Better Than Expected

by BSmitty on Jul 22, 2008 12:47 PM EDT

The Birds of Baltimore aren’t the flashiest baseball team, but they’re quietly poised to compile their best record in 10 years.

From http://www.splicetoday.com/sports/better-than-expected

Not long ago, in this space, I speculated hastily that the Tampa Bay Rays would fade down the stretch and the surprise story of the 2008 MLB season would revolve around the Baltimore Orioles. That probably won’t happen, as it turns out, but it’s still curious to me why the O’s, almost unanimously picked in April to win maybe 70 games, haven’t attracted more national attention from the sports communications industry. It’s not as though the team hasn’t far surpassed expectations—as of July 22 they’re hovering around the .500 mark—and surely reporters, television gabbers and bloggers have the time and space to write and talk about more than just Scott Kazmir, Billy Beane’s 18th dismantling of the A’s, Jason Giambi’s hideous mustache, the blackballing of Barry Bonds, Josh Hamilton’s embrace of the Lord, and Manny Ramirez’s disgraceful scuffle with a sexagenarian Red Sox traveling secretary over an allotment of free tickets.

Although I’m a Bosox fan, I live in Baltimore, work with a few guys who favor the O’s and attend a lot of games at Camden Yards, and this is, in fact, a pretty interesting turnaround in what was expected to be a complete rebuilding season directed by the franchise’s impressive president Andy MacPhail. This might be off the mark, but I think the reason not many commentators give the O’s their deserved due is because it’s a team devoid of characters. The players don’t brawl, gaze at their home runs, fist-pump when completing a save or, with the exception of the goofy Kevin Millar, give colorful quotes after games.

Their manager, Dave Trembley, who toiled in the minor leagues, grinding it out for years, is stolid, earnest and…dull. He’s no Ozzie Guillen and doesn’t pretend to be. After a loss to the Tigers last Thursday night, one in which the O’s made three base-running blunders, Trembley unloaded in his standard post-game interview, slamming some unnamed reporters who “joked around” outside his office after the game. Saying that other managers like Jim Leyland or Tony LaRussa wouldn’t tolerate such behavior and would let loose with an expletive-ridden rant, he stated his feelings without such embellishments. “I hear everything, and I live and die with everything here. Not for Dave Trembley, but for the Baltimore Orioles. And if you think that’s a bunch of poppycock and this and that, people don’t know who I am.” Not exactly the dirt-kicking Earl Weaver, but Trembley’s the best manager this team’s had in years.

See the rest at http://www.splicetoday.com/sports/better-than-expected

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A good article, but flawed by the end of it.

It is basically saying the same garbage from 3 weeks ago: We should pick up “one or two solid veterns, probably pitchers” and make a run for .500.

Wish I could slap them all in the face and point out that after a whole article about how good the plan is working, how quickly it’s coming together, that is actually the WORST time to change the plan.

The stock market will never recover, our armies will never again be #1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of their lives - HST

by the fix is in on Jul 22, 2008 2:33 PM EDT 0 recs

Exactly

"Things are going exactly to plan! Let’s change the plan!"

"I wasn't here for the losing years. But it feels a little like the days with Earl in charge and John Lowenstein smashing birthday cakes in the middle of the clubhouse with a bat." - John "T-Bone" Shelby

by duck on Jul 22, 2008 3:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

Kind of a silly article

The O’s don’t get talked about because they’re the O’s. There are a lot of better, more compelling stories out there: you mentioned TB in the article, the Rangers are in second place, the Brewers are trying to become a competitive large-market team, can Seattle get any worse (yes), will the NL West send a sub-.500 team to the postseason, will the Mets kill each other, will the Marlins compete on a shoe-string budget.

The Orioles are unremarkable because while they’re not very good, they are not spectacularly failing like Seattle. They kinda slip under the radar. As an Orioles fan, I think this team is anything but dull (especially Trembley), but they gotta REALLY defy expectations (like TB) before lazy national baseball analysts will take note. And even then, the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry will still create substantially more buzz.

by PhilR8 on Jul 22, 2008 2:33 PM EDT 0 recs

I'l answer a question for you...

but it’s still curious to me why the O’s, almost unanimously picked in April to win maybe 70 games, haven’t attracted more national attention from the sports communications industry.

A. They aren’t leading the division.

B. They aren’t from New York or Boston.

C. They don’t currently have an ex-heroin user near the top of the A.L. in homeruns on their roster.

What’s the hook? As much as I despise ESPN’s PHN-MFY-centric coverage, where’s the story? “Up next on SportsCenter, we look at how to O’s have bravely battled back to the brink of mediocrity after 10 years of absolute incompetence.”

