An Absurd Suspension Has Turned a Baseball Announcer Into an Unintentional Martyr

On Monday morning, it was neither miserable nor embarrassing to be a fan of the Baltimore Orioles. The younger, feisty staff was coming off a weekend sweep of the New York Mets that left them with the most effective file within the American League, 70–42, three video games forward of the second-place Tampa Bay Rays. Everybody from 22-year-old budding famous person infielder Gunnar Henderson to 33-year-old backup catcher James McCann was hitting; the agonizingly erratic rookie pitcher Shintaro Fujinami, picked up as a midseason reclamation undertaking from the horrible Oakland A’s, had pounded the corners of the strike zone with a fastball that reached 102 mph.

Then got here the information that the staff had secretly suspended one in every of its broadcasters, Kevin Brown, as punishment for remarks he had made on the air earlier than a sport in opposition to the Rays. Even because the story marched its means up the size of verifiability and status—advancing from a declare from a local sports blogger on Twitter to a report on Awful Announcing to a narrative within the Athletic, choosing up element because it went—it remained nearly unbelievable. What Brown had stated, reportedly bringing down the ire of Orioles appearing proprietor John Angelos, was this, in a phase with fellow announcer Ben McDonald:

[Orioles manager] Brandon Hyde has felt that this has been perhaps the hardest ballpark to play in. However the Orioles have an opportunity to do one thing particular as we speak. They’ve already clinched no less than a break up within the sequence, successful two of the primary three. They usually might choose up a sequence win behind Tyler Wells as we speak.

It’s been a minute. The Orioles break up a two-gamer with the Rays in June. They’d misplaced their final 15 sequence right here at Tropicana Area. You need to return to when our now-colleague Brad Brach picked up a win within the sequence finale June 25, 2017, the final time the Orioles gained a sequence right here in St. Pete. They’ve already gone 3–2 on the Trop this 12 months after successful 3 of 18 the earlier three years mixed. It’s a stark distinction, Ben, and it’s not a nasty Rays staff. It’s not like rapidly the Rays grew to become slouches within the American League East. They’ve led this division daily however now two, and the Orioles as soon as once more are again alone in first place. 

The informal observer would possibly discover that Brown was praising the Orioles right here, celebrating their arrival as a prime competitor of their division. He was speaking about their previous failure solely as a technique to reward their present success. (In actual fact, he misspoke and by chance softened the file of failure: Because the on-screen graphic confirmed, the Orioles had actually gained solely 3 out of 21 video games at Tropicana Area.)

On Tuesday night time, the gang at Camden Yards made their anger unambiguous:

Outraged fellow announcers across the sport laid into the Orioles for the transfer. As Michael Kay of the Yankees famous, whereas calling the Orioles “disgraceful” and “minor-league,” there was no proof that Brown—an upbeat and agreeable announcer, to not be confused with the wall-punching former ace pitcher of the identical identify—had gone even the slightest bit rogue. The numbers Brown cited got here from the staff PR division’s personal pregame notes, and had been accompanied by a pre-assembled graphic. The entire thing was a capricious, irrational little bit of tyranny.

For Baltimore followers, and for the baseball-announcing group, it wasn’t even a novel one. Again within the ’90s, John Angelos’ father, Peter Angelos—the now-incapacitated proprietor of the staff—picked a one-sided combat with the Corridor of Fame–sure announcer Jon Miller, one of many best baseball voices of all time, for supposedly not boosting the staff sufficient. The elder Angelos saved Miller dangling within the offseason with out a contract renewal till he took a job with the San Francisco Giants, at which level Angelos declared that Miller had all the time meant to maneuver out West anyway. (Miller saved his dwelling in Maryland for a number of years afterward.)

However the criticism in opposition to Brown was ominous for sports activities followers past Baltimore. The Orioles, along with offering a theater of boorish possession, are an ongoing case examine in up to date sports activities administration.

After the final profitable model of the staff—which led the majors in wins from 2012 by means of 2016—collapsed in a catastrophic 2018 season, the franchise introduced in Mike Elias, the scouting director and assistant normal supervisor of the Houston Astros, to be its new normal supervisor. The story was that Elias was there to implement the Houston mannequin: After their very own collapse, shedding 106 video games in 2011, the Astros had employed normal supervisor Jeff Luhnow to rebuild every part from scratch. Somewhat than attempting to sort things unexpectedly, and even partly without delay, Houston misplaced 107 video games the primary 12 months of the brand new administration, then 111 the following, earlier than starting a gradual climb to a World Collection championship in 2017 (albeit with the assistance of a sign-stealing scheme for his or her hitters and suspiciously sticky baseballs for the pitchers).

