SB Nation User Blog: rebop

Proof this organization is clueless!

rebop — Mon, 14 May 2007 20:02:45 -0000

Here is further proof (as if any were needed) that the Baltimore Orioles are totally clueless. Here is the text of the email the Orioles sent me today:

BUY YOUR ORIOLES TICKETS NOW

Starter Jeremy Guthrie pitched a gem on Sunday, allowing only one unearned run on three hits and two walks in 8 1/3 innings, but wound up with a no-decision against the Red Sox. The offense had its most productive game of the weekend Friday night when outfielder Nick Markakis and third baseman Melvin Mora each recorded four hits.

Be sure to come out to Oriole Park when the O's come back home next week to take on the Blue Jays and the A's.

I don't know that I need to say any more, but I will. The management of this team thinks yesterday's game is a good reason for you to buy tickets to the upcoming homestand! They think this is the kind of baseball you like to see!

After 10 years of losing baseball, you dear Oriole fan are not even supposed to care if your team wins or loses anymore. You are just supposed to be happy that a young pitcher threw 8.1 good innings, and the team got some hits. What more can you ask for really?

I wish someone could knock some collective sense into this organization. If they had an ounce of common sense the only context they would mention yesterday's game in would be in the form of an apology. The email should have said: "Boy did that suck! We're real, real sorry about that, and have taken steps to make sure it never happens again by firing the idiot manager who made yesterday's debacle possible. Please, please forgive us!"

Instead we get this garbage.

This organization needs to be blown up from top to bottom: from Peter Angelos right down to the guy who refreshes the urinal cakes. They all need to go.

Cal Snubs Imus Over Racist Remarks

rebop — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:03:06 -0000

Kudos to Cal Ripken for cancelling his appearance on Don Imus' radio program in the wake of Imus' racist comments about the Rutgers Women's basketball team.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/sports/20070409-123001-1675r.htm

According to Cal's publicist, John Maroon: "In light of recent remarks made on the program, Cal will not appear on the show as part of his national book tour."

An appearance on Imus can lead to a lot of book sales, but Cal is doing the right thing and making a strong statement by refusing to associate himself and his image with Imus and his ugly remarks. Once again Cal shows he has the guts to do the right thing.

Congrats to Cal!

rebop — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:11:20 -0000

For those of you living under a rock, Cal Ripken the pride of Aberdeen was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with the third highest vote percentage ever today (98.5%).

Despite the sorry state of our beloved franchise, today is a day to be proud to be an Oriole fan. Congrats to Cal for earning baseball's ultimate recognition. It is an honor you richly deserve.

ALSO see also: SBN's Gaslamp Ball salutes the HOF-bound Tony Gywnn, and so do we.

Cal Hall vote not unanimous

rebop — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:45:51 -0000

Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn may surpass Tom Seaver's 98.84% mark on Hall of Fame Ballots, but neither will get in unanimously. At least one member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Paul Ladewski, a columnist for the Daily Southtown in suburban Chicago, felt he did not have "enough information" to judge Ripken or Gwynn's candidacy.

The issue for Ladewski is steroids. While he suspects neither Ripken nor Gwynn of steroid use, he feels since he can't prove they didn't use steroids, he won't vote for either of them.

The Baltimore Sun has the following quotes from Ladewski:

"In an attempt to uphold the Hall of Fame standards established by their predecessors, I will not vote for anyone who played in the 1993-2004 period, which I consider to be the Steroids Era," Ladewski wrote in an e-mail to The Sun last month. "That includes Tony Gwynn, Mark McGwire and Cal Ripken Jr."
"It's not an anti-Cal Ripken vote or an anti-Tony Gwynn vote; it's a vote about not knowing enough, in my opinion, of the Steroids Era and performance-enhancing drugs to make the kind of decision that needs to be made," Ladewski said.
"From my dealings with Cal Ripken Jr. in the past, he was very pleasant, a good ambassador for the game, and his numbers speak for themselves," Ladewski said. "But I don't have enough information on the [steroids] subject to make a decision."

Before all you Baltimore homers get all upset about someone not voting for Cal, I would like to praise Ladewski's impeccable logic, and extend it to current Hall Of Famers who we lack enough information about to form a reliable judgment about their candidacy:

First up, since I cannot prove that Babe Ruth did not have an unfair advantage because he originally hailed from the planet Krypton and was hence unconstrained by our Earth physics, I do not believe we have enough information about him for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Sorry Babe, maybe I'll vote for your reinstatement next year if I have more information.

Likewise, to this date no one has proven that Willie Mays didn't play with a magic baseball glove that he purchased with magic beans. I have no reason to suspect Mays of playing with a magic glove, but his continued silence on the subject speaks volumes. He should be out too.

Current vote leader Tom Seaver's numbers speak for themselves, but there were over 18,000 murders in New York City while he played for the New York Mets. In fact the murder rate more than doubled shortly after Seaver's tenure with the Mets began. This is probably just a coincidence, and I have no evidence that Tom Seaver is a serial killer, but until I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Seaver did not commit each and every one of these murders, I don't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame. If we're going to keep Pete Rose out for gambling, then surely mass murder is serious enough to keep a player out of the Hall. We just don't have enough information about Seaver to make a judgment at this time. Should it later be proven Seaver was not responsible for all these murders, I would be willing to reconsider.

