Giant loss: Team parting ways with long-time announcer Renel Brooks-Moon

SAN FRANCISCO - Fans reacted with shock and outrage Monday after the San Francisco Giants released a statement saying that they are parting ways with their announcer of 24 years, Renel Brooks-Moon.

The Giants said in the statement that "Although they discussed an extension of Brooks-Moon’s contract which ended in December 2023, after extensive discussions they mutually and amicably agreed to part ways. The booth at Oracle Park will be named in Brooks-Moon’s honor at a ceremony to take place during a future home game."

Brooks-Moon has been the public address announcer inside Oracle Park since 2000. The Giants' statement says now, she will be known as "Public Address Announcer Emeritus."

Fans were stunned by the Giants' announcement.

"Every time I'd walk into the stadium, her voice was the first thing I'd hear, before I even got to see the field. So her loss is completely devastating," said Miles Ross, a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan. "I think this is one of those you really, really need to reconsider, especially because of what she means to the community."

Adam Copeland, program director for KNBR, says Giants fans shared their outrage, calling in and speaking out all day in support of Brooks-Moon, who was a pioneer as one of the first Black women announcers in Major League Baseball.

"It's a big loss not just for the Giants, for little girls, for people of color, for baseball fans across the country," Copeland said, adding that it's especially hard to take, because Brooks-Moon was a woman who had said she would fight for diversity, equity and inclusion in baseball.

"When she spoke in 2020 and she said, after getting her contract settled, that she was going to hold the organization accountable for their hiring practices, it feels devastating as a Black man in sports media in San Francisco," Copeland said.

Matt Willard, host of 95.7 the Game, said he and many other fans and community members feel the move proves the Giants administration is out of touch with their fans and how much Brooks-Moon means to the community.

"This is someone who again was the soundtrack of the ballpark, a familiar face, a Bay Area icon," Willard said. "They made a decision to go in a different direction and I think it's a bad decision." 

"For her to be let go because of contract differences is inexplicable. And shocking that the Giants could have this poor judgment," said State Assembly Member Matt Haney of San Francisco. 

On Monday evening, Brooks-Moon issued a brief statement on social media where she thanked Giants fans saying it has been the honor of her life to serve as P.A. announcer. 

In a follow-up post, she conveyed that as a little girl who went to Candlestick Park where the Giants once played, she never imagined she'd grow up to do this. 

"Grateful doesn't seem to be a big enough word. Born in 1958, I never saw or heard anyone on TV or radio that looked like me. I hope I have inspired many." She expressed her love for the fans and said their, "support is everything." 

Brooks-Moon is an Emmy winner for her TV work and was a popular radio host for many years on KMEL, KISQ, and KBLX.

She has been honored by many organizations, including American Women in Radio and Television, Multi-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, 100 Black Women, Bay Area Black Journalists Association and Girls, Inc. She is in the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, and former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed "Renel Brooks-Moon Day" in her honor on March 18, 2005. 

Brooks-Moon is a founding member of Friends of Faith, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance to Bay Area breast cancer patients who do not have adequate support or insurance. Faith Fancher was a longtime reporter at KTVU, who died of cancer in 2003.