Whose fault is it?

Don’t blame Peter Angelos. He’s a lot like the rest of them. He is very smart and made a pile of money (as a lawyer) and then bought a baseball team. Then he figured because he was smart and successful in one career that he naturally could run the team instead of just own it. So he has been involved in plenty of the decisions made by the Baltimore Orioles since he bought a majority share in the franchise in 1993. And as the owner, yes, he has the right to decide what the team does. But how about hiring a “baseball person” as the general manager or president of baseball operations or whatever you want to call it? Get someone who knows how to make good baseball decisions and then stay away. But he hasn’t. So I can see why you might want to blame him for the rough ten or so years Orioles fans have endured.

The Orioles are a team with a successful history. No, really. The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles in 1954, and in 1966 they were world champions. The Orioles played in the World Series three years in a row starting in 1969, winning in 1970. From 1968 to 1985 they never had a losing record and won ninety or more games thirteen times over that span. They lost to the Pirates in the 1979 Series but were champs again in 1983. A few lean years followed (I try to pretend sometimes that 1988 never happened; they started the season 0-21…) but by the early nineties things were looking up again. And along came Angelos.

Sure, he had his hand in some of the bad decisions that were made: I am sorry, but you do not let Davey Johnson resign over a tiff with you after he has taken the club to the ALCS in successive years. Kiss and make up and keep a good thing going, jackass! And don’t piss off Mike Mussina to the point that he won’t re-sign with the team he came up with. (Especially if he is going to go sign with the Yankees, for crying out loud!) Don’t give Joey…er, Albert Belle sixty-five million dollars when his best years are behind him. Don’t sign other aging veterans in a vain attempt to…nevermind. I told you it wasn’t his fault, anyway.

It’s Rich Garcia’s.

Yes, Rich Garcia. The right-field umpire in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS. Baltimore had just mowed through Cleveland to face New York for the pennant. Game 1 was in New York and the O’s had it won. Until, of course, Dick (that’s my friendly name for him) Garcia was forced to make a quick decision in front of thousands of screaming New Yorkers. Instead of making the correct call on Jeter’s can of corn to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning, Garcia awarded the rookie a home run when a fan interfered with Tony Tarasco’s opportunity to catch the ball. Satan’s—oops I meant Garcia’s—gaffe tied the game and the Yankees won in extra innings. (Baltimore won Game 2 in New York, but folded after that. But had they won both games in New York…)

My favorite part is that Dick admitted after the game that he blew the call. That is nice. Thanks for that. Don’t bother getting it right when it matters. In describing his first reaction to the play, he said he never saw anyone reach out and hit it. Right. Yes. And I prefer eggplant fillets instead of meat. Why did Tarasco immediately start going crazy and pointing to the stands? You can’t youtube the video anymore because Major League Baseball yanked them all, but google ‘Jeffrey Maier’ or ‘1996 alcs’ for images and several photos (especially the side view shots) help tell the story. Or just go to this page from MLB’s webpage for the Yankees: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/photogallery/anniversary/1954_2003/page_13.jsp
The little blurb says it all. The fact is Garcia chickened out, realizing he might not have made it out of Yankee Stadium alive; he confessed his blunder only when it was safe.

Since then, almost everything has gone wrong for the Orioles. Yes, they made it back to the ALCS the next year, but could anyone expect them to win? And after that it has been more than ten years of utter suckfullness. (I know I don’t need to remind you that 1996 was the first of the four Yankees championships. I blame Rich Garcia for that, as well.)

So, yes, I am with those who want Peter Angelos to sell the team and move on. But I don’t expect anything good to happen for the Orioles. Rich Garcia won’t allow it.