Baltimore Orioles announcer Kevin Brown made his commentary for the first time on Friday, just hours before he was due to return to the booth.
Brown was suspended by the Orioles after outplaying him for recent seasons last month. This led to an outcry of the Orioles’ leadership and widespread support for the Browns. Fans at Camden Yards through Tuesday.
On Friday, before the Browns returned for the team’s game against the Seattle Mariners, Brown insisted his relationship with the Orioles front office was perfectly fine.
Brown wrote, in part: “Unfortunately, recent media reports have mischaracterized my relationship with my adopted hometown Orioles.” “The truth is I have a great relationship with the organisation, and our ownership and front office have fully supported me since 2019 when I first came on board.
“I’m asking everyone to ignore the distracting noise of the past few days. I’ve worked closely with O’s Senior Vice President Greg Bader for the past four years, and John Angelos has a strong dialogue based on mutual respect. We’re all good here at Birdland!”
Brown didn’t say much about the comment specifically, other than that he never wanted to “be part of the story.”
During the pregame segment on July 23 prior to the Orioles’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays. He didn’t criticize the team, management, or CEO John Angelos, but simply pointed out that the Orioles haven’t been very good against the Rays in recent years.
“It’s been a minute,” Brown said. The Orioles split two players with the Rays in June. They’ve lost the last 15 series here at Tropicana Field. You have to go back to when our colleague Brad Brush got the win in the series finale on June 25, 2017 – the last time the Orioles won a series here in St. Pete.
“He actually went 3-2 in Trop this year after winning three of his 18 in the previous three years combined.”
That was it. Then the Orioles suspended him, and he has not called a game since July 26. The team reportedly suspended him in part because they believed his comments made the team look cheap. The Orioles only released a brief statement saying they “do not comment on personnel matters,” and that they “look forward to hearing from Kevin soon.”
The comment sparked a lot of reaction, including from broadcasters and others in the sports world. Then on Tuesday, during their game against the New York Mets.
While the situation certainly wasn’t great for anyone involved, it appears Brown is simply ready to move on. He’ll have the opportunity to do that on Friday night.