O’s-Sox: Rebound, Redemption
I’ll say this much up front: last night’s game worries me. A lot. It’s the kind of game that can easily signal a loose lug nut, and before you know it the wheels are off. I’d hate to see our run come to an end at the hands of the Pinque Sox again.
We all agree that a split is just fine, yes? So two of the next three it is.
Tonight’s task falls to Garrett Olson, who’ll be taking on Jon Lester. Olson lasted just 3.2 innings and allowed 5 runs last time he faced Boston (last year), but he’s a different pitcher now.
And here’s one that jumps off the page: Adam Jones is 4-5 career against Lester
It felt to me, in watching last night, that the crowd was probably 60-40 Sox fans. I saw a lot more orange than usual and heard a lot more pro-O’s chanting than usual. Still way too much cheering for the Sox, but it seems like we’re making off-field progress. Despite what, ahem, certain media members might believe.
You gotta be nuts, Neal. It was at least 75-25 Sox over O’s fanage. Today looks about that, too. Rough.
That bad, really? Maybe it’s just that the O’s fans were more vocal than in previous years.
Well, that last series sounded like a revolution, but this one sounds so far more like same old, same old.
I’m past getting upset about the Yankee/Red Sox crowds though. Eventually it’ll end. In the meanwhile it’ll be lame. Nothing to be done about it for now. So it goes.
Good to see ManRam not getting much so far. I really don’t want to see milestones like that in Bmore. ARod obliged us, ManRam should, too.
Everyone. Win or lose, It’s Gonna Be A Good Day.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-osuniforms531,0,7502377.story
WOW
Not to mention that the poll in the article link is in the Ron Paul numbers for bringing back “Baltimore”, duh-AM!
If they start having Mike Rowe Wednesdays, I’m walking to Camden Yards from West Virginney.
Mike Rowe Wednesdays would be the greatest thing ever. There is no argument anyone can make against that.
So, it would seem that the change we’ve “all” been waiting for is fully done. If you believe the Sun article, and its sources (and I do…see below), Angelos has finally listened and made it known throughout the organization that the fans are becoming a top priority. I said that I thought that Free The Birds has something to do with Angelos’ new outlook, and what I was specifically thinking about was this, and all of these moves are supposedly (and I see no reason to think otherwise) straight from Angelos:
There was a sign that was taped to the Babe Ruth statue that read something to the effect of “You fired: Davey Johnson, Mike Mussina, Jon Miller, and Pat Gillick – give us our team back.” And the demand was specifically made to put Baltimore back on the jerseys. So now, we got that, he hired MacPhail, he hired Gary Thorne, a respected commentator, and he’s been by all accounts totally uninvolved with the running of the team – just as was demanded of him that day.
I know Neal disagrees with me, but I really do think that that mass walkout, while damning Nestor and everyone at WNST from getting together buddy-buddy with the Angelos owned O’s ever again, got the job done.
Here’s why I think it’s legit, besides Zrebiec being pretty reliable. The team isn’t allowed to announce any uniform changes in season because MLB feels that that would reduce current jersey sales, so when questioned, why not just deny it with the line Drew’s been touting for weeks and weeks (“We discussed it, but…blahblahblah”)? Instead, they gave the no comment, which basically implies they can either lie or break the rules.
Anyway, the uniforms changing or not changing, did that make us any better? No. In fact, we looked awful tonight for the most part. Does it make me happy? Yes indeed…but it really doesn’t make the team any more or less viable, in my opinion. Is somebody like BBM gonna suddenly turn around and say “You know what, last week I hated the O’s…today, I will go down to Camden Yards and get those season tickets”. Uhh..I doubt it. But it is something, nonetheless
And this is exactly why I wanted to wait until tomorrow to rake the team over the coals, and not jump on them for not doing something early.
Since I just got the news, and it’s so late, I think I’ll hold off and do a main page post tomorrow on the uniforms. Gotta compose my thoughts on this one. Feel free to keep the discussion going here, but know that we’ll have a full-on forum for it sometime tomorrow (hopefully relatively early).
First reaction, though? It’s good and I’m not terribly surprised.
Neal, I can’t say I’m too surprised, either. I was surprised when we signed Wieters last minute, but this doesn’t have the same edge to it. But I am super happy about it, and interested to hear everyone’s thoughts.
Oh, second thoughts, I don’t want to give any one person credit for something that everyone’s going to agree is a positive. Putting Baltimore on the road jerseys is the result of a lot of fan frustration that we’ve all dealt with (as was MacPhail’s hiring) and really, this should just be celebrated as a group catharsis, not lifting up or putting down anyone person.
I am interested in examining the question of whether or not Peter Angelos can become a hero in Baltimore. He’s been the goat, the evil old man in the tower, for so long that it might seem ridiculous, but if (IF) we turn things around and grab a championship in the next 6 years while he’s still alive and owning the team, how much credit has to be given to him for overcoming his own flaws of the need to be in control? It’s a huge if, but certainly you have to give him credit, as offputing as that is to say.
Things are definitely moving in the right direction overall. Cannot be denied at this point. At the very least, we’ve found out that we have much better pitching than we thought we did, and that Kranitz is the real deal. And that MacPhail and Trembley are having a real effect on everything, including the overall culture around here. Good stuff…
But, the hitting is bad, real bad, and Ramon in particular is a joke. Useless right now. Mora has been real bad too, but at least he still occasionally gets an important hit. Ramon has absolutely no value at the moment. Can’t catch, can’t throw, can’t hit. What do you do though? I think you’re stuck with him for the year. He can’t come back next year though if he keeps this up, can he?
His contract says he can and will be back next year…and I think we need to give him a buyout to keep him away in 2010….but that’s Wieters’ time, and then I think we’ll have the best catcher in a million miles for a long time.