It’s Orioles FanFest Day and that means that MLB Commissioner-in-waiting Andy MacPhail would love nothing more than to make that “splash” announcement sometime after noon today. Perhaps they’ll even enter the 21st century today by texting out that they’ve managed to whittle down former Hall of Fame candidate Vladimir Guererro and have gotten him into an orange jumpsuit for another run at 4th place in the AL East.
As my begging for free tickets on Facebook yesterday indicated — no, I’m not giving The PGA any of my money today — I’m still interested in the Orioles. One of the reasons I’m really interested is that at some point all of this is going to change. At some point, someone who is interested in winning for Baltimore will own, operate and fix the love of my life.
So, today, much like my trip to Sarasota back in November and our week of broadcasts in March from down in Florida is about “hope.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-bldNihn68[/youtube]
It’s not the dumb, orange Kool Aid-drinking hope that somehow Peter Angelos will change. (By the way, I’m hearing he’s changing for the worse, not the better these days as he’s disappeared from the social scene. Meanwhile, John Angelos is A.W.O.L. after being physically escorted out of the Warehouse last May.)
It’s the kind of hope that sometime in the next 10 years — hell, I waited 13 years for NFL football in my post-adolescence — there will be a massive change and someone competent and not on the take will be running the team and fixing my hometown and residence community on summer nights.
Meanwhile, they’ll continue to fight with Guerrero this morning over money and clearly Andy MacPhail with this latest round of 11th hour negotiating feels the needs to drop some bombshell today with a signing of the last, decent free agent pickup off the offseason.
If Guerrero agrees to fly in before 4 p.m., they might even give him a “signing bonus.”
It’s almost as pathetic as MacPhail’s internet video was last April.
Guerrero is only on the market because no other team wants him or has an acute need for a 36-year old, limited outfielder. Even if he did rake for 29 HRs and 115 RBIs last year and hit .300.
Fair enough, then get it done, Andy!
I’d be the last to say that the Orioles couldn’t use Vladimir Guerrero. Hell, at this point Pedro Guerrero would be an upgrade at third base over what you got in the offseason.
No one else of any value even wanted to even sit at a table and negotiate with you to pretend they wanted to come to Baltimore.
You didn’t get Adam Dunn or anyone else who was “realistic” for the worst franchise in modern sports.
You didn’t take a stab at trading for Adrian Gonzales or Zach Greinke — neither of whom wanted to be here anyway.
So, sign Guerrero! Let him use FanFest as a bargaining chip today!
Get it done…
By the way, if any WNST listeners run into MacPhail today at the Orioles Fan Fest, please ask him the most important question any fan should of the team should know:
“Hey Andy, is your salary tied to profit or victories?”
Or, my second choice:
“At what point do you expect to be the Commissioner of Major League Baseball? Next year or the year after?”
Maybe I’ll use someone’s freebies and ask it myself if I can get near the stage…
