For the Birds # 2

My wife recently asked me, "Why do you continue to watch the Orioles? You know what's going to happen. Why do you do this to yourself?" She's right. I used to tell her, "I want to watch them now when they are bad so I can witness the progress that makes them good." That was three years ago. When you are a fan of a bad team, and the O's have stunk for nearly a decade, you remember moments, not seasons. A Brian Roberts grand slam when he was first called up to the majors in the ninth off Angels closer Troy Percival. A Rodrigo Lopez complete game win in the Bronx against the Yanks a few years back. Chris Ray's gutsy slider that froze Hideki Matsui with the bases loaded in the ninth this year, also in the Bronx. And today, a 5-0 shutout of the Yankees in Camden Yards mostly by a young pitcher named Adam Loewen. Moments, not seasons, keep me hanging on. Over this miserable span, I can see one glaring tendency. The Orioles are too nice. They have nice players: Melvin, Miggy, and Jay. They have a nice ballpark and nice fans. They have nice reporters. They even have a nice manager. When the going gets tough, they fold.

I much prefer the cavernous Memorial Stadium, a fire-brand manager like Earl Weaver, and a motley collection of prospects--scrappers, fighters, dinkballers--developed from the farm system and dedicated to winning. Part of the problem is the owner. A bloated carp who has devoured the Orioles, Peter Angelos has no intention of making this team a contender and there is no end in sight to his steady stream of asbestos winnings--so he can drive the franchise into the ground. One need not look far to see what's on the horizon. The Nationals are building the makings of a winner and will make life difficult from a market share perspective in the years ahead. The Birds are losing fans by the family load from the DC area. How are the Nationals doing it? They scrap and fight and resemble the Orioles of old. They have a manager with a mean streak, Frank Robinson, former Oriole. They have a Mt. St. Joe grad on their pitching staff--Mark O'Connor. While our scouts were busy around the globe unearthing the likes of Sydney Ponson in places like Canada and Aruba, Mt. St. Joe high school in west Baltimore produced Mark Texiera, Mark O'Connor, and Gavin Floyd. We'd be better off drafting their entire squad, that is, if we knew about their baseball program.

"I thought having an owner from Highlandtown would be the greatest thing in the world," my friend Rafael said at the Yard a few months ago. His comment caused me to remember an experience in 1999 on an elevator in Minneapolis when I ran into then Cincinnati Red, Jeffrey Hammonds. "Sorry things didn't work out for you in Baltimore," I said to him. "I was so excited when we drafted you." He was standing next to Barry Larkin who looked suprised that I noticed Jeffrey instead. "Yeah," Hammonds said, "it's a bad situation out there...and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better."