Memo from me to Kevbo: GET OFF MY PLANE

Pro athletes live in a different world. They don't carry all the baggage that the fans do. They certainly don't have the memory that fans are saddled with (for good or bad). In general, they don't give a damn about fans. Listen closely for how often they include the fans when speaking of the team. Fans that say "we" when referring to any team are delusional. They don't give a shit about YOU.

I accept this fact and I suspect I view games differently that many fans. Not a lot really bothers me, but this strikes me as a breach of ettiquette. Millar is pulling a paycheck from the O's. He's mostly washed up and living in the past. Great. Do it when you don't claim to represent the Orioles and feed us bullshit about wanting to be around. Show some class.

I view this as a little test for MacPhail and the front office. Can anyone think of a case where this has ever happened before? I can't recall any. MacPhail has to dope slap the clown.

I hope he's fined for conduct unbecoming an Oriole or some such made up garbage.

The Oriole team is so beyond having any rules, it's kind of ridiculous.  There is infighting (Mora), cheating (Raffy et al), demands to be traded (Miggi)...

It never ends in the theater of the absurd.

And pathetic. As several souls noted the other day http://www.camdenchat.com/comments/2007/10/20/24741/240/1#1

Again, while there's probably no immediate legal issue here (conflict of interest or fraternization), it's hard to avoid the feeling that there is something, well, Just Not Right about this. One of the principles of professional competitive sports [in which the Orioles are not always involved, as GG noted :) ] is that contestants are expected to demonstrate at least a superficially visible loyalty to their employing organization, which uses that loyalty to help attract and expand a location-specific paying constituency.

When a contestant/employee lends his visible loyalty to a second, competitor franchise, the owner of the first might indeed be justifiably irked-- although in the instance, Petey has plenty to answer for himself, as he has (apparently) catered to that same constituency with a favoritism bordering on the shameful. Anyway, if Petey were to seek redress here (up to and including a severance from the player in question), I wouldn't argue.

Strange days. And meanwhile, how saddening that the Sawx won; their success runs so counter to what's good for baseball.

MacPhail approved it: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071021&content_id=2274775&vkey=news_bos&fext=. jsp&c_id=bos

but for me, it's the postseason. we're not playing. there's no conflict of interest. millar played his ass off for us this year, and stepped it up against boston, including a walkoff in august. if he wants to support his friends in boston during the orioles off-season, i'm fine with it.

I also want to be very clear about this. Here are the notable players from the '04 Sox not on the '07 team that I would not have a problem seeing throw out the first pitch:

Bill Mueller
Keith Foulke
Mark Bellhorn
Pokey Reese
Gabe Kapler
Curt Leskanic

But everyone else, from Millar to Lowe to Pedro to Arroyo to Orlando Cabrera to Johnny Damon to Doug Mientkiewicz to Alan Embree, is kind of weird.

I mean, really, can you imagine the hell that would be getting raised if Johnny Damon had been out there, or even Orlando Cabrera? Just because the Orioles suck shouldn't give Millar a pass to go around playing grab-ass with Doug Mirabelli on the field of play.

It makes Millar look like a chump, for one thing, and it makes the Orioles look bad, which is about the last thing the Orioles need more of. I'm glad Kevin is still beloved by Sox fans, and he always will be. But go throw out first pitches when you're retired and not on a rival team, that's all I'm saying.

Pack his shit and get him the fuck out of Baltimore. THIS is inexcusable.

Read between the lines and tell me if Terry wanted him there:

...I'll say it again. Kevin Millar is dead to me.

i cannot fucking believe this.  i did not see the begining of the game last night, and i'm glad i didn't, cause i would've put my foot through the tv.  how can this be allowed to happen???  this is a big broom handle up the ass to anyone who gives a goddam about the Orioles, if there are any left.  i feal like finding Millar today and kicking him square in the nuts.  

i promise he will not have an at-bat or touch the ball when i am in attendance-either spring training or regualr season-where i am not completely riding his ass for embarassing the team he is CURRENTLY under contract to and the city that team represents.  i will henceforth be known as "the crazy guy that gets kicked out of games for yelling obscenities at Kevin Millar".

this was an embarrassment to himself, all parties involved, and the fans of the team he is currently under contract with.  the fact that the Orioles APPROVED this fiasco further embarrasses the current title holder for most pathetic organization in baseball.

look, i never liked Millar on the O's to begin with.  he's a washed-up goofball media-whore.  but somewhere in the warehouse someone had to stop and think "i wonder how Orioles fans are going to take this?".  then again, maybe not, since all they care about is selling out Camden Yards when Boston or the Yankees visit, they saw it as a further marketing ploy to Boston fans.  "Hey Boston fans, come see Red Sox mascot Kevin Millar play first base for the division 'rival' Baltimore Orioles!!!"

cause thatt's what he's been reduced to:  Red Sox Mascot Kevin Millar.

Millar is not a member of a "rival" team to the Red Sox--he's a member of the Baltimore Orioles, and he's the first Oriole to be involved in the postseason in a decade. That's what is really enraging about this incident.

Watching it I mostly felt embarrassed for Millar. What is a washed up media whore who's stuck on a crappy team to do? The guy needs attention in a way that is borderline pathetic. So instead of being happy to quietly play golf with the rest of his millionaire teammates who don't actually give a shit about the Orioles, Millar feels a need to stay in the limelight. Big deal.

At least Millar cares about something other than his collection of vintage sports cars and pimpy jewelry, which is more than I can say about most of the overpaid zombies who have been wearing our team's laundry for the past decade. Millar is a rah-rah type guy, and not having anything meaningful to strap on his pom-poms about for the past two years has probably been hard for him. To his credit, I don't think for a second he wouldn't rather be on this stage with his own team. But he craves the limelight badly enough he'll do it for his old team that doesn't want or need him anymore--that's kinda sad.

Watching the pre-game reaction from Red Sox fans on Fox 25 in Boston, most of them seemed kinda confused by the whole thing: "Doesn't Millar play for like the Devil Rays or something now?"

Anyway, what pisses me off about this incident is that it rubs in my face just how irrelevant the Orioles are (and are likely to remain for foreseeable future). If I have a beef with anyone it's Angelos for enabling that irrelevance, and for MacPhail for okaying this stupid idea. But Millar is more a figure to be pitied.

I can understand some of you guys' sentiments here, but it's really difficult for me to get my panties in a bunch about this.

He's a productive player here. He's one of the few players wearing an Oriole uniform who actually seems to try hard.

But, let's be honest here....most likely the best (and most fun for him) days of his career were when he was in Boston.  In ten years, if ANYONE is even still talking about Kevin Millar, it'll be "former Red Sock  Kevin Millar", not "former Oriole Kevin Millar".

It is much more appropriate to channel that ire towards the collective myopites who run this team into the ground and have made it impossible for Kevbo to consider his time here as the best of his career.

NHZ, Chanumas and a few others here.

You guys need to seek help.  It's obvious you all bleed Oriole orange and black.  No problem there.  But the losing and ineptitude must be getting to you for this sort of reaction.

So what if Millar throws out the first pitch.  If you believe that's going to make a difference in what sort of team the O's field next year, you've gone off the deep end.  The guy was part of somethig special.  His old team contacted the O's and asked if it was ok.  Knowing this and that your management said they had no problem with it, what the hell do you expect him to do?  

Of all the things wrong with the O's to get upset about, losing it over this is edging into the range of ridiculous.  I don't know, maybe you all have developed some sort of weird variant of the Stockholm syndrome and now want to be as pathetic as the team we all root for.