The Baltimore Orioles, despite having one of the two best records in baseball in August, have been turned back into a punchline. The team has won four straight and seven of their last eight games, but their franchise has been turned back into a joke by owner Peter Angelos who had announcer Kevin Brown suspended for recapping results from previous seasons during a recent broadcast.
This is without a doubt one of the dumbest things anyone has ever seen. It has given those in the media a chance to tee off on Angelos who has been a bad owner since he and his investor group took over in October 1993. They've proceeded to have 21 losing seasons and five postseason appearances over the last three decades. Now, as they are playing first-place baseball in August, poised for their first season with a winning percentage of over .600 for the first time since 1993, they suspend an announcer for going over a graphics package pointing out the team is doing much better this season than in previous years.
Brown recited straight facts in the one sport where we've been taught that over a century of black and white numbers actually translate, hold up and matter. Brown did no editorializing. All he did was point out - with the help of the production team - that things are going well, while they had previously not been going well.
This is one of the most shocking things we've seen in any sport and that's crystalized by the fact that there is no one taking the other side here. There is no one entertaining a fake argument for engagement that Brown deserved to be punished in any way. Even the most faithless grifters aren't going through the motions here.
Across Major League Baseball broadcasters took time away of the games they were calling to call out, chastise, scratch their heads or make fun of the Orioles. Brown is now a household name. He's being praised league-wide for his ability and getting credit for standing up against an oppressive regime despite the fact that he didn't even have to do anything.
A first-place team, enjoying real success for the first time in years, hijacked its own headlines over absolutely nothing. It's hilarious how pathetic this makes Angelos look. He could have just sat back and watched the merchandise sales grow as the team heads towards the postseason, but instead there should be real consideration of a fan boycott over this. The team deserves the community's support. The owner does not.
The most surprising part is that it took Angelos so long to do this again. Not long after he bought the team in 1993, he fired play-by-play voice Jon Miller because he felt he was too critical of the team. Miller has been working San Francisco Giants games since 1997. He called Barry Bonds' 756th home run and multiple World Series in the Bay Area. Hopefully, a similarly happy ending awaits Brown.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Kevin Brown's Suspension is One of the Most Embarrassing Unforced Errors in Sports History.
