A's bench coach Ryan Christenson said he didn't "intentionally" give a Nazi salute during Oakland's celebratory handshake line after Thursday's win over the Texas Rangers.
"I apologize for everything," Christenson told the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser on Thursday.
The NBC Sports California broadcast showed Christenson raising his right arm with his palm facing down while A's closer Liam Hendriks approached. Hendriks quickly grabbed Christenson's arm, bending it at the elbow for the coach's "karate chop" celebration, done in lieu of high-fives due to MLB's coronavirus safety protocols. Christenson then turned around and repeated the initial gesture.
"No, no straight arm, you have to bend your elbow," Christenson said Hendriks told him in an interview with Slusser, referring to the coach's usual celebration.
"Oh, I see what you mean, oh no, it's like 'Heil Hitler,' " Christenson said after he turned, in his and Hendriks' recounting to Slusser.
The salute, typically followed by exclamations of "Heil Hitler" or "Sieg Heil," was a compulsory tribute to Adolf Hitler within the Nazi Party and, later, all of Germany under the Nazis' rule from 1933 through 1945. Still used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists long after the end of World War II, the Anti-Defamation League says the salute is "the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world."
Christenson told Slusser that he "wasn't doing that intentionally" and that "I just blacked out, my mind wasn't there and I spaced out."
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"I'm cringing inside picturing myself," Christenson told Slusser. "Of course I'm sorry for it -- it's like standing there with my middle finger up. Anyone should know better."
A's coach Ryan Christenson says apparent Nazi salute was unintentional originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
