Well, I’m going to give the boys at the Roar from 34 Blog credit for this post, as they they forwarded me this article from the Cumberland Times-News.
Matt, I cannot thank you enough.
How a paper of out of a small town in western Maryland could get this, and a paper like the Sun couldn’t, I don’t know.
Some of the quotes you’ll see here are in stark contrast in what you have seen so far from the media in Baltimore and Washington.
To be honest, I was quite surprised I read what I did.
Mike Burke in his article, “Orioles Fire Perlozzo”, has an exclusive interview with the former Orioles manager where he is nothing short of blunt with the state of the organization and the team.
Quotes:
· About his meeting with both Mike Flanagan and Jim Duquette, he says: "I didn't say a lot to them," he said, "although Jim Duquette said he had heard I felt (the front office) should have said more on my behalf, and I said, 'Well, now that you brought it up, let me get a couple of things off my chest.' – basically, he felt that considering his tenure with the team, he should have been told what was going on.
· About the lack of public support from the front office: "I told them they should have stepped up," he said. "When all this talk became public, and they didn't step up ... That would have resolved it. But they didn't step up, and no matter what, you don't do that to me. You don't do that to a guy who has been in the organization for 12 years and has done so many things for this organization."I told them they should have stepped up and said, 'Sam Perlozzo is our manager.' And then if they want to fire me two days later, fine. Just resolve it. But they didn't. You don't do that to me."
· When Sam asked about what he did wrong to the front office in the exit interview: "I asked them to be specific and tell me what I did wrong, and they couldn't do it."I told them I can go out and make every right move - which I believe I did - and still fail because we don't hit, or the bullpen breaks down, or whatever it may be. And in that instance, there are two things you can do:"One, the organization steps up and says, 'He's not the problem. He's got one-and-a-half years on his contract, so don't even ask because we're not talking about this again.' The problem is the players aren't producing."Or, you can say nothing. Because if you do say something, then you're going to take the heat for the players you signed.
· The statement that got me: "It doesn't matter how many right moves you make and it still doesn't work. The manager gets fired. But not with the Dodgers. They fire their hitting coach. Here, we keep reshuffling managers." (Brings up a very good point, what about Crowley?)
· About the signings and his role in it: "Not really," he said. "Walker, Bradford, Baez, Williamson, they never asked me. I told them not to sign Williams. But they went out and signed four guys without asking me."They asked me to go to lunch with Aubrey Huff (in December) to see what I thought of the guy. I told them, and they signed him. I told them Jay Payton would help us."We re-signed Kevin Millar right off the bat last winter, and they wanted Huff."
· The offensive problems: "Every night, we're dealing with a one-run deficit, and we're scoring four runs, three runs, three runs, four runs ... We score three runs in the first three innings and we're done for the night. You need to score more than four runs." … "Melvin Mora is hitting 40 points below his career average," Perlozzo said. "Miggy doesn't hit home runs or drive in runs anymore. Huff just started hitting and he has four home runs. … "Kevin Millar has a high on-base percentage, but doesn't hit home runs. Do you want me to start him on the bases? Check the on-base percentage and the runs scored. It doesn't jibe. We need three hits to get him in. You want me to start running Kevin Millar, Jay Gibbons and Aubrey Huff?” … "Plus, we're without (catcher) Ramon Hernandez for six weeks. You want me to rotate these guys, but they can't hit."
· The flaws in the team: "The flaw for me?" Perlozzo asked. "Baez going south and the offense. When Danys went bad it threw the team into the kilter, and we had to overexpose (other pitchers). The offense doesn't score enough to make up for any deficiencies. When you can't score five runs playing in the American League East, you've got problems.”
· About the status of Leo Mazzone: "I'm not sure," he said. "Leo and Eric were pretty emotional today. Leo told them if they want to talk about it to talk to his agent. Again, he was pretty emotional."
· The other quote that got me: "I knew what I was getting into. I just thought I would have more backing from some people."
Wow. I don’t know what to say.
From what I read, Sam was right on the money with the issues with the team and perhaps deep down feels angry, bitter and very sad what has gone on with the team. This team is in more trouble than what anyone ever thought.
To be quite honest, there’s enough blame to spread in this situation; however, it just shows how screwed up things are with the Baltimore Orioles organizationally.
No matter what happens, the Orioles have a lot of work, and I mean a lot work to do.
I think this team really needs to do an evaluation of 2007, and rebuild from there.
