Hanging Our Heads Again

Bob's Backstop for May 28, 2004

The Orioles just managed one of the worst three-game series in their 50-year history, surrendering more runs over three home games to one team than they had ever managed to do before. The Yankees scored more runs in a three-game series than they had since they had a series against the Orioles' predecessors, the St. Louis Browns, in 1951, three year prior to the Brownies' morphing into the Orioles.

That's seven losses in a row, and being totally blown out by your most hated rival. Not once, not twice, but three times. The Yankees' record at Camden Yards now rivals what one would expect from a home team, and a pretty good home team, at that.

If this series was supposed to measure character, grit, and all the other intangibles a team with a $33M payroll is supposed to try throwing at a $180M-plus juggernaut, then the Orioles failed, miserably.

For several years, I avoided Yankee games at Camden Yards, because I didn't like the atmosphere, or the results. It pained me to see the park not only overrun by Yankee fans, but by their ballclub, as well. Even a .500 record would have been acceptable, but the Birds weren't even up to this modest expectation of the fans.

Two seasons ago, however, I decided that one had to put one's money where one's mouth is. If I was going to be a real fan, I was going to have to show up at those games, and cheer on the Orange and Black, as the club had begged us to do. So, I have. I attended three Yanks-O's tilts in 2002, four last year, and one this year.

The Orioles' record in those games? One and Seven.

If I had not been working late downtown yesterday, I would have been at last night's fiasco. Sometimes, it's a good thing when you miss something that you think you want to attend. I'm not sure that if I had been there in person for that game last night, that I'd be writing this today...or doing anything on this page at all.

I preach patience here all the time, and I've learned that baseball can be a harsh mistress, and it's best to not get too high, or too low, when regarding the fortunes of one's ball team. I'm still supportive, and I know the club is in much better hands now than it was for years.

That being said, of course, I'm damning with very faint praise.

Which of the yahoos in the front office thought that Denny Bautista belonged with the Orioles, for example? We said from the day of his promotion that Bautista was barely pitching well enough to start in Bowie, much less to pitch in Baltimore. He's regressed over the course of the season, so what in the world was he doing in an Orioles uniform, besides burning an option, getting torched, and pouring gasoline all over a couple of fires?

What in the world has Darwin Cubillan done to warrant promotion? Or Eddy Rodriguez? And will this weekend be the final demonstration of Danny Cabrera's Emperorship, as the Tigers point out that he has no clothes, nor a breaking pitch he can get over the plate that has anything on it?

The Plan doesn't work when none of the kids are stepping up and delivering. You'd think that with the sheer number of them, the team could cobble together a rotation and a bullpen that could post an ERA of less than, say, 4.90? Could it be that we've even been overrating the pitching, which is all we have to look forward to? Have these youngsters' numbers been so skewed by pitching in mostly pitcher's parks throughout most of their minor-league careers, that they aren't as good as we thought?

And what is with the sartorial statements of Orioles' managers as of late? Mike Hargrove wore that black plastic poncho-like thing during his tenure, and at least you could understand him not wanting to show his waistline in a more typical uniform...but what is that thing Mazzilli is wearing? When it was cooler, I really didn't give it much thought, but even once the July-like heat wave hit, here he is, still wearing that weird-looking black half-sleeve thing that looks like something a pitcher wears in the dugout to protect his arm, or something out of a bad fifties Japanese sci-fi movie. For heaven's sake, man, at least look professional out there. You haven't broken fifty, you look good...why not dress like you can, instead of looking like a batting practice pitcher, or like you're trying to sweat off a few excess pounds?

And I'm not sure what's worse, the makeup of the bench, or the way Mazzilli doesn't use it. How about working some players out of the lineup once in awhile? We could all see that Osik was playing lousy, but does that mean that you just keep propping Javy up out there, day after day? When you recently called on B.J. Surhoff to pinch-hit, he hadn't batted in six days! What is that about? Did Jerry Hairston have to play every day since he came back?

All I want is to be able to hold my head up as an Orioles fan. Is that too much to ask? The team was a laughing stock all through the Syd era, and things have been better for the past two years, certainly, but this series was hard on Orioles fans. Simply pathetic. The image of Sidney Ponson smiling after tossing Hanging Slider Number Five is going to stay with me awhile. Should I just forget it and accept it as just a reaction to being totally trashed out there? I would, if I could, but Sidney is out of chits with me, and with most Orioles' fans. We're tired of the childish, immature approaches, and his obvious disdain for taking care of himself. He doesn't understand that you can be a Fat Tub O'Goo if your ERA is 4.20 or below, but if it's in the high fours, or over five, you'd best think about getting in some sort of shape if you don't expect to be dismissed by a majority of fans as someone who doesn't really care.

I'm not going to be going back to any Yankee games for awhile. To be honest, I just can't take it any more. When the Orioles build a club that manages to take half of the home games with the Yankees in a season...just half, mind you...I'll be back. Until that time, another Yankee fan can have this Orioles fan's ticket.