A Requiem to a Protest - 9/21/06

The thoughts for this article got sparked by a fellow blogger, Aaron Brazell at Suicidefan.com about the Rumors of Cal Ripken possibly having the ownership of the Baltimore Orioles transferred from Peter Angelos.

Listen to the mp3 file here: http://www.suicidefan.com/wp-content/podcasts/SUICIDE60-Episode4.mp3

That podcast got me thinking again about the protest this year at Camden Yards.

On September the 21st of this year, the protest was an unprecedented event in the history of Baltimore sports. The numbers vary, but anywhere from 1,000 to about 2,000 fans left their seats, walked the lower bowl and left the Oriole Park at Camden Yards to the amazement of the remaining fans in the park and the national media.

The protest was enacted and spear-headed by Nestor Aparicio, proprietor of WNST, a radio station in the Baltimore area, and nephew to Orioles’ and White Sox legendary infielder, Luis Aparicio. Well, because I live outside of the immediate Baltimore area, I cannot get the station, so I found out about the event through a friend of mine who I often see at games. To be quite honest, I was not familiar with Nestor Aparicio, much less his network. Basically, the whole thing started with a petition on the radio’s website, then the whole thing grew and spread through the radio and word of mouth.

The premise of the protest was for the fans to walk out at 5:08pm, 5 o’clock, the hour in honor of Orioles third baseman who wore number 5, Brooks Robinson and the :08 for Cal Ripken who wore the number 8.

At first, I was very skeptical about this protest, and thought it was a self-serving on part of Nestor and just a way to amp up ratings for his radio network. However, after looking at his website and parts of his story online, he, no doubt had a passion for the Orioles and Baltimore sports in general. That being said, I can only give him respect and the guts to have pulled of this task and gotten the attention of the media.

I have been to Camden Yards several hundred times since it's opening and sadly it is a far different world than what it was in it's heyday in the 90's. I long for the street to be buzzing and fans dominating with the Black and Orange again. Whatever Nestor's motive was, the good things is least he got the plight of all of us Oriole fans out there in the public domain.

So out of curiosity, I went to the game that day. I had tickets with a friend of mine behind home plate and I planned to take an afternoon off work and soak in the events. From where we sat, we could hear the fans chanting various things and to my delight I heard chants of “Let’s Go O’s”, and old-time Orioles such as Elrod Hendricks, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson and former announcer John Miller. The fans who were part of the protest sat in the upper deck in left field. For a few moments, you saw lively fans and enthusasism that almost harked back to the days of Oriole Magic and Wild Bill Hagy leading the Orioles chant.

The angst of the fans in the upper deck was heard as chants of “Sell the Team”, “Free the Birds”, “Pete Must Go” and various things were heard. The crowd up there was no doubt lively and boisterous in comparison to fans in the lower deck (which incidentally was probably one third to 40% Detroit Tiger fans).

Soon enough that day at 5:08, the fans left the upper deck and that area was soon rendered quiet.

However, the show didn’t end and it soon spread the lower deck. A multitude of fans soon walked the lower corridor of the park and were flanked by cops, as well as watched by ushers and Orioles officials. The crowd that day was not large at all, as I’d say it was less than 10,000 people, but the group of fans who protested made their point expressed – loud and clear.

For about a period of 20 to 30 minutes, you saw an endless line of people in black mostly, shouting “Free the Birds”, “Sell the Team”, and held signs up with those same messages.

In my eyes, it was inspiring and those fans held the same sentiments that many fans had kept to themselves.

In the end, Nestor got his mission accomplished. I thought this all blow over and just be a snippet on the news. However, the protest was covered in almost some fashion in every major sporting news outlet nationally and in all the papers in the Mid-Atlantic region. It even made ESPN's SportsCenter and a few of the radio shows, but mostly mocking the protest.

However, the protest did do it's intended purpose. It didn't get the team sold, but Nestor and the result of it struck the cord of Peter Angelos. I figured Mr. Angelos would just ignore the event and just let it pass, but Peter reacted.

