Yesterday, reports emerged that the Orioles had suspended play-by-play broadcaster Kevin Brown for the most innocuous comments to have ever drawn a suspension:
I…I took this as pro-Orioles? You know, he was talking about how cool it is that they’re competitive again?
Predictably, there was major backlash. Everyone who follows baseball has a vague idea that there’s weird shit going on with the Orioles ownership, so we were all ready to pounce on those numbskulls even if we don’t really know what exactly the weird shit is. Someone is dying. I remember that someone is dying.
Also predictably, the backlash achieved its intended goal. Kevin Brown is back in the booth. Sucks for him, sucks for the MASN team, but it happened and now we assume everyone will play out the rest of the season before sitting down and saying, “Ok, what the hell was that,” once October (or maybe November!) hits.
Still, it’s kind of impressive on the part of the Orioles? And it’s even more impressive on the part of Brown! Credit to the O’s for imposing this harsh of a line, and credit to Brown for somehow never crossing it before. It feels like when you learn a speed limit near your neighborhood is half of what you thought it was. How had Kevin Brown only just now committed an offense worthy of suspension?
A Hint of NIT in the Air
ESPN released the brackets for its preseason college basketball tournaments. (I know they aren’t technically preseason, but we’re bringing that back. Calling them MTEs feels like we’re enabling somebody.) Among those? The Preseason NIT, formally known as the NIT Season Tip-Off.
In the first round, Oregon State will play Baylor and Florida will play Pitt. In the second? Well, it depends who wins in the first. And who loses! The NIT is never not mysterious.
Early read is that Baylor should be the favorite, not because they’re the best basketball program in this by a thousand miles but because they’ve won the NIT most recently and I’m all in on Scott Drew after he was so kind to The Barking Crow in Las Vegas last March. Also? The Baylor Law School has nice bathrooms. For both humans (the bathrooms) and dogs (the grass around the building). Fargo took a nice little whiz up there last December. I remember it fondly, and I’d imagine she does too.
Joe Kelly vs. the Diamondbacks
The scouting report on our hero facing the Diamondbacks this week is that I don’t know of anyone on that roster with whom Joe Kelly currently has beef, but that doesn’t mean there’s nobody there. We will keep an eye on things.
I’m Getting a Little Tired of JJ Watt
I still like the move for Burnley, but I kind of miss getting my news about my favorite soccer team from anonymous English Twitter accounts rather than JJ Watt. Thank goodness I have four years of blog posts to point to if anyone accuses me of following JJ Watt to Burnley.
More on Burnley later this week! I need to go get my car now! Firestone closes in 39 minutes!
