Kevin Brown, the Orioles’ lead play-by-play announcer for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, is set to return to the air Friday when Baltimore faces the Seattle Mariners, sources with direct knowledge of the situation told The Baltimore Banner.

Brown has been off the air for over a week after a comment he made in a pregame segment regarding the Orioles’ record in previous years against the Tampa Bay Rays. In the time since, there’s been a flurry of online support for Brown — as well as in-game comments from other baseball commentators.

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A senior Orioles official told The Banner on Monday that Brown would be “back with us in the near future,” but declined to comment on the specifics of Brown’s absence. A report from Awful Announcing first linked Brown’s disappearance from television with a factual comment he made about the Orioles and Rays, in which Brown said: “The Orioles have won more games against them this season than the last two combined.”

The statistic was backed by a graphic on the MASN screen and also appeared in the July 23 game notes, a stats packet crafted each day by the club’s public information staff.

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Brown last featured on the radio during Baltimore’s series against the Philadelphia Phillies between July 24 and July 26. He isn’t on the schedule for the end of this homestand at Camden Yards against the Houston Astros but will be with the team on the West-Coast swing, with matchups against the Mariners, San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics.

Brown’s story picked up traction around the country. CNN featured it Tuesday morning, and around the league Monday evening, broadcasters made comments of support for their fellow commentator.

On YES, the Yankees’ network, analyst Suzyn Waldman said: “How can you do your job if you can’t tell the truth? But he didn’t even say anything negative. He was extolling how good they are because look what they’ve done this year, and in the past they didn’t do it. I don’t understand it. When I saw the clip, I was waiting for him to say something horrible.”

Brown has appeared on MASN since 2019 and took over as the primary play-by-play voice in 2022, doing both television and radio. He also calls a variety of sports for ESPN, such as college football and softball, and he appeared on ESPN 2 for the Statcast broadcast of the Home Run Derby last month.

andy.kostka@thebaltimorebanner.com

Andy Kostka

andy.kostka@thebaltimorebanner.com

Andy Kostka

Andy Kostka is an Orioles beat writer for The Baltimore Banner. He previously covered the Orioles for The Baltimore Sun. Kostka graduated from the University of Maryland and grew up in Rockville.

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