Even given the Astros’ success, and setting apart the scandals, the worth of the Houston mannequin is debatable. All these losses, in all these noncompetitive seasons, had been nonetheless actual baseball video games, even when the staff was all-but-officially not making an attempt to win. The proprietor bought a number of years of gathering major-league income with out spending cash on a major-league payroll; the overall supervisor bought to take an prolonged vacation from competing in opposition to different groups to establish and signal efficient major-league gamers. The sample of austerity, destruction, and restricted accountability is scarcely restricted to sports activities. Because the reporter Evan Drellich famous in his e book concerning the Astros, Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, earlier than he grew to become a baseball government, Luhnow was a advisor for McKinsey & Firm.

And the Orioles, for all of the discuss, didn’t actually observe the baseball a part of the Astros mannequin. The place the Astros spent their further shedding years giving full-time major-league enjoying alternatives to their 22-year-old prospects, the Orioles bottled up their finest minor-leaguers to maintain them from accumulating big-league service time, thereby delaying their eligibility for arbitration and a aggressive big-league paycheck. When catcher Adley Ruschman, the highest choose within the 2019 draft, lastly bought known as as much as the majors final 12 months at age 24—a month and a half into the season, and a 12 months or extra after he was clearly able to compete with big-leaguers—he was the one participant on your complete roster below the age of 25, on a staff 4 years into supposedly rebuilding round youth.

What the Orioles did do, unquestionably, was reduce prices. On the time, the Angelos household was embroiled in a squalid inner wrestle between John and his brother, Lou, for management of the staff, whereas additionally waging a protracted, shedding struggle in opposition to the Washington Nationals over tips on how to divide the income from the Angelos-owned community that carries each groups’ video games. The extra paranoid or traumatized followers observed that the Orioles had been arriving on the finish of their 30-year-lease on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and speculated that John Angelos, who’s married to a Nashville-based country-music supervisor, may be stripping the staff to draw buyers to assist him transfer it to Tennessee.

Regardless of the underlying motives, for 3 full years and right into a fourth, the one identifiable effort Orioles administration put into the major-league staff revolved round slashing the payroll as near the theoretical minimal as doable. When gamers grew to become eligible for arbitration and a pay increase to match their productiveness, the staff merely reduce them unfastened with out making a suggestion. The remaining proficient holdovers from the pre-Elias groups—together with your complete beginning outfield of this 12 months’s successful squad—performed on dirt-cheap contracts, surrounded by hapless retreads, as attendance plummeted. Middle fielder Cedric Mullins hit 30 dwelling runs and stole 30 bases in 2021, accounting for 15 and 55 p.c of the staff’s complete output in these classes, respectively, whereas the staff misplaced 110 video games.

And now, in spite of everything that distress, the Orioles are winners once more. The younger gamers who’d been caught within the minors have turned out to be greater than able to play. The entrance workplace has proven that it could actually make canny, efficient pickups if it tries. The unavoidable conclusion is that earlier than this, administration wasn’t attempting.

Orioles followers might be proud of this season whereas nonetheless being upset concerning the historical past of shedding that got here earlier than it—a historical past that Brown might hardly keep away from mentioning, and which he might have described in a lot grimmer phrases with out being unfair. However the staff that supposedly didn’t thoughts shedding is now punishing him for citing the shedding. The Orioles evidently need to accumulate the reward for being geniuses at slash-and-burn sports activities administration whereas denying that they slashed or burned something in any respect.

When gamers lose video games on goal, they’re banned from the sport for eternity. When house owners and executives do it, they get credit score for good intentions, irrespective of how skinny the proof of that goodness could also be. Mike Elias is at present a robust candidate for 2023 Govt of the Yr. He’s additionally, in the mean time, 91 video games below .500 as normal supervisor of the Orioles. Was all that shedding price it? Was all that shedding even obligatory?

As of Monday, the Orioles debuted a brand new reply to these questions: All what shedding? Somewhat than defending his staff’s current historical past, John Angelos merely declared it off limits. For broadcast functions, the shedding by no means occurred. If you happen to can’t discuss it, nobody can complain about it.

Tom Scocca is the editor of the subscription-supported publication Indignity, the place a version of this merchandise seems.