Unlike the Orioles and their Gestapo media relations tactics…
I just got back from the AST Dew Media Day…took a picture and met Bucky Lasek (A DUNDALK BOY!) for the first time…really cool dude…his knee hurts…gonna be a big weekend down in the stadium lots!
Anyway, a letter from my inbox…
Nestor,
I ran into you about 2 weeks ago in Owings Mills at a cafe while we were Anyway, man I’m as frustrated as you are about the state of the Orioles. Imagine for a moment that Angelos finally couldn’t take it anymore, your Maybe Angelos realizes he has to restore this organization to I know, I know…. we all feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the I just want to have some hope. I went to a game 2 Saturday nights ago. Maybe this time will be different.
Thank you,
standing in line to order food. You were with Rob Long. But I digress.
And call me a fool, but isn’t it even just a little bit possible that the
hiring of Andy MacPhail might suggest a change in direction for the team?
repeated message finally sank in, and he admitted that he has to have a
baseball guy take over. I can’t imagine MacPhail taking this job without
having complete authority. He knows who he is dealing with in Angelos. So
there will be no more dual GMs, no more meddling by Angelos.
respectability, if only to increase the value so he can sell it…. maybe
even to Cal???
football, and Lucy pulls it away right before contact.
It’s not the same. It’s sad and I want it the way it used to be. I miss
the energy the park had when it was full and we were in contention till the
end of the year.
Greg
Dear Greg:
I would LOVE to find reasons for hope. I would LOVE to believe in your strategy (ESPECIALLY the part about selling the team to Cal Ripken)!
Only time will tell…but the track record of "momentous" days like today where Peter Schmuck believes whatever the Orioles tell him and writes fluffy, flowery pieces of wishful fiction (and no less "forgives" Angelos for NOT being there to have ANY accountability for the mess, other than a flunky lawyer named Russell Smouse representing him to "make nice") are too many to name.
The day Albert Belle came. The day Mike Hargrove came. The day that Frank Wren came. The day that Miguel Tejada was signed. The day that Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie took over. The day that Lee Mazzilli was hired. The day that Jim Duquette was hired. The day that Sam Perlozzo was hired.
Blah, blah, blah…every time there’s a "new" addition people like Schmuck are out selling the discounted orange Kool-Aid!
I’m trying to figure out what makes Andy McPhail more important or significant than Jon Miller, Pat Gillick, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken or anyone ELSE who won’t work for Peter Angelos?
AND ALL of those executives sat on that dreadful podium, in that morbid room in The Warehouse overlooking a stadium that formerly stirred the imagination of an entire community, and looked at the media and the cameras and lights and said the immortal words:
"Mr. Angelos gave me assurances that I’m in charge!"
If you ask me, all Peter has done today is found a new lap dog, another "unemployed" baseball executive who wanted a job and has "delusions of grandeur."
Until the Orioles — and specifically ANGELOS — change the way they DO BUSINESS and TREAT PEOPLE, they will always fail…THAT’S A FACT!!!
And someone should wake up Peter Schmuck and tell him that by NOT showing up to the press conference and giving HIS word that something earth-shattering has happened between his ears and his ego, Peter Angelos has once again shown that much like The Fonz, he’ll NEVER admit that he’s wr-wr-wr-wr-WRONG!
(And as long as I’m defecating on Schmuck, how many times is HE going to buy their rubbish before he starts feeling foolish himself? I know I stopped buying it right around 1998, because I SAW what was going on around the franchise from the inside!)
As for Angelos, it seems as though he’ll always be like the the Wizard in the land of Oz — hiding behind some curtain with a goofy lawyer whom he pays a significant amount of money to stand out in front, making excuses and doing the lying for him.
Again, when the kitchen gets a little toasty, Mr. Angelos run for the hills and lets his flunkies do the talking.
Hey Greg: I HOPE McPhail is not a flunky, but the evidence on Day One is pretty damning! I ain’t holding my breath, if you know what I mean!
It’s Angelos’ team…and that’s been borne out again and again over the years of this running civic disgrace.
So, just where is HE today to annoint Andy McPhail the new "baseball savior" of Baltimore?
Absent…as usual!
Just like the people in the seats at Camden Yards!
Who knows? Maybe if I "suck up" to Andy McPhail, I’ll get my press pass back so I can do my job…LOL!!! Especially, since now it’s Mr. McPhail’s decision, since he’s "running the organization."
