What an ingenious idea, Pete! Visiting the Promised Land and tying it into your columns with the slight chance that the local team may suddenly play like they did 40 years ago. It hasn't been a constant desert with a number of oasis along the way. You may have put yourself in the managerial hunt as this team needs inspiration just to show up. We'll be awaiting the announcement of a burning bush on the lawn of next year's manager.

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Pete's reply: I gave it my best shot, but doesn't look like it worked.

Pete, Thanks for keeping your blog going while on vacay and giving us a history lesson.
When will you be back in Baltimore and do you get a different perspective of the O's while there?
Maybe we'll all need a rest after this last week.

Liking Angelos is like worshiping the golden calf. That means 40 more years or wandering in the desert. Thank god he is 80 years old.

So there's the Oriole fan....

Might as well schedule next years trip at the end of the season as well Pete as there's always one thing to count on in Baltimore...... there will be no meaningful games in September.

For that matter, you can take next summer off as the same holds true the entire season.

Safe travels

Pete,

I used to believe that Jesus hates the Yankees, but I'm starting to believe that Jesus hates the O's.

Watching the Orioles for the last 12 years, I know how Job felt.

Welcome home, Pet.
In Birdland Nothing New.
Just the same old Angeloser Era finale. It's a tune called the fall-apart-like-a-cheap-suit-because-that's-how-this-team-was-built blues. It's easy to scapegoat Trembley, but he isn't the guy who built this sorry team or this disgraced organization.

Mea culpa on the typo.
Welcome home, Pete.

Hey Schmuck, off topic here but ask your pal Ricig what's up with the bird cartoons? The O's lost three to the Blue Jays last week and only two losing 'toons on the web. Does the Sun think that by holding back some losing cartoons it won't show the 100+ losses?

Fortunately you're not a traveling troop of Redskins Hogettes fans. The hog hats and noses wouldn't go over too well there.

Are Denys Baez and Koji UEhahahaha the worst contracts in Orioles history? I don’t think they are any worse than Gibbons or Belle the whole lot of bad we have seen over the years. I like AM but I thought he was supposed to be here to bleed out all the bad contracts and make a new beginning not keep up the status quo. This is a seriously flawed organization that compromises quality with low costs at every step of the way.

Greg,

Interesting point about Koji. I'll get blasted as usual for this, but here's the deal...

What the O's will tell everyone is that the signing of Koji was worth it because it entered the organization into an important market.

Truth is however, it backfired!

Very few in the market knew about the Orioles before this year. Most heard of Cal, but they didn't put it together with him being in Baltimore.

Now though, the players, fans, etc, all know about the Orioles (because of Koji).... And trust me, it's not a good thing.

There was an article in Tokyo's main newspaper about Koji recently, and along with describing Koji's struggles this year, it went on to talk about how he's playing for one of the worst teams in baseball.

Now that they all know of Baltimore now, nobody (accept for the has beens) will want to come here.

The point is, AM should have seen this coming. Yes, he entered the market. He also advertised to that part of the world however, just how terrible Baltimore baseball really is.

You'll NEVER hear this angle by the Baltimore media however. If you did, John Angelos would pull advertising. Fact!

Wayne,
I haven’t read much about what the Japanese are saying but it is crazy that we signed Koji to promote the Orioles in Asian markets and now we only get a new audience to criticize and make fun of us hahah. Maybe we are taking the Paris Hilton marketing plan and trying to be infamous to sell tickets and Orioles gear.

The real question that Orioles fans, writers and MASN lovers keep sweeping under the rug is the stipulations of Koji’s bloated contract. Is it stated that he will only play as a starting pitcher or can we make him a closer or setup guy to at least get some of that money put to good use.

Andy Macphail and the Angelos family are a perfect match. Look at the bad contracts Andy made in Chicago.