He asserted in an article to Press Box, an Online and Print Magazine before the protest: “[Those who complain] don't know the ins and outs of what's going on. They have their own lives to lead, their own problems to deal with. And they are not going to become acquainted with what our economics are, and you can't expect them to.”

He also says this about Nestor, “What you can expect, though, that those that comment -- putting aside the fellow you mentioned, who you know is not even worthy of getting into that (chuckles), it really makes no sense to respond to him -- the responsible people, who know baseball and who are baseball fans -- the writers like you -- if they want to criticize, they better look at the economics. They owe it to the public to explain to whoever is interested that the problem is disparity in revenues.”

While he may or may not be right, wins and losses and the team's reputation matter to people and the fan base here is not happy. In the end, Nestor did get under his skin and his work in the end did get the city to talk about the team, how the Orioles got to this point and where the team could improve. In light of the rumors of Cal and investment group possibly buying the team, will Peter sell anytime soon? Probably not. I will say though, the anger of the fans towards the ineptitude and incompetence of the Orioles is growing, so any public showing our displeasure is a big step to letting the front office know our feelings. Maybe something down the road will happen for the team to improve and perhaps close the talent disparity between us and the Red Sox and Orioles.

In essence, the protest echoed what the fans want, a winning team, or just one that’s competitive. After 9 years of losing, mired in fourth place and being criticized throughout baseball, that day was a symbol that fans want a change for the better and perhaps want the team in the hands of someone who cares and could possibly restore the team to the glory days of the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s.

The protest sure let those feelings be known, and in the end, nothing much might have changed, but for a few days after that game, the events of that day were indeed the talk of Baltimore and the sports world.

Roch's Opinion on the Rumored Orioles Sale...

This was just posted on Roch Kubatko's Baltimore Sun blog about Ripken's involvement with the Orioles and the rumored sale:

"I have little doubt that Cal Ripken will eventually become involved in an ownership group that purchases the Orioles. He can't do it alone. Not at that cost. But he'll be an owner. I just don't know what to make of Ken Rosenthal's story that Ripken and Peter Angelos already have broached the subject and the wheels are in motion.

Rosenthal got his information from a reliable source. He's one of the best reporters in the business. Has been for a long time. You'd be amazed at how plugged in he is, with information available at his finger tips. It's inspiring to watch him work a lobby at the winter meetings. But a person close to Ripken denies that there's a story, saying another rumor pops up every time Angelos and the future Hall of Famer share a meal.

Either way, it makes for good conversation. Try it over dinner tonight.

Ripken just wants to be given a heads-up when Angelos is ready to sell. And I'm sure they've discussed this over appetizers.

Once again, we're entering a gray area here.

I doubt that it's going to happen in the near future, but yes, Ripken wants a chance to own the team. And it seems likely that Angelos will give it to him."

I think the topic has been brought up between Angelos and Ripken, but it won't happen now. Angelos is a fighter, and for right now, I'd imagine that the team would be sold if the Orioles do improve and if the team is once again seen as viable in the world of baseball.

I also agree with Roch that Ken Rosenthal would not make up a story up, and that there has to be concrete proof behind a discussion. I'm sure there were talks or the article might have been written on hearsay evidence, but also, I figure that it was not supposed to made public.

Angelos Not Selling the O's ... well, at least not yet

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Orioles majority owner, Peter Anglelos has denied a report that he's selling the Baltimore Orioles written yesterday by Foxsport.com's Ken Rosenthal.

Link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-sp.orioles15dec15,0,6960861.story?coll=bal-sports-baseball

I imagine Peter Angelos and Cal having a great relationship, and he respecting Cal because he's a hometown boy and a Maryland sports icon, but right now in light of the O's failures as a franchise, it makes little sense.

Angelos and the Orioles are still making a profit in spite of the Orioles losing record. Although the Orioles have had falling attendance and a hit on the bottom line, thanks to a share of the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) relocation and television rights and ownership, along with his new sports network, MASN, the team should be in healthy shape for years to come. As well, thanks to agreement to allow the Montreal Expos to move into Washington, the Orioles cannot go on the market for less than $365 million dollars.

