drama and Angelos, ever-the-lawyer, was looking to justify the firing with a specific breach of contract. Wren pressed Angelos on the hiring of a new manager and was told that it was going to be the owner’s hire. Wren told Angelos that he had lied to him when he hired him about who would be picking the manager of the Orioles.
After being flogged by his owner in Baltimore, Wren would be hired by the Atlanta Braves five days later as their assistant general manager. Angelos would once again be looking for a new GM and manager for the 2000 season.
But the next day, it wasn’t just Wren and Angelos who were trying to do damage control.
Cal Ripken, now four years past the night when he broke Lou Gerhig’s streak and then was forced to watch Angelos drone on while twice getting mercilessly booed on the field at Camden Yards, now had to field questions about his role in his GM’s firing via this series of blood faxes made public via the media. Ripken had spent the last month of the season trying to heal his aching, 38-year old back and now had to play defense for the crazy ramblings of an owner who didn’t have the common sense to see the ripple effect of his petty little game of public shenanigans and shaming with Frank Wren.
Ripken spoke to The Sun and clearly wasn’t happy with how Angelos handled the entire matter.
“I happened to be brought into a situation in a hurricane where I was left behind the day of a game,” Ripken said matter-of-factly. “The situation is as simple as that. Am I upset? I’m uncomfortable and feel I shouldn’t be in the middle of it. Beyond that, I’m not furious. I wasn’t furious when the plane left and I had to get to Anaheim. I have much greater things to worry about. I had back surgery three weeks ago. Those issues are things I have control of and I worry about. All those other things, I don’t have control of or a say in.
“I wasn’t upset with Frank Wren. Let’s stop with the examination of this issue, because it’s pointless. On the day it happened, I didn’t come to you guys [reporters] and say what happened. I don’t do that. I don’t talk about things in the paper. You didn’t find that out from me. You found out from someone else. It was an issue that was involved in someone else’s decision and the evaluation of that decision. It had nothing to do with me.”
8
It was October 1999. Angelos had ignited the media, indicted and infuriated Ripken and walked away from yet another season without a general manager or a manager.
And it became very apparent that if this is the way an uber-wealthy, 70-year old man was going to conduct himself publicly – especially in the face of the legendary player of the franchise – that anything was possible for the future of the Orioles because nothing was changing about the message, muscle or ideology of ownership.
Peter G. Angelos was, by any measure, a bully in every situation. And his lack of respect for his franchise icon was apparent with the petty collateral damage he’d caused to his primary asset with the fan base.
Ken Rosenthal of The Sun wrote:
When Angelos apologists laud his commitment to winning, it’s difficult to argue. But his greater commitment is to chaos, and his inability to treat good people with respect is his biggest failing. It’s not just the managers and GMs he runs through like a kid trading Pokemon cards. Anyone remember Jon Miller and John Lowenstein? Anyone seen Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson lately?
If the Orioles aren’t embarrassed that they are now working on their fourth GM in six years and their fifth manager in seven, they never will be.”
Rosenthal also added: “The only true function of an Angelos GM is to get fired.”
8Meanwhile, the most respected baseball writer of his generation, Thomas Boswell of The Washington Post, penned a classic column of almost Nostradamus foreboding dread, with the headline: “Heavy Mettle Record.”
Oh, golly. Another blood feud between a competent self-respecting Orioles employee and the team’s owner. Now there’s a novel story line. Of course, trying to be the boss’s friend doesn’t always save the old job either. Ask Ray Miller.
In one final delicious twist, Foss noted that Wren had made “extremely negative comments about various personnel. After first rejecting any need to apologize to these people, he agreed to apologize to three of these individuals, but refused to apologize to a fourth.”
Let’s see if we have this straight. Wren is the boss. Not some flunky, but the GM. He rips four people in the organization during a season in which a team with an $84 million payroll loses 84 games. Wren should have made “extremely negative comments” about everybody on the payroll including the Bird. That’s his job. Instead, the boss is ordered to apologize?
Sick of being jerked around and distrusted by the owner and management executives, rather than supported by them? Yes. But that’s often the price of talent. It often demands respect and room to operate. On the Orioles, respect is strictly a one-way street.
Meanwhile, as yesterday’s shenanigans epitomized, the Orioles have become a situation comedy. Life is just one long sequence of Jerry Springer outtakes. Hardly an October now passes without the same angry “you’re fired . . . no, I quit” dialogue reverberating through the Warehouse with only the expletives changed.
One former Orioles general manager said to me this spring, “You are watching the destruction of one of the great franchises in sports.”
8Many will say that, with no general manager, no manager, little credibility within the sport and a fan base that needs a cast-iron stomach to keep rooting for the team, the Orioles can’t possibly go any lower.
Don’t bet on it.
Of course, that didn’t take long.
Angelos refused to pay Frank Wren the remaining $1,100,000 he was owed from the original 3-year, $1.65 million deal after he fired him. It was reported in The Sun that: “Counsel for the Orioles argued that Wren had been fired ‘for cause,’ and was not due any portion of his remaining salary.”
On May 11, 2000, The Associated Press reported that commissioner Bud Selig ordered the Orioles and Angelos to pay Wren the $400,000 difference between his salary with the club and what he was making in his new role as assistant general manager with the Atlanta Braves.
“I would say the Orioles would respectfully disagree with the commissioner,” said general counsel Russell Smouse. “We recognize that the general inclination in league matters is to favor the employee.”
Wren said he was “glad that we prevailed.”
(Author note: This is Chapter 9 of my book “The Peter Principles,” which I was working to finish in March 2014 when my wife was diagnosed with leukemia the first time. I will be releasing the entire book for free online this summer – chapter by chapter. These are the true chronicles of the history of Peter G. Angelos and his ownership of the Baltimore Orioles. If you enjoy the journey, please share the links with a friend who loves the team.)
