Giants broadcaster Jon Miller has seen this situation in Baltimore before.
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In 1996, iconic broadcaster Jon Miller left the Baltimore Orioles after 14 years. Ownership pushed him out, in part because of the tell-it-like-it-is style that has become so popular on Giants broadcasts in the decades since. Peter Angelos, a wealthy Maryland lawyer, had just bought the team and wanted someone who would “bleed more orange-and-black.”
It was reported this week that Orioles ownership suspended announcer Kevin Brown for the crime of … reading an anodyne graphic about how the Orioles had lost a lot of games in Tampa over the past few years. (The Orioles have denied that there was a suspension, but Brown has been off the air since July 23, and multiple outlets reported he was suspended for the incredibly neutral reading of a statistic. The O’s told the Baltimore Banner that he’ll be back Friday.)
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The pathetic suspension was mocked across baseball Monday night, and perhaps no one was more scathing than Mets announcer Gary Cohen, who recalled the Angelos family’s pathetic history of demanding loyalty from announcers. The Mets booth has long operated with near-total freedom, and Cohen used that freedom Monday to unload on the thin-skinned Orioles.
“The Baltimore Orioles organization draped itself in utter humiliation with their treatment of one of their young broadcasters, a guy named Kevin Brown, who is one of the great young talents in broadcasting in this game,” Cohen said Monday night. “… Let me just say one thing to Baltimore Orioles management: You draped yourself in humiliation when you fired Jon Miller. And you’re doing it again. And if you don’t want Kevin Brown, there are 29 other teams who do. It’s a horrendous decision by the Orioles. I don’t know what they were thinking, but they’ve gotten exactly the reaction that they deserve.”
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The Brown situation is playing out almost identically to the Miller one from 27 years ago. After Peter Angelos declined to renew Miller’s contract in 1996, the Baltimore Sun wrote, “Mr. Angelos believed that Mr. Miller’s play-by-play was too critical. But the broadcaster was never excessive or harsh.” The Washington Post reported the same thing: “Angelos disliked Miller’s willingness to criticize the team harshly on the air when it wasn’t playing well.”
Miller felt that Angelos wanted him to change his tone in a way that would compromise his “announcing integrity,” according to the New York Times. Miller returned to the Bay Area, where’s he from, and never looked back, getting the Ford Frick award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 and generally cementing himself as a San Francisco sports legend.
It’s not too far-fetched to imagine history repeating itself nearly three decades later. The Giants’ primary TV booth is aging, although they’ve swatted down rumors of an impending retirement. Brown might return to the booth this week and presumably finish out the season. But he’s just 33. This suspension is not a one-off thing;