The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
I don't follow the O's like I do the Ravens. I'm a casual fan of the O's, you might say. So I don't feel the despair I would if the Ravens were woeful.
Reading about the Orioles almost feels like conducting a science experiment. How many different ways are there to lose a game? Every night it seems like they find another one. God, it must be depressing for the guys who really bleed the black and orange.
Today's recipe: Take a 4-3 lead with one out into the ninth and turn the ball over to your closer, Kevin Gregg. Who surrenders the lead and the game with, among other things, a wild pitch and a hit batsman. The batsman he hits? A former Oriole pitcher.
It's like a train wreck, this organization. I feel like a rubbernecker watching it implode every year: I want to look away but I can't.
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
Quote:
Originally Posted by
festivus
I don't follow the O's like I do the Ravens. I'm a casual fan of the O's, you might say. So I don't feel the despair I would if the Ravens were woeful.
Reading about the Orioles almost feels like conducting a science experiment. How many different ways are there to lose a game? Every night it seems like they find another one. God, it must be depressing for the guys who really bleed the black and orange.
Today's recipe: Take a 4-3 lead with one out into the ninth and turn the ball over to your closer, Kevin Gregg. Who surrenders the lead and the game with, among other things, a wild pitch and a hit batsman. The batsman he hits? A former Oriole pitcher.
It's like a train wreck, this organization. I feel like a rubbernecker watching it implode every year: I want to look away but I can't.
It is bad. But when a new GM is hired next year to fill the inevitable vacancy by MacPhail, he will turn the team around with his five year rebuilding plan. So, the future looks good. :261695:
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
I hope this September was a sign of good things to come, not just another tease.
we seem to have good bats and a good bullpen. just hope we can get another starter or two.
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
I'm guessing it's another tease. :(
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
I was a die hard O's fan from the mid 70s when I first learned the game, through about the early 2000s, when I still tuned in most nights,played 2-3 fantasy teams daily, and found a way too root for a team whose best players were guys like Hairston and Roberts. Still have two autographed balls (one from Brooksie, and one from an old timers game with numerous sigs on it) along with a lot of my old O's baseball cards right here in my office as decoration. But somewhere in the last 7 =8 years that's eroded to this point:
I am aware major league baseball still exists. That is all. I don't play fantasy, I don't watch it, I don't check the scores, and when they talk about it on the radio I change the station.
Last year I watcehd about 1 inning of one of the World Series games; can't even remember who played. I tuned in briefly for one of the televised starts of Strasburg for the Nats, to see what I hoped would be some quality pitching and was not disappointed.
This year, I have not even done that. Haven't watched one inning of anything. Checked the standings 3 times. O's in last? Yep. O's in last? Yep. Nothing more to see here......
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
gave up on them years ago. huge fan from 1966-mid 1990's. i will give them another try when ownership changes. not before.
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
I was a huge fan from 1975-2000. I could careless how much they lose now. When Angelos starts caring then I'll start caring. Until then he won't get a dime from me and I won't waste my time watching.
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
been an O's fan since 1969. Still am.
but,
in reading some of Duquettes comments.....looks like he's going to pass on Prince Fielder. He likes low risk moves.
looks like he wants to build from the ground up AGAIN...
Hey Dan, you do understand Oriole fans have been down this road before.
:bag:
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Durango46
been an O's fan since 1969. Still am.
but,
in reading some of Duquettes comments.....looks like he's going to pass on Prince Fielder. He likes low risk moves.
looks like he wants to build from the ground up AGAIN...
Hey Dan, you do understand Oriole fans have been down this road before.
:bag:
your idea of building from the ground up must be skewed. Building from the ground up is what the Astros are doing. Trade everyone of your players for prospects. It's what Andy wanted to do, but instead teetered in the middle of rebuilding the farm and acquiring free agents. There is no way Dan and Buck are going to do this. It's not their philosophy. They're going to build through free agency and trades, especially Buck. Always has, and always will.
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
Returning to this thread four months later, I see I didn't bring up what I think is The Big Lie that people gloss over.
Fans want a team that wins. Winning is a good thing, right? Even for owners, across sports: Most of them care about winning, too.
But there's no reason why an owner *must* care about winning. On the contrary, it might be in an owner's best interest *not* to care, straight out of a movie (Any Given Sunday; Major League).
Let's assume we have a mid-market team in a division with a couple other teams whose fans show up everywhere that team plays. Let's further assume we have a nice stadium in a nice neighborhood and visiting this mid-market team's city is inexpensive and fun. Let's also assume the tv deal associated with this team is tremendously profitable for the owner.
So the money from the stadium is not great, but it's so-so, and the money from the tv deal is tremendous.
Would you want to fork out enough cash to make yourself a winner, owner of this hypothetical team? You are rolling in the dough by being mediocre. The lousy attendance most nights is offset by significant attendance some nights and a packed house when your popular visitors are in town. Keeping the stadium dark the rest of the year costs you nothing. You just collect money, piles of it, for the tv contract.
Why bother winning? Winning sounds like a chore, in that hypothetical.
Re: The Orioles Annual Train Wreck
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
As long as Uncle Pete can rake in the dough by doing business the way he has since his ownership began, (pay attention here), NOTHING WILL CHANGE IN THE WAY THE TEAM IS RUN.
W/L record is irrelevant; P/L statement is the key.