Orioles play-by-play voice Kevin Brown is ‘a man for all seasons’

There was a moment in April, during an Orioles telecast, that made its rounds on social media for the way it embodies the unpredictability of any Kevin Brown call.

A discussion of Dean Kremers pitch mix veered into a riff on The Lord of the Rings, Brown probing Ben McDonald on who hed back in The War for Rohirrim then advising which of the movies are worth seeing.His mind thinks of stuff that is just out there in the best way, said Jason Benetti, voice of the Detroit Tigers.

When Kremer delivered his payoff pitch, a heater to the inside of the plate, Brown snapped back, managing to stay on theme by calling it a precious fastball.Hes quick on his feet, Mid-Atlantic Sports Networks Melanie Newman smiled, like a cat.ESPNs Mike Couzens put it best: Kevin would be the perfect improv partner.

Hes always ready to say Yes, and ...

to whatever youre doing.Sitting inside a radio booth at Camden Yards earlier this summer, Brown, MASNs 35-year-old lead play-by-play voice of the Orioles, known for quick wit and snappy storytelling, interjected on such conjecture.Eagerly, he pointed out, I did improv.

One of the most formative experiences of my career.Before Brown was hired to call games in Baltimore in 2019, he spent seven seasons as the voice of the Syracuse Chiefs, formerly the Triple-A affiliate of the Nationals.

He spent every summer in upstate New York and the ensuing winter traveling back home to Long Island, with one exception.

In 2015, Brown hung around to handle local TV sports coverage, affording him some free time unshackled from the baseball grind.So, for about five months, Brown took a once-a-week improv class taught by a guy named Jeff at the now-defunct ShoppingTown Mall in DeWitt, New York.I thought, Oh, Im taking improv, Im going to learn to be really funny, Brown said.

But what you learn by doing improv is you learn how to listen.Ten years later, the booth he shares with McDonald and Jim Palmer sometimes feels like a faux improv set.

Me and Kevin have absolutely nothing in common, McDonald said.

And yet, Brown can keep the plane airborne, even steer into the clouds if the score permits, when the broadcast drifts off into determining the parameters of a hypothetical swim meet against Michael Phelps or who the heck Blink-182 is.Related ArticlesOrioles walk off Pirates, 3-2, on Samuel Basallos single after umpire reviewOrioles Jeremiah Jackson exits game vs.

Pirates after HPB but is fineOrioles 1st-round pick Slater de Brun looks up to mentor Adley RutschmanOrioles minor league report: Ex-MLB reliever Carter Capps tutors fast-rising pitcherOrioles reset: Jackson Holliday becoming the hitter he was projected to beThe voice handling every major Orioles moment since the start of the rebuild is, in Palmers words, a man for all seasons.

He is that way because of the people who pushed him to be himself even when that took a little smoothing out.From nothing to everythingUntil he was 9 years old, Brown wasnt all that interested in sports.

He wanted to be a zookeeper.A row of stuffed animals filled the living room ledge near a television that prioritized The Discovery Channel.

That is, until Brown was dissuaded by the realization of cleaning up animal feces.

His sports fandom was born on one oddly specific, innocuous day.It was an Eagles-Giants game, Brown said.That Sunday afternoon in late August 1997, Brown walked across the street to the Petersons house, neighbors who were like a third set of grandparents.

Credit the Petersons for turning on a forgettable Week 1 division rivalry on FOX Sports.

Dick Stockton had the call.

The Giants won, 31-17.I dont know what it was, Brown said.

I remember that football game being on, and I was just hooked.

...

It went from nothing to everything in my life, rather quickly.Suddenly, baseball cards started showing up under the Christmas tree.

Brown subscribed to Sports Illustrated for Kids.

Jerseys replaced stuffed animals.

No more Discovery Channel.

Browns first crush was one of the greatest baseball teams ever: the 1998 World Series champion Yankees.

And then he fell for the 1998-99 Knicks during a miraculous run to the NBA Finals as the No.

8 seed.That was a natural segue into his own budding athletic career.Kevin Brown, left, the Orioles' play-by-play broadcaster with MASN, speaks while sitting with Jim Palmer before a game between the Orioles and Dodgers at Camden Yards earlier this month.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Despite what Brown remembers to be a 0.0 career scoring average very Blutarsky-an, he said, slipping in an Animal House reference he backed his way into the Long Island Police Athletic League basketball All-Star game.

Dad was the coach, so perhaps nepotism earned the jersey, only to be used if another kid didnt show.

Or if something like the Orioles July catcher debacle happened.There Brown sat, on stage at one end of the gymnasium inside Hastings Elementary-Middle School.

Maybe it was an innocent reflex kick-started by a subconscious interest in the voices singing about his sports heroes.

