Please Ripken, Save the Orioles

Photo courtesy of
‘0G1G3481’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

We don’t cover a lot of Orioles “news’ because…well…we have our own team now, and the Orioles have been the laughing stock of professional sports for over a decade. But as a life-long fan of the birds, and what some could call DC’s AL team, I just had to write about Cal. Our beloved Cal. The Iron Man. The nicest guy ever. The guy my friends and I grew up idolizing. Could it be? Could it be true that Cal Jr. is coming to be our savior and turn around the obnoxiously bad Baltimore Orioles? Front office, club house, I don’t care. Just give me Cal.

Two days ago, The USA Today sports blog wrote about how Peter “The Most Hated Guy in Baltimore” Angelos shot down rumors that he had rejected Mr. Ripken from being a part of the team. In fact, Angelos went so far as to directly imply that Cal is too good to join a MLB franchise as anything but the #1. Here is his quote after Fox Sports had claimed that he didn’t want Cal to be a part of the franchise because Cal might actually help the team, then take the credit for helping the team-oh-god-forbid.

“If he expressed the wish to do that in some secondary position with the Orioles, which I think he’d never do, obviously that would be something that will be considered seriously. But Cal has many interests and is a very busy guy. I don’t think he’s ever considered himself available to play some secondary role with the ballclub and appropriately so,” Angelos told the Baltimore Sun.

SO FUNNY!  Because guess what? Cal is saying the exact same thing! Or the exact opposite thing! One of the two! From Yahoo Sports comes this statement from the Iron Man himself regarding the talks he has been having with angry Angelos:

“I have enjoyed those talks very much, and yes the subject has been broached about me potentially joining the organization. I look forward to those talks continuing.”

So according to Angelos, Cal is too busy and completely uninterested in joining the organization PLUS he has never expressed the wish to even do so – or at least in what we are calling a “secondary position”. So does that mean Angelos is saying Cal wants nothing but the top spot? And what is the top spot in this case? Manager, President….OWNER? All of the above please. There is no doubt in my mind that Cal Ripken, Jr. will end up as a part of the Oriole club house or front office at some point in the next couple of years. You can speculate what you’d like, but I’m going go ahead and say that if it weren’t for Angelos’ ego in the way, Cal would already be in there at Camden Yards making serious contributions to the team – let alone how he would instantly revive the morale and fan base. Can Angelos and Dan Snyder please just go away so we can have lovable teams in this area again? Thanks.

For those keeping track, the Orioles are 2 – 13 this year. That 2 represents their wins and that 13 represents their losses.

Karl is a Washingtonian who lives and breathes everything that is DC. Politics, ethnic restaurants, sad sports teams, the Metro and pretty much anything in between. Karl’s life is kind of like going to a Nats’ game while eating Ethiopian food and discussing the latest legislation to pass the House. Then cramming on the Metro for a ride home. That ’bout sums it up. See why Karl loves DC or check him out on Twitter.

4 thoughts on “Please Ripken, Save the Orioles

  1. As a native Washingtonian, I am delighted to see the Orioles with a 2-13. I just wish it was 0-15 (again). The Orioles are a bad team, owned by a very bad person. Their owner Peter Angelos is a coward who deserves to fail.

    The Orioles voted against D.C. baseball and through the corrupt bargain that gave them the TV rights, kept the majority of the Nats first two seasons off of most cable systems.

    Don’t reward Angelos by going up to Baltimore for games, even if its the Nats or your favorite AL team.

  2. He won’t do much

    The only way the O’s are going to compete with the Yanks/Sox/Rays is to buy their way out of it.

    Nobody will duplicate the minor league system that the Rays/Marlins have so they need to bring in SMART TALENT