If your baseball team was growing roots in fourth place, wouldn't you do something to get better? If your baseball team brought more opposing fans to home games than those there to root for your team, wouldn't you try to get better? Evidently not if you're Peter Angelos and Andy MacPhail, and your team is the Baltimore Orioles.Last week, the O's pulled off a trade that sent one of the game's star players (after a relatively bad season) on their way out of Baltimore in return for a crop of young prospects. The deal was widely supported by Oriole fans and could have been the start of a rebuilding process: as much for the team as for regaining some fan loyalty. But on the heels of that trade, the Orioles have returned to form.
Late Saturday evening, the O's issued an enigmatic statement regarding the findings in the Mitchell Report. With the inclusion of Brian Roberts in the report, seemingly based on nothing more than a single passing comment, the O's had every reason to stand up and criticize the report. And they did, sort of. From their statement:
"The Orioles support Major League Baseball's efforts to institute the most comprehensive testing program of any professional sport and one that strives to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing drugs from all of baseball.
"As to the information and allegations contained in the Mitchell Report, the Orioles caution observers to resist the temptation to accept collective judgments based upon unsubstantiated allegations."
Right. To top that off, the Orioles jacked up ticket prices a few bucks, without informing even season-ticket holders! From the Baltimore Sun:
The best field boxes cost $45 per seat if you bought a full plan last year. This year's full-season plan costs $3,888 per seat, which breaks down to $48 per ticket, though nowhere is that mentioned in the mailer. You have to get out your calculator to figure out the team is raising some prices at the same time it's drastically slashing payroll and being, as MacPhail likes to say, "brutally honest" with fans about the meager prospects for success in the near term.
The team's Web site, by the way, still lists those seats at last year's prices, and repeated attempts to get an explanation from a team spokesman went unanswered.
If I were the O's, I'd be listening carefully for the sound of Tampa footsteps. Fourth place might not be a lock.