According to the Baltimore Sun article, Angelos lost $15 million in 2005, but I don't think I believe that measure at all. I am sure with the new sports network, the Orioles should be good shape.

From what I know about Mr. Angelos, he's a man of enormous pride, a little stubborn and a skilled businessman/lawyer and I don't think he's going to sell the team just because fans want him to, or he feels it's not viable. If anything, I don't see him surrendering the team unless he's damn well ready to or if he passes away suddenly.

He may not be much in the eyes of fans, but his savvy has got this team into a good position financially.

The Winter of Discontent - The Ides of Peter, the Inepitude of the Front Office and More Issues...

How tough it is to an Orioles fan. 9 losing seasons. The team under the watchful eye of Peter Angelos. Flanagan and Duquette appearing to be lacksadical. Declining Attendance. Being the laughing stock of the media. Being too lazy to pull the gun on a deal.

We are in the middle of the winter meetings, and there seems to be very little optimism at this time that the Orioles are doing anything to get better.

On the popular Orioles' fans forum at http://www.orioleshangout.com and https://orioles.com the venting and the frustration of the fans is alarming. No one seems to be happy about our off season so far and there seems to be a resignation that we will finish in 4th place again, and while the moves are nice, they have improved absolutely nothing (with the bullpen being pretty much the lone exception and some people are not happy about that either).

Much of the ire these days is sparked towards the owner & the captain of the ship, Peter Angelos. He's had a lot of negative press the past couple of years and even moreso lately because of the recent Orioles' protest and the continuation of the losing seasons. Seen as an owner who's very much hands on and a micro-manager, he's probably a large part as why the Orioles have been so bad.

Is he a bad owner? From the outside looking in, yes. However, a sports team is technically private enterprise, and for the amount he and his investors paid for the right to own a team, I may or may not have the right to tell him what to do. As a season ticket holder and a constant patron to Oriole Park, I'd demand a much better product for my investment.

If I can see the Yankees and Red Sox improve, there should be no reason in hell why we can't.

This week, he's been reported to have nixed a trade for Adam LaRoche and Marcus Giles of the Braves for our own Hayden Penn and Brian Roberts. As much I love B-Rob, the face of the Orioles, a great ball player, and a great citizen of Baltimore; the businessman in me would have made the trade, especially since a power hitter, much less a fairly young one, is very much at a premium.

The second issue seems raise the anger of the fans has to be with the front office. The main guys of the front office, Mike Flanagan and Jim Duquette have an image in the public of a who lot of talk, but little to no action. Unlike the past couple of years, this offeason, the Orioles spent a significant amount of money to shore up the bullpen, which was nothing short of awful outside of Chris Ray and Chris Britton. Again, the fans are not happy at all, as year after year, the Yankees, Red Sox and most recently the Jays have made moves to jockey their position at the top in the AL East, while the Orioles seem to be completely inept.

While we have courted various free agents in the past couple of years like Paul Konerko, Carlos Delgado, and Vladmir Guerrero, all have said no to Baltimore because they wanted to win for the most part, and no matter how much money Baltimore threw at them, a union was not going to happen. Furthermore, fans are not happy at the way the contract negotiations went for Mike Mussins and BJ Ryan, and now both men are thriving for our rivals in the AL East.

For the fans, it means feelings of apathy, anger and sadness. In the past, what seemed to be the ideal franchise has now turned into the laughing stock of professional sports.

Pathetic.

I hope before the close of the decade, we can turn the table. Maybe our young pitchers do develop and the Yard will be packed again. If the economic scene stays the same in baseball as we have seen this off-season, maybe the job will be harder despite the MASN deal.

However, if there's a will, there is a way. Look at Minnesota, Oakland, Detroit and yes, the Florida Marlins!

Until then, we can hope. I'm an optimist and like to be positive, I don't want to give up on my O's, but it's now really hard to be a fan and see the bright side of things right now.

We need a plan, take a risk and not do business as usual...