9.There’s the “hometown team” myth and loyalty factor. I’ve been called a “disloyal resident” and portrayed as “anti-Baltimore” for reporting what I’ve witnessed and my stance on the Angelos brand of baseball over the past two decades. Somehow there’s a belief that because I pay taxes here and reside here that it’s a civic duty or obligation to give the Orioles even more of my money than they’re already siphoning via my cable TV bill. There are some who believe it makes the city look bad that the stadium is empty. That all of those wide open sections upstairs make Baltimore a “bad” sports town or the Atlanta of the north. Barry Bloom of MLB.com, who has been covering baseball for almost four decades, hinted on my radio show earlier this week that perhaps Camden Yards is in the wrong location circa 2016. That perhaps Angelos should seek to move the stadium to the suburbs, like the Braves are doing next year. There are many who still attach the provincialism of “Baltimore” with the team even after Angelos (and two owners before him) fought tooth and nail to make “The Orioles” a regional franchise and not one to be associated with the city that actually housed and paid for the stadium. There are many others, like me, who’ve done business with Peter Angelos and seen the results of having the Orioles in your business scope and having a broken trust. I attempted to do business with them in 2002-2003-2004 and they lied – over and over and over again – and then lied to the media they controlled after that. All while they lost more and lied more and took umbrage with any questions about how the team was being operated – on and off the field and in the community. And I got tired of it. I’ve read your Facebook threads and your tweets when someone fucks with your name or your livelihood or your family. No one likes to get screwed over. No one likes to be lied to or cheated financially. No one likes to feel intimidated. And no one wants to feel bullied for doing their job and supporting a baseball team they’ve loved since before they could walk. And a decade later, I still get the same treatment from those people associated with The Warehouse. I have been mostly silent about what really happened because, really, what’s the point? It was in 2004. It was about right vs. wrong and fair vs. dealing with nefarious human beings. Being around the Orioles as a media member didn’t make me feel good about myself and the players were mostly jerks like Sidney Ponson and Scott Erickson and the team lost and lied repeatedly. They finished in last place for five more years after Free The Birds in 2006. And it certainly doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy a dozen years later that I’ve been intimidated, never told the truth, then unfriended or unfollowed or blocked by people I once considered friends simply because any association or conversation with me could cost Angelos employees their jobs. It’s why the Jim Palmers and Mike Bordicks stopped coming on my show. It’s a source of contention with many MASN and Angelos employees who at one point were journalists and many who were in my home and I called “friends.”
You can’t be a part of a company and work for a man who has intimidated me, my welfare, my business and my family without me being a little “chilly” about it. Especially if you’re one of the “media” members who turned the other way and coughed or demonized me after I stood up for the intimidation of everyone in the “media” who covered the team. And I told the local sports fans the truth. Always. Meanwhile, the local Baltimore sports media – in general – is an absolute disgrace. They’ve lowered the bar on what dignity and professional treatment and humanity should be about. And ten years later, the drivel you get from “reporters” about the business of the team and how its run is absolute corporate garbage driven by the man who writes the checks high above in a well-funded and impenetrable ivory tower.
And you know what? It doesn’t sell. Baltimore isn’t buying it. The stadium is empty.
No one at frauds like 105.7 The Fan or WBAL are even asking why? It’s like those empty seats when the team is in the final homestand and one game outta first place don’t exist.
I’ve told the truth. I’ve reported facts. But none of that really matters if you love the Orioles.
Every time I ever tried to help them via WNST or through my lifelong fandom, I would up getting the same treatment everyone else always got. I got treated like a fool – or treated like shit. (I’m pretty sure they’re one and the same, aren’t they?)
10.So, this goes back to basic human relations and courtesy. It’s a value proposition. If it’s important to you and you get enjoyment, entertainment or happiness from it, you’ll find a way to do it. And many Baltimoreans have quit on the Orioles or coming to the ballpark. While I agree that jacking up the ticket prices and the stupid (almost inconceivable) late invoices in February and all of the other factors have played a role in an empty stadium – the weather, the riots, kids in school, high ticket prices, etc. – here’s the bottom line: plenty of citizens of Baltimore are doing plenty of things this week, last week and next week and reaching into their pockets, calendars and “heart” to do things that fulfill them. They’re spending their $20 on something else tonight that makes them feel good.
I was in Germany last week meeting the man who saved my wife’s life. So, that’s my excuse. A pretty good one, I think. But I could’ve gone to the Toronto game on the opening Monday night for $14 or to see the Rays on Thursday night for $12 but – like most of you, I didn’t.
But millions of local residents whose parents or aunts or uncles once beat a quick path to see pennant race baseball aren’t doing it in 2016. And the dirty little secret is that the Orioles were never a factor with attendance until Larry Lucchino – and the aforementioned Marty Conway was also a huge part of it in the 1980s and when Camden Yards opened in 1993 – started reaching to the Washington, D.C. hoy polloi and richer fans who drank the wine, read The Washington Post and pined away for a team that they eventually got in 2005 and one that has made Angelos very, very fat with revenue off of those “lost” to the red, white and blue in those Walgreen caps.
Folks aren’t running to the current brand of the Baltimore Orioles. It’s not growing. And it’s not hard to figure out why if you’ve been paying attention since 1993.
It falls on the desk of the owner. And he’s invisible. And he’s wealthy. And he really doesn’t give a shit about anything other than winning a $300 million lawsuit with his partners and making them continue to pay for putting the Nationals 38 miles away. Oh, and hiding. He’s really good at that.
Thom Loverro wrote about it last week.
Good luck to Tommy Love when he wants his next press credential at Camden Yards.
Meanwhile, the Orioles might be in first place by the time the Boston Red Sox get here on Monday night. And people still might not come…
At some point, the baseball has to sell itself.
Or does it?