Perhaps he was bored.Brown started calling the game.A few nearby parents seemed ticked off hearing this pre-pubescent voice muffle narration under his breath.One dad found it charming.

He approached Brown after the game to deliver four prophetic words.Hey, great job, Marv.Like Marv Albert, Brown went on to study at Syracuses venerable Newhouse School, an industry talent factory.

I find Syracuse broadcasters have something that they all lean into, MASNs Ben Wagner said.

Take, for example, Ian Eagle, an idol of Browns known as the professions sharp-minded comedian.

Brown worked his way to primary voice in Baltimore by 2022, while juggling ESPN side gigs, by embracing what makes him unique on air: a Joe Buck-like baritone, but less self-deprecating and more culturally aware.That started at WAER, an NPR-affiliate radio station with offices on Syracuses campus.The sports station is entirely student-run.

Its the place to get reps for any wide-eyed 18-to-22-year-old with a dream of calling games.

Most students structure their schedules around time spent on Ostrom Avenue and prioritize reps over homework.Whats WAER like? Uh, you ever seen Whiplash?Kevin Brown, left, calling a Syracuse basketball game with classmates Alex Perlman, center, and Mike Lefko.

Brown's class of 30 freshmen aspiring broadcasters whittled down to 12 by graduation.

He's now one of two regularly calling games on TV.

(Courtesy of Mike Lefko)Benetti, a fellow college classmate speaking mostly in jest, was referencing the 2014 film set at a prestigious New York music school that landed on Browns top-10 movies of the 21st century.

J.K.

Simmons plays a torturous jazz instructor pushing his student prodigy to the brink of sanity.Its not that bad, Benetti laughed.Underclassmen trudge through Syracuse snow, uphill both ways, to get to the station and record a sports update that will never make it on air.

Those clips get handed off for upperclassmen to, as Brown said, tell you all the things that were wrong with it.Those seniors went right for the jugular.Browns tape submission included the line, Ian Kennedy pitched six innings of one-hit ball.

He pronounced it like bawl.

The WAER upperclassmen told Brown to ditch his harsh Long Island accent.

Who would hire someone with such regional linguistics?I had no concept that what was coming out of my mouth was at all different, Brown said.Growing up, family vacations were a four-hour drive upstate to visit his grandparents.

Mostly everyone else lived on Long Island, including his moms seven siblings and their 22 kids.

Brown didnt travel much and therefore, didnt notice his own New York twang.I knocked out a bunch of the accent in college, Brown said, but I had to have a bunch more knocked out.In 2010, most of his peers spent their senior summer working for the esteemed Cape Cod League.

Brown took an internship with the Alaskan Baseball League.

Why? Oh, I have no idea, he said.

When he returned to New York, classmates were floored hearing how much better hed gotten.

Brown sent a tape of his best stuff to Benetti, the voice of the Syracuse Chiefs who was seeking a No.

2 for the spring.Setting aside the way Browns accent elongated the second a in Alaska, Benetti noticed a level of creativity in what he was doing and storytelling that was uncommon for his age he was interesting.The closest Brown can pinpoint where that started is late high school and early college.From left to right, Alex Perlman, Dan Moscaritolo, Ted Conroy, Mike Lefko and Kevin Brown in the radio booth together at Yankee Stadium as Syracuse students.

(Courtesy of Mike Lefko)Browns music taste which Orioles fans know best as his love of Oasis and the time he sang with Joan Jett comes from his high school days bumming his neighbors CDs to download songs onto his first iPod.

Shortly after he got to Syracuse in the fall of 2007, the Coen brothers No Country for Old Men hit theaters.

It set off what Brown admits is an obsession, a shoot-from-the-hip improv tool like quoting Samuel L.

Jacksons Hold onto your butts from Jurassic Park to ready a baseball audience for a looming comeback.I like to sprinkle that stuff in as an Easter Egg here and there for people who are paying attention, he said.

Its like the Marvel world where theres an Easter egg every five minutes.Unlike the accent, it was a part of Brown that was emboldened along the way.Browns college buddies admired the way his brain worked, from crushing Sporcle quizzes in the WAER offices to outrageous on-air tangents.

Couzens deemed it hard to parallel.

At the Triple-A level, Browns quirkiness was nurtured by late nights at Change of Pace, the Syracuse sports bar where minor league broadcasters convened like philosophers in the town square, swapping stories over a pitcher of beer and wings (extra crispy, mixing the medium sauce and garlic parmesan).Thats the bar that sparked a viral exchange from earlier this season, when Browns propensity to let the baseball linger while he digs down a rabbit hole that revealed that his National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher-turned-analyst has never tried chicken wings.

