Black History Month Profile: Hank Aaron

The standard of excellence, grace and dignity in the sport of baseball, the Hammer, Hank Aaron is for now the all-time Major League home run leader. One of the most feared offensive threats in history, despite his small stature, he was able to smack 755 home runs for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves over a 27 year career.

Always a consistent hitter, in addition to his 755 home runs, he also holds the major league record for total bases, extra-base hits and RBI. As well, he was named the 1957 National League MVP, received three Gold Gloves, and played on an amazing 24 All-Star teams.

Born in Alabama, he was no stranger to the discrimination and the ugliness of the South. He played in the Negro League initially from 1948 to 1952, until the Braves purchased his contract. Even though he’d made the majors and had an illustrious career, he had to deal with the reality of being an African-American in America right up until broke the home run record.

Today, he serves as the Braves’ vice president and director of player development. In addition, he own several automobile dealerships, and as well been the recipient of many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982 and statues of his image stand outside of both Turner Field and Miller Park today.

Quick Hits: O's News and MLB

Sporting News Article

The Sporting News has an article up at their website that names the Orioles as one of the worst franchises in the sport of baseball. The author of the article, Matt Crossman does not go into analysis about the problem, but rather gives dates of infamy for the organization.

I can’t really disagree with him at all. The dates given and the incidents speak for themselves. The fans have stayed away and angry, the media has just ripped apart the team, the owner is not liked in his hometown at all, and we had changes upon changes umpteen times throughout the organization both on the field and in the front office.

Have the Orange and Black really been that bad? Sadly, yes.

Orioles Arbitration

The Baltimore Orioles have 3 players now scheduled to go to arbitration. The AP has more on the deal:

“The Baltimore Orioles swapped salary arbitration figures Tuesday with pitcher Erik Bedard, second baseman Brian Roberts and outfielder Corey Patterson.

Bedard asked for $4 million and the Orioles offered $2.7 million. The left-hander went 15-11 with a 3.76 ERA in 33 starts last season, when he earned $1,625,000.

Roberts batted .286 with 10 home runs, 55 RBIs and 36 stolen bases. He asked for $4.6 million and was offered $3.8 million after making $3.1 million last year.

Patterson hit .276 with 16 homers, 53 RBIs and 45 steals. He requested $4.6 million and the Orioles submitted $4 million after his salary was $2.8 million in 2006.

Hearings run from Feb. 1-21.”

The Orioles first and foremost may wind up giving Erik Bedard more money than what they are offering him in arbitration. Based on the numbers he had in 2006 versus some of the contracts handed out to his peers, whom some had vastly worse numbers than Bedard, I don’t see how the Orioles can only get away with only paying $2.7 million.

I’m sure Roberts and Patterson will settle fairly soon.

However, I think this is the best time to sign Roberts to an extension if the team is interested.

Around MLB

* Mike Gonzalez has been traded to the Braves for Adam LaRoche and another player. Both Adam LaRoche and Mike Gonzalez have had their names in the trade wire, and the deal got gone because Pittsburgh was desperate for power, and Atlanta needed a better bullpen.
Well, the Orioles were interested in Adam LaRoche earlier in the winter, but a deal never got done because the Orioles were not interested in giving up Brian Roberts at all in any deal.

* J.J. Putz and the Mariners have agreed on a 3 year, $13.1 million contract. He was able to parlay a wonderful 2006 into a long term deal.

* Left-hander Chris Capuano and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to a $3.25 million, one-year deal Wednesday, thus avoiding salary arbitration.

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...