Pirates’ Brown Content With Past, Excited For Future

Greg Brown is someone to envy. Few people remain at their employer for thirty continuous years handling the same responsibilities. A special someone must buy into the product being sold, and through his or her own passion for the company, make others keep believing in what they stand for.

Brown bleeds Pirates’ black and gold. He is the face and voice of Pittsburgh baseball. He remains the one constant of what baseball means to fans of all ages throughout western Pennsylvania.

When Brown removed his headset a week ago in PNC Park’s press box, after a Pirates 3-0 win at home against the Miami Marlins, he reached another milestone with the club. 30 continuous years were completed as the face and voice of Pirates baseball on radio and TV.

For someone who generations of Pirates’ fans have come to trust and appreciate as their connection to the top stories and players that is Pittsburgh baseball when it comes down to his connection with his audiences, Brown is happy to be one of those in the crowd. He is as his public duties display, being one of Western Pennsylvania’s baseball fans.

With a countdown to spring training in mid-February, when the club hits Florida to begin working on ways to improve their 76-86 2023 season, for many Pirates fan, it’s time to fill time.

How does Brown feel when the last out was registered one week ago and another Pirates season is completed, and what does he substitute for 162 regular season days at ballparks?

“I’m somewhat melancholy,” explained Brown during a phone conversation earlier this week. “I’m always hopeful and look at the bright side of the end to a season. Selfishly, I get my life back for the next four months.”

For Brown, who logged a decade working in the Pirates’ front office in various roles including being the club’s public address announcer one season prior to his broadcast duties, getting his personal life back full-time starts with reconnecting with friends.

This year’s Pirates improved their overall record from that in which they registered in 2022: 62-100. This season’s club led by skipper Derek Shelton offered noticeable improvement on the diamond. For this, Brown admits that after making that big exhale at the end of this past season, he will soon be anxious for the return to baseball.

“I have mixed emotions,” Brown tells of the Pirates’ 2023 squad. “The team was playing better. I wish they had another month. I was optimistic about how they were playing, once they reached the season’s finish line.”

For Brown and fellow Pirates’ fans, when the season concluded, he likened Game 162 to that of the last day of school; having mixed emotions of saying goodbyes to classmates for the months ahead.

Not in the slightest does Brown think there aren’t opportunities for personal and professional growth. He isn’t a baseball elitist by any means. Brown will run through his mind on generally what he did and didn’t do in front of the cameras this past season, and try to improve on next season, beginning at training camp in Southwest Florida.

“Announcers always sound better when the team plays better,” Brown offers. “This past April, I was the best announcer, and in mid-season, I was the worst. You only sound as good as the product.”

Keeping Pirates’ fans undivided attention with his signature catchphrases as ‘Raise the Jolley Roger’, proudly proclaimed after a Pittsburgh victory, and ‘Clear the Deck, Cannonball Coming’ proclaimed after a Pirates’ home run, appears to be easy work for Brown.

Such easy work to some comes after years of rehearsal.

When MLB comes out of hibernation in February in Florida and Arizona, Brown admits to becoming a different person, from his time as a private citizen. During spring training it’s time for Brown to become so engrossed in baseball again.

“Anything outside the circle (of baseball) almost takes a back seat. I’m thinking about the next broadcast, my next MC assignment.”

Surprisingly, the off-season of Pirates’ baseball doesn’t translate into exotic trips or fancy invitations with fancier bluebloods. To hear Brown describe his routine, it does sound rather boring – just the way he likes it.

There will be mini-vacations including to Boston, to see his son Ryan, and to North Carolina, where Brown’s retired brothers live. A little golf will be squeezed into Brown’s schedule, and of course spending time with friends he doesn’t get to see during the baseball season.

Time seems to be Brown’s greatest foe. He talks enthusiastically about several projects that he could and would like to tackle. An admitted ‘pack rat,' for Brown, who prior to calling Pirates’ games, for five seasons was the radio voice of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons of the now defunct American Association, where to begin is a challenge.

At the top of his list is looking at how to redesign his scorebook. This is Brown’s ‘bible’. He is old school when keeping score. There are many audio cassettes piling up for years in Brown’s home office. He would somehow like to organize features and interviews he conducted on radio.

With the MLB postseason in full swing, Brown has an ear to what’s going on, but he doesn’t offer the same commitment to the games as if the regular season was at hand.

“It depends on my schedule,” says Brown of playoff baseball. “I’m not locked in. This doesn’t mean I’m dismissing how meaningful the games are to the people.”

Easily accessible to fans at ballparks and at functions he attends, Brown remains appreciative of the position he holds within the Pirates community. He is one of many stewards of the team. Brown respects his job so much and understands how important it is to always be at his best.

Having been behind the microphone for thousands of Pirates games, when speaking with Brown, there’s not a hint of his going through the motions on club loyalty or hiding boredom in his work. He is as genuine as they come.

When reflecting on his years of spring training spent in Bradenton, and at LECOM Park, Brown tells of an amusing routine that has since been halted.

“About three years ago, from the press box, I started looking at the games through netting. On the wall, in the back where I sit in the press box, there are holes; dents where foul balls hit,” recalls Brown, who has shared space with color analyst Bob Walk for much of the past 30 seasons.

“Spring training offers a return of hope, a clean slate for the ball club. (LECOM Park) is one of the most historic locations to call a game. There have been modernizations completed but the park has kept its romanticism.”

Along with the history surrounding the Pirates base camp in Bradenton, Brown is eager to see the booster members controlling fan traffic, and the fans who make the pilgrimage to Florida from all points, to support their favorite club. The period of baseball rebirth each spring is a package that Brown eagerly buys into. Brown usually arrives in Florida shortly after Valentine’s Day, a promise he has kept to his wife Kim for many years.

When it comes to names such as Stargell, Bonds, Bonilla, McCutchen, and Hurdle—all Pirates personnel who have carved out special places in fans’ minds over many decades—Brown has spoken of their accomplishments during his broadcasts. He is the survivor of ownership changes and hiring and firings in Pittsburgh – to keep telling the Pirates’ stories.

Brown‘s next chapter in the book of the Pirates begins February 2024, in year 31 as Pittsburgh’s most trusted voice.