While Marlins' fans are enjoying a season in which the
team is playing "unexpectedly well," many have "no idea of
the tension bubbling just under a shaky lid of civility" in
the team's broadcast booth, according to Charles Elmore of
the PALM BEACH POST, who wrote that Marlins TV/radio
announcer Joe Angel is "being fired in slow motion." Elmore
wrote that Owner John Henry told Angel "for months" that
reports "were not true" that Angel was "on the way out,"
while former partner Dave O'Brien was "in." But when the
reports "proved true, Angel felt betrayed." Angel, who has
been with the team for eight seasons, on Henry: "He flat out
lied to me. ... In 24 years, I've never been treated like
that." Henry "did not respond" to Elmore's "repeated
requests to comment." But people "familiar with the team's
broadcast operations" said that "it was an accumulation of
things, rather than one big incident" that cost Angel his
job. One source: "The team thinks Dave is a better on-air
presence and off-air presence." Elmore noted that as the
season has progressed, Angel has become "less inhibitive"
about criticizing Henry. Angel, on Henry: "I think he's
made a lot of mistakes. I think he put his foot in his
mouth a lot." Also, there is a "black curtain taped over an
interior window" so O'Brien and Angel "cannot see each other
as they work separately on radio and TV." People who "work
around Angel and O'Brien say the atmosphere has become
almost unbearably frosty and unpleasant" (P.B. POST, 7/13).