Poll

Do we have enough information about Ripken/Gwynn?

Albert Belle never going to the HOF

rebop — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:48:00 -0000

I was interested to see how Albert Belle would do in his first year of HOF eligibility. The results were not encouraging if you are Albert Belle. Belle got only 40 votes or 7.7% out of a needed 75%. He did get enough votes to make it to the next ballot however.

In short, it's never gonna happen. Personally, I think it's B.S. even though I do not like Albert Belle as a person (who does?). I do think his numbers justify a spot in the hall despite his injury-shortened career.

Looks like Will Clark isn't getting in anytime soon either, getting on only 4.4% of the ballots, not enough to get another shot. (Hardly a shocker).

BTW, congrats to Bruce Sutter.

Camden Chat is huge!

rebop — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 16:47:49 -0000

I had no idea that Camden Chat was this big, averaging 54,221 visits/day. Of course, I suspect that about 20,000 of that is merdon1332000 clicking the "refresh" button over and over to see if the Orioles front office finally traded Brian Roberts, but those are some pretty impressive numbers, making this the 20th most visited weblog overall, and the 4th most visited sports blog.

Congrats to SC, those are some nice numbers!

O's name Perlozzo manager

rebop — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:14:19 -0000

According to the Sun the O's have named Perlozzo their manager for next year. I am glad to see the Os making decisions in a timely manner. Hopefully the front office won't drag its feet in addressing other needs this off-season. Good luck Sam! Go O's!

Update: Contract length is three years, financial terms were not disclosed.

Poll

Was hiring Perlozzo the right move?

Ray Miller Health Issues?

rebop — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:31:54 -0000

According to the The Baltimore Sun today, Pitching coach Ray Miller may not return next year due to health issues:

Pitching coach Ray Miller remains noncommittal about returning to the club in 2006.

Miller will undergo surgery after the season, a procedure that he's keeping private. He'll say only that it's "serious" and that he can't make any decisions about his professional future until it's completed.

He's also waiting to find out whether Perlozzo returns and if any changes are made in the front office. Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan won't be under contract after October.

"It would depend on who the manager is, and if they even want me," Miller said. "I don't even know who the GM is going to be."

Well, Ray says he wants this to be private, so I won't speculate on what the problem is, but here's hoping whether he is in an Orioles uniform or not next year (and I hope he is), he has many years of good health ahead of him. Best of luck Ray!

Steroid rumor mill churning today

rebop — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 13:35:46 -0000

I heard some interesting steroid rumors on WEEI in Boston today. Apparently there are 12 more steroid suspension cases currently in the works, and at least 2 of those cases feature names bigger than Palmeiro's. Sorry, no link, I only heard this on the radio, and have no outside confirmation. It certainly seemed like the guys knew what they were talking about, and cited a source, but I can't remember his name. If there is any truth to this we will be hearing a lot more about it in the days to come.

Update: It looks like I passed along some bad information. My apologies, but thanks to all for the good discussion. In my defense, I did only pass it along as a rumor.

There are only a dozen or so players in the game with bigger names than Palmeiro (Jeter, A-Rod, Vlad, Manny, etc.), so I'm really curious to see who it turns out to be. Personally, I am hoping for either a Yankee or Red Sox player (or ideally both) to be suspended if only to shut up some of the self-righteous Red Sox and Yankee fans I have been hearing on talk radio up here. (And no, Awesome Mike Awesome, I am not saying all Red Sox fans are self righteous, or even more self righteous than any other teams, so cut me some slack--okay?)

Poll

Will Palmeiro be the only "big fish" caught in the new steroid policy's net

Game time change pisses me off

rebop — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:31:00 -0000

Today the Os announced that day game scheduled for Sunday 7/31 against the White Sox has been moved to 8:00 PM to accommodate ESPN. Thanks a lot guys. This game was one of their kids "dugout club" games, and I had planned to take my 3 year old son to the game. 8:00 PM is way too late for a three year old. Grrr.

This was going to be the only chance to take my kid to a game while I was visiting MD. Anyway, as I noted in another thread, much to my heartbreak, my son has decided he is a Red Sox fan (we live in RI). He was threatening to wear his Red Sox hat to the game. Now he has taken to further torturing me by throwing his Orioles dugout club baseball around the house saying "I'm going to play for the Red Sox when I grow up!" (Not with your old man's genes you won't.)

Sorry for the rant, but this really spoils my plans. We were going to go with my brother, his wife and his 2 year old daughter. I had even sold the 2 good seats I bought to the game so we could do a big family outing. Grrrr.

SB Nation User Blog: rebop

Proof this organization is clueless!

Cal Snubs Imus Over Racist Remarks

Congrats to Cal!

Cal Hall vote not unanimous

Do we have enough information about Ripken/Gwynn?

Albert Belle never going to the HOF

Who deserved to get in, but didn't?

Camden Chat is huge!

O's name Perlozzo manager

Was hiring Perlozzo the right move?

Ray Miller Health Issues?

Steroid rumor mill churning today

Will Palmeiro be the only "big fish" caught in the new steroid policy's net

Game time change pisses me off