes play is absurd,’ Nitkowski told the outlet.
He also claimed to not know of the ‘horrid belief system’ of the Proud Boys, despite following the account. Nitkowski also chose to publicly defend his ‘like’ of the tweet because he believed there was ‘nothing objectionable’ about the account due to his assumption that it was a ‘parody/comedy account’, according to The Athletic.
In the aftermath of the incident, according to Awful Announcing, Nitkowski deleted some of his tweets, locked his account and deleted Twitter off his phone.
‘I unfollowed once I realized it was going to affect the organization,’ Nitkowski told The Athletic in 2018 when asked why he unfollowed the account. ‘Otherwise, I would not have. That’s the change.’
