Sometimes team owners just can’t get out of their own way. The Baltimore Orioles are having one of their best seasons in recent memory and as of this writing, they are in first place in the AL East. But team owner, John Angelos is doing his best to take the attention away from a fun team and place it squarely on himself by suspending Kevin Brown.
According to Awful Announcing, Angelos called for the indefinite suspension of television broadcaster Kevin Brown. This after a comment about the Orioles past woes at Tropicana Field were made by Brown in the open of the television broadcast before the Orioles played the Rays at Tropicana Field. Seriously?
The Orioles denied that Brown had been suspended. They also announced that Brown will return to the booth saying, “We don’t comment on personnel matters and we look forward to hearing Kevin’s voice soon.” Soon may be tomorrow according to some reports. But why did it even get to this point?
“For the Orioles, Brandon Hyde’s felt like this has been maybe the toughest ballpark to play in. But the Orioles have a chance to do something special today. They’ve already clinched at least a split in the series, winning two of the first three,” Brown said. “And they could pick up a series win behind Tyler Wells today. It’s been a minute. The Orioles split a two-gamer with the Rays in June. They had lost their last 15 series here at Tropicana Field.
“You have to go back to our now colleague Brad Brach picked up the win in the series finale June 25th, 2017. The last time the Orioles won a series here at St. Pete. Already got three and two at the Trop this year after winning three of 18 the previous three years combined. It is a stark difference Ben (McDonald) and it is not a bad Rays team. It’s not like all of a sudden, the Rays became slouches in the American League East.”
I’ve watched the clip 10 times. I’m still trying to figure out how the comments or graphic support came off as negative to the Orioles. “It’s been a minute?” Were those the magic words? Was it the way he emphasized ‘combined?’ Give me a break. This is absurdity at the highest levels. What on Earth, could Angelos have taken exception to?
According to The Athletic, the comment also appeared in the July 23 Orioles game notes, which are put together by the team’s public relations staff.
“The Orioles have won three of the first five games at The Trop this season after winning three of the 21 games played in St. Petersburg from 2020-22,” the game notes said. So, despite it being in the official team game notes, ownership took exception to Brown pointing it out, because it made them sound cheap. This gets more stupid by the moment.
I’m still trying to figure out how that particular point makes them sound cheap? It’s not like the Rays have a huge payroll and they were winning regularly. Ridiculous reasoning. Oh, and for context, the Orioles’ payroll ranks 29th of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball. The comments don’t make them sound cheap. The numbers take care of that on their own.
I’ve never met Brown, but from everyone that I talk to currently in the baseball broadcasting business, he is one of those rising stars. I’ve seen a couple of his broadcasts in the past on ESPN and he’s talented. By all accounts, Brown is well-prepared, knowledgeable, and has made a connection with the fan base. What did he do wrong? It was in the team’s notes for goodness sake!
I used to get a lot of information from the notes. It would give me a basis for some questions in the clubhouse before the game. I never once thought, ‘Oh, you know, this sounds a bit negative.’ Never. How is someone in Brown’s position to know that what’s written in the notes hasn’t been “approved” for broadcast? That’s’ the intention of the notes, that’s why they are put out on a daily basis.
To single him out is laughable as well. This wasn’t a one-man operation where he just said something off the top of his head. I think Michael Kay put it best on his radio show Monday on ESPN 98.7 New York.
“They should be ashamed of themselves because not only was what Kevin said in the Orioles’ notes that night, but it was on a graphic, which means that it was planned,” Kay said to his audience. “So, if you’re going to be so thin-skinned to suspend Kevin Brown, then you have to suspend the entire Oriole truck. The producer, director, graphics, you have to suspend all of them because they’re all complicit in this,” he added.
“And if John Angelos, the owner of the Orioles, didn’t like that, that he’s thin-skinned, he’s unreasonable, and he should actually get a call from Rob Manfred, the commissioner of baseball, because it’s unconscionable that you would actually suspend a really good broadcaster for no reason whatsoever. He didn’t do anything wrong,” said Kay. “Again, then everybody in the Oriole PR department has to be suspended. It was in their notes. That very thing was in their notes. This makes the Orioles look so small and insignificant and minor league.”
Kay took it a little further. He couldn’t imagine, nor could I, what was so damning about the commentary?
“Can you imagine how that guy (Brown) must feel? He has to keep his mouth shut.” Kay said. “So of course, we (the Orioles) look forward to Kevin coming back. But you embarrassed the guy for no reason. And most importantly, you embarrassed yourself. What you did is disgraceful to the business. Disgraceful. Fans of teams should be lucky when their announcers are allowed to be critical. And that wasn’t even critical. I believe that that was complementary of the Orioles.”
Gary Cohen during the Mets/Cubs game on Monday night via SNY agreed as well, that the decision by the Orioles was short-sighted and wrong.
“Let me just say one thing to Baltimore Orioles management. You draped yourself in humiliation when you fired John Miller and you’re doing it again and if you don’t want Kevin Brown there are 29 other teams who do. It’s a horrendous decision by the Orioles I don’t know what they were thinking but they’ve gotten exactly the reaction that they deserve and it’s just a shame because the Orioles are playing so well and now, they’ve diverted attention from that, and now made themselves a laughingstock.”
For context, John Angelo’s father, Peter Angelos fired Miller, who is now with the Giants, for not being as favorable toward the Orioles as he would have liked. Miller went on to win the Ford C. Frick Award and is now a Hall of Fame broadcaster.
Penalizing an employee like Brown that has risen through the ranks with the Orioles serves no purpose. This guy was selling the product when the Orioles were among the worst teams in baseball for several seasons in a row. Did he make you sound cheap then? Was he too negative then?
One of the hardest things to do in announcing is to keep your energy up and keep your positivity up when the team stinks. The Orioles stunk and yet, Brown and the other team announcers managed to continue to call games and encourage people to come out to watch the team. Now that the team is winning, ownership steps in and pulls a stunt like this? What an absolute embarrassment.
The Orioles have long had a history of making moves based seemingly on ego and fragile psyche. Angelos himself went off on a reporter from The Athletic in January, when asked about his family’s future owning the team. The Athletic also reports that ownership “has enacted a new policy mandating that their broadcasters wear only team gear when on-air” and that broadcasters “have also been reprimanded previously for mentioning past Orioles players who are no longer with the team.” Nothing like getting in trouble for mentioning Orioles’ greats from the past.
No matter how this situation is resolved, there is a stain on the Orioles this season and it’s thanks to an owner with tremendously thin skin. What Angelos did here is wrong. He knows it. Why not just sit back and enjoy this wonderful season?
If he had a problem with something Brown said, why not have someone call him after the game and talk it over? Why let it get to this point? A knee-jerk reaction to something that wasn’t even critical was a big mistake. Maybe Angelos didn’t think that there would be this big a reaction? Boy was he wrong.
Broadcasters have a responsibility to a fan base to tell it like it is, positively or negatively. There are ways to do both respectfully. This situation is one that didn’t have to happen. What was said by Brown, was not negative.
Owners can do what they want, because, well, they own the team. But this is reckless and sets a dangerous precedent that other owners may choose to follow. It’s a sad day in sports broadcasting when an owner feels the need to censor their own broadcasters.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
