The Orioles’ decision to suspend play-by-play announcer Kevin Brown over mundane comments he made on air about the team’s struggles against the Rays in recent years was met with disdain and confusion by the baseball world. On Tuesday, Baltimore fans got their first chance to express their opinions on the matter at the ballpark during the team’s game against the Astros, and they didn’t let it go to waste.
Fans banded together to unleash a bellowing chant of “Free Kevin Brown” during the seventh inning. The chant could be clearly heard on the TBS television broadcast and even prompted the broadcast crew to comment on it as the game was going on.
Orioles fans with the "Free Kevin Brown" chants at Camden Yards tonight 👀
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 9, 2023
(via @afkostka)pic.twitter.com/0voD68nfjf
An audible and unmistakable "Free Kevin Brown" breaks out in the seventh inning at Camden Yards. pic.twitter.com/vjTbk4APd8
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 9, 2023
After many prominent baseball and sports media voices shared their disproval of the team’s decision to punish Brown, the team issued a comment to The Baltimore Banner that Brown would return to the broadcast booth “in the near future.”
Brown was suspended in the wake of comments he made before the Orioles’ July 23 win over the Rays. During a segment before first pitch, he highlighted how far the team had come this season by showing how much Baltimore had struggled against Tampa Bay in recent years—and, in particular, at Tropicana Field, where the Orioles had posted an 0-15-1 series record in their previous 16 trips.
