Pirates Broadcaster Among MLB Good Guys

Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Greg Brown is a wonderful ambassador for Major League Baseball. I should know. I met him.

Beginning late last February, when Pirates spring training began in Bradenton, I had a lot to learn. From securing my media credentials, and learning my way around the Pirate City complex, to coming up with questions that I thought the players would be interested enough to discuss with me in their clubhouse, my learning curve was in motion.

I m pretty sure we have all been in a situation where we knew very little about our surroundings but had to come across as if all was routine.

After a couple of days of workouts at Pirate City, before the MLB club would move their remainder of spring operations a few miles down the road to LECOM Park, I joined a half dozen scribes waiting to speak with Pirates skipper Derek Shelton for comments on the club s progression.

This was to be my first post-workout media conference. As we stood in the early morning heat outside of the clubhouse, a familiar face strolled over to our pack. As someone who for most of my life focused on New York Yankees and Mets happenings (I was born and raised in Queens) and the National Baseball Hall of Fame (I lived in the Cooperstown area for 40-plus years), I had a lot of catching up to do on names and faces of Pirates personnel.

The newest member of the pack was instantly friendly and eager to join in the small talk going on. At first, I didn t know who this upbeat gentleman was, but as a newcomer to Pirate City, it was important for me to introduce myself. I received a quick response.

""Hi. I m Greg Brown.

Then, immediately, it clicked. This is the face and voice of Pirates radio and TV  for what would be his 30th season calling games. Yes. That Greg Brown.

So friendly. To make me feel better at ease, Brown asked where I was from. After explaining that I transitioned from the Cooperstown area to Bradenton a couple of years back, instantly, Brown brought up his experience visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame and reminded me that a member of the Pirates AT&T SportsNet broadcast team is a native of Cooperstown.

Brown is a perfect representative of the Pirates organization. Those few fleeting minutes of chatting took my mind temporally off the heat. I thought, my gosh, no wonder generations of Pirates fans feel a deep connection to him. What you see and hear through the media platforms is what you get when no microphones are on.

Brown s ""Raise the Jolly Roger! and ""Clear the Deck, Cannonball Coming! signature calls, heard when a Pirates victory is had, and when a Pittsburgh player slugs a home run, are known at an early age by baseball fans in Western Pennsylvania.

Few organizations in pro sports have ""lifers anymore. Brown first came to the Pirates in 1979, the season when they last won a World Series championship. As a student at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Brown learned and earned a baseball education in the many facets of what makes a baseball organization tick, as an intern. Prior to joining the broadcast team in 1994 full-time, Brown had spent a decade working in the club s front office.

The years of working in TV as a weekend sports anchor for an Ohio station, along with being at the microphone for Buffalo Bisons Triple-A games in Western New York at a time when the Pirates had their top minor league affiliate planted there, plus working as a member of the NFL Buffalo Bills radio team, more than prepared Brown for his dream job back home.

What a resume.

Brown has been at work for the Pirates, first when they called Three Rivers Stadium home, and now, since 2001 at PNC Park. During good times and bad, Brown is the one constant Pirates liaison fans can count on to be there, to deliver what they can and can t see. He is their proven voice of baseball honesty.

Now, from my observations at Pirate City, and from watching this season s schedule on TV, I m one of Brown s newest faithful followers. No questions asked.