Angelos always gets the black eye. Forget the fact that its the MSA who employs these people. The union can claim to of had a promise with Angelos, but it practically comes down to a he said, she said shouting match. It's not Angelos' responsibility to supplement the wages of these employees. The fact that Angelos is getting all the blame for this is shameless.
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Josh,

Thanks for writing. Yiou know, that's obviously my point here. But the guy -- for all his brilliance -- is apparently tone deaf to the issue of public perception.
-- Bill O.

Yeah, another chance for someone to take a shot at Angelos.
Personally, I think he's had a bad rap as an owner and overall, he's tried to make the Orioles better. Obvoiusly, he's come up short(talk about an understatement!) but it's not as if he hasn't made efforts to field a competitive team.
I mean the O's have usually had one of the highest payrolls in MLB and it's no one's fault that guys like Belle got hurt or stars like Konerko/Vlad Guerrero turned down big $$$ to come here. Likewise, who could have perceived the steroid scandal and countless injuries?
I place the blame for the O's demise on poor scouting staffs and I doubt that King Peter is directly involved in this. He could be faulted for not hiring good top level executives and here's hoping MCPhail is the answer.
I'not saying that Angelos hasn't made mistakes but it still ultimately comes down to the players. I think Angelos is an easy target and he certainly doesn"t project a warm and fuzzy image.
Up until the recent 2 week tailspin, it (seemed) like we are headed in the right direction and the eternal optimist in me says that we still are.
We have the makings of a solid starting staff and a decent core but lack a 'pen and some offense. How long it will take to add these components is anyone's guess but I'm sure King Peter isn't liking the state of the team anymore than we do!

Eugh! That photo is going to give me nightmares.

Tone deaf and crying all the way to the bank at our expense.

He doesn't care

$10.00 an hour to pick up trash at the stadium? How much is that per game in labor costs, $30,000.00? This isn't going to fly for very long. These workers need real job skills and picking up trash isn't going to make you employable down the road. How long till this clean-up job is outsourced to an ultra-efficeint company armed with a few guys running new electronic stadium turbo-vacs? The Maryland Stadium Authority has the job of running our stadia efficiently, not the job of being the emplorer of last resort. They may cave in now to save face but I promise you they will kick out the homeless cleaning brigades at their very first opportunity.

One thing I have not seen in all the coverage of this is how much stadium cleaners at other ballparks make relative to the local cost of living. Has anyone actually done a thorough investigation into the issue and found that out? Until that information is available it's kind of hard to make a decision on the issue.
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Anne,
First, you ask a good question and I do not have a good answer. I don't know. But I'll venture this opinion. It's not entirely relevant what other stadiums pay workers to clean out those places. How I see the issue is whether it is simply fair to have people do the work for $7 an hour when the city has set a "living wage" of $9.62 an hour and the state requires contractors that it awards jobs to in the Baltimore area to pay more than $11 an hour. A point of comparison is worthwhile, I don't argue with that. And as I said, you ask a reasonable question. But regardless of what the answer is, I don't think we have to survey Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Houston to decide how to treat our own people fairly.
-- Bill O.

Unless I missed something this is still a capitalistic society. The law of supply and demand rules. If the wages are significantly out of line on the low side , then no one will apply for or do those jobs. Then the wages will have to be increased to get people to perform those jobs.

While I don't begrudge anyone wanting and making more money, I think that to unilaterally say people should be paid more to " take care " of them smacks of socialism.

Peter Angelos has nothing to do with this issue. He did not hire them and they are not in his employ.
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Thank you Adam Smith.
-- BillO.

Sorry, Angelos only pays to put trash on the field at a price of 100,000,000.00 per year.

Any job takes skill to do it properly even if it is picking up trash. I don't care what job you do no one can live on 7.00 an hour.

Just another embarrassment during the Angelos regime.

Anyone surprised by this?

Bill,

If these workers put in eight hours for every event (Orioles and Ravens), they are only working about 640 hours a year. We aren't talking a living salary even at 20 an hour. Pay 'em, but realize that this is only part-time work at best.
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No question.
-- Bill O.

A living wage? These people need this job to support their families year-round? What's going to happen in the winter? I did similar jobs around the park when I was in high school, I thought it would be kind of cool to be at Memorial Stadium all the time and as a high school student, I also climbed in and out of dumpsters while working as a busboy. I expected to do crap work because, back in the day, that's the jobs we took, granted this was only 25 years ago, another era. I think that because these people need this job to survive speaks to a greater problem and maybe these clean up crews might consider something that pays more and is full-time. And don't hand me the "they can't get jobs" line, there are jobs out there in that price range, just look at craigslist.

The most Zeros fans Angelos is Satan! He's just a rich guy who doesn't care and his attitude is not appreciated by the fans. He's done in Baltimore!