I won't lie...it's not fun being a fan of a baseball team that has finished below .500 and in 4th place every year since 1998...that's 9 years in a row...pushing a DECADE people...yeah, it's tough. However, I could almost accept it if our GM and front office was only incompetent (which they are), you know, the sort of incompetency that leads them to believe giving Albert Belle a long term mega-deal and surround him with nobody else in the lineup and no pitchers is a good idea...the kind of incompetence that signs Jeff Conine, David Segui, and Sidney Ponson TWICE....that I could live with. But what I can not live with is when our GMs actually go out, work their hindquarters off to pull off a deal to make the team better (or at least try a new direction for gawdsakes) and that fat, maniacal, greedy, schlub owner of ours Peter "The Antichrist" Angelos VETOES IT!
Told you he was the antichrist
Ole Petey has been pulling this sh*t since October 1993 when His Accursedness took over our fair ballclub in beautiful Baltimore, MD. Last year the O's were poised to pull off a mega deal at the trade deadline that would have shipped Miguel Tejada to the Astros (just a few weeks before the "Tejada Used Steroids" flap hit no less) for Roy Oswalt and Adam Everett, immediately the Orioles would have then sent Oswalt to Texas for Hank Blalock and another prospect. Essentially the Orioles were getting three young promising players for Tejada...I'm not saying it would've been the best deal ever but it sure would have shaken things up on a team that hasn't sniffed third let alone first or second place since the pre-Lewinsky days. But what happens...the Crown Prince of Ownerly Darkness vetoes it because "Tejada is too popular of a player, he sells tickets"...VETO.
Then...just this week...the O's are on the brink of pulling off another blockbuster...Brian Roberts and a prospect for Adam LaRoche and Marcus Giles. This would have addressed our need for a big bat at first and to bat cleanup in LaRoche and essentially was an even swap of second basemen. Enter the Dark Lord..."We can't trade Brian Roberts, he's too popular a player, he sells tickets, and the ladies love him"...VETO. HEY! You know what else sells a lot of tickets? Probably even more that B-Rob flashing a smile at some pre-pubescent girl? WINNING!
Here's the recap of the deal in today's Baltimore Sun:
-----------
"They did essentially agree to a trade that would have sent second baseman Brian Roberts and pitching prospect Hayden Penn to the Atlanta Braves for first baseman Adam LaRoche and second baseman Marcus Giles, but the trade was squashed by Orioles owner Peter Angelos. "
-----------
By denying every trade that comes across his desk Angelos is dooming the Orioles to a lifetime of fourth place finishes. Angelos won't sign any free agents because he says they cost too much but they only cost too much because no one wants to play for a loser like the Orioles so the GM has to compensate by offering the player even more money...it's a vicious circle and one that was very obvious this year...see Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano, and Jason Schmidt (all had deals from the Orioles and in the case of Lee and Schmidt were offered MORE money by the O's than the deal they finally signed but still turned Baltimore down).
I'm not saying we have to go out and be the Red Sox and offer $51 million to every Japanese guy on the street that can throw a fastball just to get back at the bigger, better Yankees...I'm just saying that the current system is not working, you would think nine years of 4th place finishes would have clued Petey in on that, and Angelos needs to finally let the people he hired to make baseball decisions make them.
I mean seriously...what other team in all of sports is so pathetic and lead by such an evil owner that it causes its fan to rise up and protest?!
September 20, 2006 - Over 1,000 fans leave Camden Yards in the middle of the game to protest Peter Angelos' destruction of their beloved Orioles.
No comments:
Post a Comment