Not exactly a compelling lead, is it? All I ask is they mention the O’s scores, and give highlights when warranted, and actually show some of our guys batting when we beat the MFY 12-2 again.

by duck on Jul 22, 2008 3:41 PM EDT 0 recs

I enjoy this team so much

They’re really just pieced together and the final product has some real nice parts to it that alot of the teams outshine the negatives, though certainly not all the time. They kind of remind me of the Bills this year. Absolutely nobody jumps out at you on their roster, but then, bam you got Lee Evans, Jason Peters, and Roscoe Parrish, Aaron Schobel and Angelo Crowell, Donte Whitner and Leodis McKelvin. All pretty good players, that will surprise you how good they can be.

I’m kinda getting excited for football season.

Speaking of Buffalo, Tim Russert did for the Bills what alot of people couldn’t do. He reminded so many people of their existence, because its so easy to forget about them playing in that miniature market. A person of that magnitude from Baltimore could remind people that Orioles still exist, much like what Russert did for Buffalo sports.

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words—"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-Jack Handey

by jobe on Jul 23, 2008 2:33 AM EDT up 0 recs

As big a fan as Tim Russert might've been

I think the Bills did a pretty good job of reminding people of their existence by going to four straight Superbowls. They were a pretty big-time team for about eight years.

by yurizanow on Jul 23, 2008 1:34 PM EDT up 0 recs

They attract less attention because

1.) They are in a small market city that has died over the past fifty years.
2.) They haven’t been good for ten straight years.
3.) They can barely sell half their seats; it isn’t too exciting to put up highlights of the O’s playing the Jays in am empty stadium.
4.) It is a lot more interesting to follow contending teams or really, really bad teams than teams who are hitting their ceilings and not even reaching .500

I kind of find it funny when people talk about disrespect of Baltimore, why would ESPN, a company that tries to, shocker, make money, want to cover a team that no one outside of the city wants to hear about. I’m sure if you asked casual fans about the O’s they would struggle to name more than one player.

Would you find this team at all noteworthy if you didn’t live in Baltimore?

My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get ahold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.' -Earl Weaver

by Baltimo on Jul 22, 2008 5:19 PM EDT 0 recs

It hasn't died over 50 years, more like 20

Just to keep it in perspective Baltimore was a contending small market team which was in the spotlight, over the last 20, specifically the last 10 it has died. 30, 40 and 50 years ago it was the talk for it’s exceptional play

by dr WNC on Jul 22, 2008 6:38 PM EDT up 0 recs

If you look at it in terms of pure numbers

It has died over the past fifty, granted I will concede the point that those figures don’t mean much as a lot of the people who left the cities just migrated to the Baltimore suburbs as part of the “white flight,” but the city itself has still been shrinking and deteriorating as a result for a long while. Only recently have half assed revitalization projects sprung up.

My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get ahold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.' -Earl Weaver

by Baltimo on Jul 22, 2008 8:01 PM EDT up 0 recs

The Orioles have a pretty solid fanbase...

At least, I think so. I only live 45 minutes outside the city (and that’s including traffic,..)

If we don’t start winning though, there’s a good chance that the fan base will die with the boomers. Think about it, I’m 19 years old, and I barely remember our last playoff year, in fact i think I don’t. I remember hearing about it though.

The stock market will never recover, our armies will never again be #1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of their lives - HST

by the fix is in on Jul 23, 2008 12:27 AM EDT up 0 recs

Nice mention at ShysterBall, btw

by duck on Jul 23, 2008 11:57 AM EDT 0 recs

Bad Memories

People forget that the Colts won three straight divisional titles within ten years of when they left in after the 1983 season. The fans stopped showing up and before anyone realized it they were gone.

The Orioles are lucky because baseball teams don’t typically move and they have a stadium that will be considered attractive for at least another decade, but that said I don’t think the Orioles fan support right now is much better than the Colts had shortly before they moved.

by yurizanow on Jul 23, 2008 1:52 PM EDT 0 recs

Oh, by the way . . .

Russ Smith (the author of the above piece) is a Bush-loving Republican asshole who used to claim to be an Orioles fan when he published the City Paper in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s when he published the New York Press he claimed to be a Yankees fan. I suppose he likes the Red Sox now because if he roots for a team that doesn’t win the World Series, the terrorists win.

Fuck that guy.

by yurizanow on Jul 23, 2008 2:31 PM EDT 0 recs

Because I SOOOO worry about the politics of my sportswriters...

I usually have one criteria for sportswriters – do they know what the hell they’re talking about in SPORTS? I mean, Frank DeFord coulda voted for Nixon for all I know, but I’ll still read his stuff. Same with John Feinstein. He might belong to the John Birch Society, but that doesn’t make A Good Walk Spoiled any less of a great golf book.

by duck on Jul 23, 2008 2:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

Living here in NY

I listened to plenty of games called by Bobby Murcer.

Apparently he was one Okie who took Merle Haggard’s attempt at satire literally. And not one hint of it ever came through during a broadcast. Which is as it should be.

You can't fix stupid. Stupid is forever.

by sluggo 2.0 on Jul 23, 2008 2:54 PM EDT up 0 recs

Politics aside

If he’s a team jumper as yuri claims, he can F off.

