Syd Thrift was beyond a terrible general manager for the Baltimore Orioles. He ruined this franchise and I loathed the man for many years.
However, he always seemed like a good human being. I do remember when he was replaced by Flanagan and Beattie, he said, "It took two men to replace me." I think he knew he didn't do the best job. He was in pretty good humor. Plus this is a guy that worked in baseball for 50 years. He did plenty of good things over his career. And he did get us Melvin Mora, along with Jay Gibbons as a pretty solid Rule V pick. He took a chance on Tony Batista that didn't work out, but I was happy with the move at the time. He tried. It just usually failed while he was here.