Internecine Broadcast Conflict Breaks Out During Pirates Spring Training Game

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During today’s spring training game between the Pirates and Rays, the Pirates broadcast team decided to try a fun experiment. The TV and radio color commentators (Steve Blass, Bob Walk, and John Wehner) would handle the TV broadcast, while the guys who usually do play-by-play on the radio (Joe Block) and TV (Greg Brown) would handle the radio broadcast. This may not have been a good idea.

The facts aren’t entirely clear, but there appears to have been tension of some sort here. Block and Brown decided to turn their radio broadcast into a bit of a party, complete with silly outfits and novelty cocktails. Whether this was a reflection or cause of conflict is unknown as of now, but during the top of the eighth inning, Blass got fed up with the racket coming from the booth next door, and went to do something about it:

Clip 1

At this point, it seemed that the crew was just engaging in some fun, games, and fern theft. But then Brown decided to invade the TV booth, grab the headset from Blass, and show everyone how Not Mad he was:

Clip 3

The causes and true nature of Brown’s seemingly long-held grievances may not be known, but it’s pretty obviously time for everyone involved here to take a step back and relax before something happens that everyone regrets.

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