"There is a value to breaking the string of losing seasons as an organization or as a franchise. But breaking that streak can’t come at the expense of doing what you need to do to get your franchise to the point where it can reach the postseason." ~Andy MacPhail

by Stacey on Jul 23, 2008 3:05 PM EDT up 0 recs

Russ Smith isn't a sportswriter

He’s a rich guy (or actually the brother of a rich guy) who has published free weekly newspapers that fancies himself a political writer. He has written about sports occasionally, but not with any knowledge or insight.

I wouldn’t care if he was a Republican either if he were a legitimate writer who knew what he was talking about, he isn’t and he doesn’t.

Fuck that guy.

by yurizanow on Jul 23, 2008 3:14 PM EDT up 0 recs

Now see....

your 2nd paragraph is one I can completely agree with. You’re judging his worth as a writer, which is my criteria.

by duck on Jul 23, 2008 4:59 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yurizanow Is Lying

For the benefit of readers who take some comments at face value, I’d like to state a few facts (a concept that has eluded Yuizanow). I’ve been a Red Sox fan since 1962. I moved to Baltimore in 1973 to attend college and worked as a vendor at the old Memorial Stadium for three years. Not surprisingly, I liked the Orioles, but the Sox were always my team. I started Baltimore’s City Paper in 1977 and sold it in ‘87. I challenge anyone to find examples of my ditching the Sox for the O’s in the stories I wrote for City Paper. I started New York Press in 1988 and often wrote, in my column “Mugger,” about how much I hated the Yankees, which didn’t go over well for a New York audience. Again, if Yurizanow can cite any examples of my claiming to be a Yankees fan, he ought to present them. Otherwise, he owes me an apology for misleading readers of this forum.

by Russ Smith on Jul 24, 2008 10:24 AM EDT up 0 recs

Ouch

Yuri just got pwned.

by PhilR8 on Jul 24, 2008 10:49 AM EDT up 0 recs

You'll have to forgive me since I don't have the morgue of the New York Press available to me

I have recollections of encomiums to Derek Jeter and the Yankees of the late 1990’s in your Mugger column just as I have recollections of you criticizing Cal Ripken, Jr. in that same column. Is that incorrect? That sounds like front-running to me. I knew nothing about your love of the Red Sox until I read the link above.

By the way, what is a successful guy like you doing checking an Orioles website anyway? Don’t you have something more important to do than worry about a nobody like me?

by yurizanow on Jul 24, 2008 12:26 PM EDT up 0 recs

Yes, You're Incorrect

I wrote many times about Jeter’s defense being entirely overrated, as well as the fact that he’s not as generous with his dough as many of the players who grew up dirt poor in the Caribbean. And there no “encomiums” to the Yanks of the 90s, except acknowledging the grace and talent of Mariano Rivera. Oh, and I thought it was pretty cool when Matsui apologized to Yankee fans when he got injured a few years ago. That’s called tossing a bone.

I have no idea if you’re a “nobody” or not. I simply don’t like being misrepresented. It doesn’t bother me when I’m called an “asshole” for political beliefs. I did support Bush in both elections and support McCain this time around. Disagreeing with that, and, for that matter, name-calling, is fair game. Getting facts wrong isn’t.

As for checking out this website, I look at all sorts of baseball sites. And, since I wrote a piece about the Orioles for Splice Today, and one of my sons sent it to the people in charge, who generously linked it, why wouldn’t I look at it. That’s the business I’m in now.

by Russ Smith on Jul 24, 2008 2:01 PM EDT up 0 recs

Tell you what I'll do

If there is a link somewhere to your columns from the 1990’s that I can examine to my satisfaction to see if I can find what my memory says you wrote during the Yankees recent glory days and I can’t find what I’m looking for, then I will formally apologize to you on this website and provide for you whatever satisfaction accompanies that. The New York Press only seems to go back to about 2001 which was after I was regularly reading the NYP.

I said wrote elsewhere, your political beliefs are immaterial to my opinion of your baseball writings or my opinion that you’re an asshole.

by yurizanow on Jul 24, 2008 4:46 PM EDT up 0 recs

Based on his writings . . .

I’d guess Bill James that is a Republican and although I think in the strictest sense he isn’t particularly good writer and is full of shit when he writes about anything but baseball, he is an important and insightful baseball thinker (pardon the pretension of using “baseball thinker”) and I read him with a certain admiration and deference.

George Will, who is a professional dealer in horseshit in my opinion, has written some things about baseball I admire (but has also written some things about baseball I think are more horseshit).

There are baseball writers whose politics I agree with that I think are horrible writers and I think are a waste of time.

As for Russ Smith, he’s a moron who jumps teams like normal people change underwear and uses his bullshit pulpit to pretend he knows something about sports (which he doesn’t). He can kiss my ass for that alone. His politics and my dislike of him are just something else I can throw on the pile.

by yurizanow on Jul 23, 2008 6:16 PM EDT 0 recs