Report: Orioles suspend TV voice for mentioning team's Tampa Bay record
Baltimore Orioles television play-by-play voice Kevin Brown is serving an indefinite suspension for mentioning the team's woeful record at Tropicana Field during a recent broadcast, sources told Andrew Bucholtz, Sean Keeley, and Ben Koo of Awful Announcing.
Brown was last on air for the Orioles' July 23 contest in Tampa Bay. He worked the team's next three games on radio but has since been off the air with no explanation.
Brown teed up the broadcast of the July 23 game by noting that a win would give Baltimore its first series win at the Rays' home field since 2017, comments that apparently upset the team's ownership.
Here's the clip of Kevin Brown's pregame comments on the Orioles' recent record against the Rays ahead of a series finale on July 23. Sources tell AA these comments led to Brown's current indefinite suspension from Orioles' broadcasts. pic.twitter.com/csURU04fJU
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 7, 2023
The statistic was available in the game notes provided by the Orioles' public relations staff. However, the team's ownership felt mentioning it on air made it sound cheap, sources told The Athletic's Brittany Ghiroli.
"We don't comment on personnel matters," a senior Orioles official told Bucholtz, Keeley, and Koo. "We look forward to hearing Kevin's voice soon." The Orioles official also disputed the initial report of Brown being suspended.
Brown is expected to return to the broadcast booth on Aug. 11, sources told Ghiroli.
Brown joined the Orioles' radio broadcast crew in 2019 and has been the team's primary television voice for the last two seasons.
The Orioles have emerged from a long rebuild this season and enter Monday sitting atop the AL East with an AL-best 70-42 record.