He bragged about masturbating and not watching video of pitchers, he cursed and acted foolishly tipsy on national radio but, for the most part, the Aubrey Huff era will be remembered for the most brazenly stupid act of the modern-day local athlete era — he called Baltimore a “horses**t” town.
This is simply a convenient set of links to the “Huff-Gate” extravaganza of November 2007.
Two years later — and in the rearview mirror of his trade today to the Detroit Tigers, you can make your own judgments on Huff and his body of work.
For me, he’s the worst athlete and the least likable athlete in the history of my 25 years of covering Baltimore sports for a living. After this incident, he feigned comedy and a weak apology to no less of an excuse than Anita Marks, and to my knowledge never did anything to make any sort of restitution for his comments.
He took $22 million from the Orioles and from the city of Baltimore over the last three years. He had a so-so first year, an outstanding offensive effort in 2008 and has been less-than-stellar during this campaign. His effort was spotty and even his best production was in vain and a waste of money for the franchise.
He has played in the majors for parts of eight seasons. He has finished in last place seven of those eight years. (Yes, in 2004, Tampa Bay managed to finish in fourth place thanks to the benevolence of the Blue Jays, who were the cellar team that season).
So, in the end, Huff not only got all of the money and very little of the ire that he so richly deserved for his comments, he also got himself traded out of here and into first place in Detroit.
Huff must lead a charmed life. He’s made $35 million playing last-place, losing baseball and now finds himself with a rare chance to go to the postseason and win a World Series.
Better to be lucky than good, I suppose.
Below we present the quotes and the video that the Orioles wanted you to pretend never happened.
This was Aubrey Huff’s “defining moment” in Baltimore: (all of these are NSFW…this is crude stuff, not for family viewing!)
Here’s the Deadspin link to the video (contains nudity!!!)
Here’s more tasty quotes from Huff’s appearance on Bubba’s show…
