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...
