Giants games will sound much different at Oracle Park this year.
Renel Brooks-Moon, the team’s beloved, pioneering public-address announcer the last 24 seasons, won’t return this year, the Giants and Brooks-Moon announced jointly Monday.
The two sides said in a statement that they discussed extending her contract — which ended in December — but they each “mutually and amicably agreed to part ways” after extensive discussions, officials said in a release.
The Giants said they plan to honor her career later this season and will rename the Oracle Park booth in her honor. For nearly a quarter-century, Brooks-Moon’s voice boomed from there as she enthusiastically introduced the likes of Barry Bonds, Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey as they took the field.
Brooks-Moon succeeded Sherry Davis — the first woman to serve as a MLB team’s in-stadium announcer — when the Giants moved to Oracle Park in 2000, and after the Giants didn’t renew Davis’ contract. Brooks-Moon, a longtime Bay Area radio broadcaster, then became one of the first Black women to serve as a public-address announcer in U.S. sports history.
“As a Bay Area native, it has been the honor of my lifetime to serve on the mike and in the community for the Giants for 24 years,” Brooks-Moon said in a statement. “My very first game on April 11, 2000, I shall never forget, because the job has always been bigger than me. Representation matters, and it is my great hope that my time in the booth has inspired little girls, young women and people of color to pursue their dreams even if those dreams seem impossible, because impossible dreams can come true.
“To my successor, best of luck, and enjoy every minute of it! To the talented young control-room crew, I could not be prouder of you all. And last, but certainly not the least, the fans: 100% the best fans in all of baseball, many of whom have become personal friends. I can’t thank you enough for your overwhelming kindness and support. I will miss you all the most.”
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Brooks-Moon was behind the mic for four World Series appearances this century — including in 2002 when she became the first female PA announcer for a U.S. professional sports championship — as well as Matt Cain’s 2012 perfect game and Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 756th career home run in 2007.
Giants fans on social media and sports-media figures criticized Monday’s announcement, which comes on the heels of the team’s second-lowest full-season attendance since moving to 4th and King streets in 2000 and another offseason in which the team struck out on some of its top free-agent targets.
Although the Giants were able to sign Korean standout Jung Hoo Lee and former Oakland A’s All-Star Matt Chapman, they also let Bay Area native Brandon Crawford — arguably the best shortstop in franchise history — leave in free agency to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals. Crawford told The Athletic that he was willing to mentor players in a reduced role, but that the Giants told him that he “was not wanted back.”
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told the outlet that keeping Crawford was “going to create a dynamic where it was going to be harder for our young players to play with a margin of error.”
The Giants have also faced criticism around baseball after releasing incumbent starting third baseman J.D. Davis last week. The team was able to pocket most of his impending salary because of a loophole in the collective-bargaining agreement. Davis, now with the A’s after Chapman’s arrival pushed him down the Giants’ depth chart, called the situation “a punch to the gut.”
The Giants open the 2024 MLB season March 28 on the road against the San Diego Padres. They're set to host San Diego in their home opener eight days later, when a new voice will take the microphone at Oracle Park.
