Although he has made his return to MASN broadcasts of Baltimore Orioles baseball, the suspension of play-by-play announcer Kevin Brown is still being talked about in baseball circles. The decision was made after Brown made a relatively innocuous remark on the air about the Orioles’ record at Tropicana Field against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Appearing on 670 The Score’s live broadcast from Gallagher Square ahead of the Chicago Cubs matchup against the crosstown rival White Sox on Tuesday, play-by-play announcers Jon “Boog” Sciambi and Jason Benetti shared what compelled them to speak out on the plight of Brown. In fact, as Danny Parkins was preparing to ask the question, Sciambi said, “Here comes the Kevin Brown question.”
“I thought it was very cool that so many of your colleagues came out in support of him,” Parkins said. “I do not think that is something that is entirely common across other sports and other professions.”
Sciambi said the situation with the Orioles does not depict how most of the industry operates.
“In my experience, it’s happened nil,” Sciambi said. “Even though you can have a perception of an owner and you can have a perception of a play-by-play guy that works for that team, the idea that they get connected very frequently – again, it’s my experience and it’s not like we don’t talk to one another – it doesn’t happen very much. I would say what happened with the Orioles is a serious outlier.”
Benetti said that someone from the White Sox asked him whether or not discussing the situation with Brown was decided in a mass meeting of MLB play-by-play announcers.
“It was just so egregious that they decided because of that insistence – and I’ve heard nothing about any other insistence where Kevin was told to be more positive – you know him,” Benetti said. “He’s the most positive person doing this; he’s not here for hot takes or anything. It was ridiculous. I don’t think they would have done that with somebody who’s been doing it for 15 years either, and that made me mad personally.”
Recognizing the innate talent of Sciambi and Benetti, the show pushed for them to try to broadcast a game together – despite working for different regional sports networks. Benetti divulged that he and Sciambi, in fact, did call two KBO baseball games together during the 2020 height of Covid. Both seemed interested in the idea of working together; however, they know the complications involved in collaborating such an effort.
