Baltimore Orioles fans were firmly standing behind play-by-play announcer Kevin Brown on Tuesday night at Camden Yards.
Brown had been reportedly suspended over an innocuous comment he made on the air during a recent series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The fans were making their voices heard on the matter with chants of “Free Kevin Brown” while another brought a large sign with the slogan on it.
The chants were audible on the TBS broadcast of Tuesday night’s game between the Orioles and Houston Astros.
“Chant of ‘Free Kevin Brown’ raining down,” one of the TBS broadcasters said on the air. “Love this fanbase standing behind their announcer. We all know the story, Kevin Brown made some extremely benign comments, was not even critical, but somebody in upper management – many believe it is the owner – made a decision to take him off the air.”
Sports Business Journal media reporter John Ourand noted on Twitter that he did not hear the chants on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network broadcast of the game.
@LockedOnOrioles tweeted that the chants were audible on the team’s radio broadcast.
Video inside the stadium from Baltimore Banner reporter Andy Kostka gave an even better sense of how loud the chant had gotten during the seventh inning of the game.
The Banner also captured video of a fan walking around Camden Yards with a “Free Kevin Brown” sign and Twitter user @CFBKaegan posted that a different pair of fans had also brought signs and were trying to get in front of a MASN camera.
Brown is expected to be back on the air on Friday, according to a report earlier in the day, but not before most of Major League Baseball’s broadcasters and fans had spent the better part of the past 24 hours tearing into the Orioles owners.
“The Orioles have won more games against [the Rays] this season than the last two combined,” Brown said, which reportedly ruffled the feathers of team ownership enough to get him pulled off the air.
The team has denied that any sort of punishment was handed to the beloved broadcaster, but multiple reports pointed to the contrary.