Brown had a hot-and-ready plate for Palmer, to which he respectfully declined.When Benetti first got his hands on Browns tapes from the Alaskan summer, he heard a college kid with underpinnings of somebody who could be great.

He took it upon himself to actualize that talent.Those two spent every night after Chiefs games meticulously reviewing at least an inning of calls.

The 21-year-old in his final semester of college resisted at first what felt like extraneous labor guided by a mentor only a few years older.

By August of that summer, Brown relented.

He learned to love auditing calls for pacing and language, knowing it improved his craft.Brown and Benetti forged such a bond over their four years calling Triple-A games together that a month into Browns first year with the Orioles, McDonald blindly told him, You know who you remind me of? Jason Benetti.

Brown burst into laughter.Everything I know about broadcasting, he told McDonald, I got from Jason Benetti.Brown was 29 when he started with the Orioles.

He has spent the past six years endearing himself to Baltimore, starting a family and ripping the homer hose when the team twice clinched the playoffs.

He spends so much time before games talking to folks around the ballpark, Palmer joked, Kevin could have a gossip column.

His voice is better served memorializing the organizations legendary moments; from Trey Mancinis home run in his last game at Camden Yards to a chilling Go crazy, Baltimore delivery the night of Baltimores 2023 division title to emceeing last weeks 2131 30th anniversary.Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster poses before an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster listens to Jim Palmer, who shares some insight before an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster digs into statistics before an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)While posing for portraits, Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster closes his eyes as partner Jim Palmer pretends to pat some makeup onto his face before an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Working behind a light dampening screen, Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster checks last minute information before going on television for MASN for an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster speaks while sitting with Jim Palmer as MASN begins their broadcast of an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Show Caption1 of 6Kevin Brown, the Baltimore Orioles play by play broadcaster poses before an interleague game of major league baseball between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)ExpandFree Kevin BrownIn his words, what happened two years ago was a very strange period of my life.

These days, Brown doesnt spend much time thinking about what was the most forward-facing moment of his career.On July 23, 2023, Brown opened his broadcast for a road series in Tampa Bay, relaying a tidbit from the game notes, which were assembled by the public relations staff.

He pointed out that the Orioles had won more games against the Rays through the first half of that season than the previous two combined.Its been a minute, Brown said on air, matter-of-factly.For that, the club, under former Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos, suspended Brown and yanked him off the air for about two weeks.

The one-minute clip of Browns voice overlaying a graphic that reads, Trop-ical depression surpassed 41 million views.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, 2023It drew ire from fellow broadcasters around the industry and fans here in Baltimore.

On Aug.

8, as the Orioles played at Camden Yards, a chant broke out across the ballpark.

Free Kevin Brown!The city rallied behind a voice it had only recently adopted.

Brown hates being the story, but he couldnt ignore that Baltimore fans werent just watching and listening.

They cared.It was very uncomfortable to become the story, in any way.

This is gonna sound very Pollyanna-ish, Brown said, referencing a 1960 movie based on a 1913 novel to paint his naive optimism.

It was a very surreal period, and then it was over and its been over ever since.

Its not something thats lingered with me.Palmer poked fun at it on the air last summer.

You got to Tampa Bay, where you used to have trouble, Palmer said, as you know, winning.

Brown did his best to hold a straight face.

His professionalism carried on, as it did when he returned from suspension as if nothing had happened.

Still, hearing the fan base come to his defense and his industry peers speak out on his behalf felt like an alternate reality like one of my favorite Marvel stories, like I transferred into the multiverse or something.Benetti said there was a text thread of major league announcers joking, of all of us, we figured the rabble rouser definitely would be Kevin.

Broadcast teams around the league used airtime to disparage the decision.

Brown-gate reached CNN, Fox News and The Guardian across the pond.SNYs Gary Cohen went on air to call it an utter embarrassment, saying if the Orioles didnt want Brown, there are 29 other teams who do.Brown and the Orioles began working on an extension shortly after the incident.

He signed a multiyear contract in August 2024.

Palmer and McDonald have ribbed him plenty on the air for his success.

Theyre all so different, and yet they so quickly formed a charming rapport.Kevins probably the most talented broadcaster Ive ever worked with as far as being able to multitask, McDonald said, meaning the way Brown juggles baseball and analytics and the fun stuff.

Its a gift that he has.Earlier this summer, Brown stumbled upon that 2015 tape of his improv groups final project scene.

He was mortified.

A decade later, he had never rewatched it.

Brown tried pressing play.

He slammed his laptop shut after 30 seconds, conceding it should never see the light of day.Thats OK.

With every headset he puts on, Brown makes Orioles baseball feel like theater and Baltimore keeps coming back for the show.Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at [email protected], 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn..

This article has been shared from the original article on baltimoresun, here is the link to the original article.