Well here we go people. Alex Dobrusin with his first, christening entry for the brand spanking new Wire to Wire blog. And what better way to start an amateur sports blog than with an entry about an amateur sports team. Just kidding…kinda. I’m talking of course about your and my beloved Baltimore Orioles. The team that, for decades before yours truly stumbled on to this earth, was the essence of what was good in sports. A team that was both well-managed, well-owned (if that’s a word), and well, just plain good.
I’m not going to pretend I remember the good ol’ days with Frankie Robinson and Boog Powell and Jim Palmer were running the show. I appreciate the awards and accolades they earned for the franchise I’ve grown up with, but honestly it’s tough to personally attach myself to those great times when I wasn’t alive to enjoy them. No no no, as much as I’d like to cling on to those distant moments of greatness, I can’t do it. The moments I’m clinging on to are the mid-90s Orioles.
I’m going to be so bold as to say that I was born at the worst possible time that an Oreos fan could have been born. June 1, 1990 for those of you lucky enough to remember that joyous day. Three years later, a man named Peter Angelos bought the team from Eli Jacobs for about $173 million. For you Baltimore natives you know Angelos made a boatload of money from representing workers affected by asbestos. Everything seemed copacetic the first few years under the Angelos regime. In fact, the Orioles went to two straight American League Championship Series. One will forever be remember by Jeffrey Maier and Tony Tarasco
(warning: Orioles fans may want to skip over image)
And in the other, in 1997, the Orioles lost to the Cleveland Indians. That was the last year that the Orioles have had a winning season. I was 7 years old. I repeat…I was 7. I WAS JUST A BOY! I’m now 19 years old with 20 right around the corner and my favorite team has not even been relevant in the last 1 1/2 months of any baseball season. During these last 13 years, the Orioles have done few things to get my excited. A couple of times they made glory runs late into the year, leading the division for a month or so until inevitably falling back in the pack so that the Kenyans and Ethiopians i.e. Red Sox and Yanks and even the Rays (never the Devil Rays) pass them to win the marathon.
Which brings me to the present. The Birds are 1-10 and currently are in sole possession of the worst record in the entire majors. That’s right, we’re even worse than our ugly step-brother the Nationals. Anyway, the point is we’re on our way to our 13th straight losing season barring some miraculous single-handed effort by our savior Matthew Wieters. Over these past 13 years, everything has been changed in the Orioles organization…that is everything except one thing: Mr. Angelos Esq. (I add the Esquire only because my brother’s becoming a lawyer and I know he’ll flip if I don’t label him with an Esquire one day). He essentially got rid of our last great manager, Davey Johnson, over a personal feud and ignored the fact that he was actually good at ya know managing. He has an uncanny knack for investing in players who have just peaked in their careers, and so can only get worse from that point on. All this on top of that fact that he might possibly have the most off-putting appearance that one could have:
(warning: image may give children nightmares)
So what’s my point in all this rambling? Simple. The Orioles will never be good as long as that man is in charge. Yes, he’s made good moves recently…namely putting Andy McPhail in charge of all baseball decisions. We’re building a nice young core of players (Markakis, Wieters, Reimold, Jones, Matusz). But so long as Angelos has any role in this team I don’t see how anything changes. He’s still not going to go out and make the big offseason acquisitions necessary to hang with the Yanks and Sox and he’s still going to shortchange the fans with a mediocre product. Sports Illustrated ranked Angelos as the worst owner in all of baseball last year. Obviously, I’m with them.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/05/08/mlb.owners/index.html
So 12 games into the season and it’s already “Wait for next year?” Where’s your optimism?
First of all, I remember that joyous day, June 1, 1990, very well!! Truly joyous!
Secondly, truly enjoyed your rambling, as usual!