Wayne - thanks for further adventures in fandumb. Believe it or not they have the internet in Japan. You think a ballplayer there who grows up aspiring to play in the US doesnt know who the Orioles are? You think they dont have agents who know the US market? There are enough things wrong with the Orioles without people like you making up things that dont exist to whine about. You complaining about the media not reporting on the fantasies you concoct is like the sci fi channel complaining that the New York Times doesnt report on rampaging dragons or cyborgs.

Horseshoe,

Just look at one of Koji's original interviews when he got here. He admitted that he and most people had never heard of the Baltimore Orioles. They knew of Cal, but not the team he played for.

Seriously bro, if you're going to criticize, do some homework.

Macphail has acknowleged that bringing Koji here was a PR move.

The Orioles were also aware that he had issues with his elbow the past. So did Japan. Furthermore, it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone (including Japan) that he was going to have eblow problems if he was going to be a starter.

And personally, I was hoping MacPhail would've signed Ken Kawakami last year. But the reason whey he signed Uehara was because of his popularity in Japan. Oh, and before the '09 season began, the japanese media was aware that Uehara was coming to a young rebuilding team.

You people complain just to be heard.

Horseshoe

People in America forget who the Orioles are! I am sure the Japanese had no idea about this disaster over there but they sure do now.Most lefotover fans back here in the states were on board with this team when the season started and are acting crazy now because of the long history of losing and they want to put pressure on management to take a new direction from the old.

He lucky i see you are at it again. You never post anything related to the topic but only choose to pick apart other bloggers writings. You can't be old enough to remember Eddie Haskel on leave it to beaver but i you remind me of him. What really needs to happen for you is to get your A$$ kicked .You are truly a idiot.

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Pete's reply: Bob, let's tone it down a little bit. Nobody's ass gets kicked around here, except the O's' of course.

Wayne,

Please point me to that article, I would love to see it.

Thanks in advance.

Wayne ~~Just look at one of Koji's original interviews when he got here. He admitted that he and most people had never heard of the Baltimore Orioles. They knew of Cal, but not the team he played for.

Seriously bro, if you're going to criticize, do some homework. ~~

What good is doing your homework when you flunk it because you cant even cut and paste a quote without twisting it to suit your bias?

Thanks for proving my point about you. The quote was that everyone knew Cal played for the Orioles, not that they did NOT know who he played for, but of course you had to twist the truth into something insulting to the Orioles. As usual you just play fast and loose with the facts and assume no one will check up on your spin. The question was asked generally about his countrymen, not about Japanese baseball players seeking a contract with MLB. I stand by my statement that any Japanese professional ballplayer receiving a major league contract has an agent and the internet and American teammates playing in Japan to familiarize himself with the Orioles win loss record.

BLancione - Why are you bullies always the stupidest people in the room?
When people post here it is a conversation. A conversation goes both ways. Not everyone is a macho bully that thinks the world should just roll over and accept whatever you say with out anyone calling you on your 5th grade macho nonsense. You want to carry out your threats? Bring it on.

As for the Beav, I was alive but probably didnt watch much tv by the time the show went off the air so only know it from reruns, the same way I know Lucy, Hazel and My Mother the Car. . . not that any of this is "related to the topic". But as I recall Eddie would be sucking up to a bully like you, not laughing at you, so wrong again loser.

Your repeated threats of physical violence against me are all documented, printed out with dates and times and will be in my attorneys hands tomorrow. Forewarned is forearmed.

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Pete's reply: David, no matter how wronged you feel -- and Bob can certainly get under anybody's skin -- putting your address here and challenging somebody to come over and slug it out is inappropriate. I'll try to go back and find Bob's inappropriate content, too, but this actually got complaints sent to my email address from some fellow bloggers. Let's all try to get along.

The whole Masada tragedy takes us back to Yom Kippur, which incidentally was today. During the Musaf service, which is a portion of the service in the afternoon, there is a section called the "Mayrtrology" where it is customary for someone to give a speech about martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the Jewish religion. The man who spoke today actually got to talking about Masada and how they went down with dignity.

There's a lot of backstory behind Masada, and it's not all about these Jews being heroic. They were zealots blah blah blah say what you want. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed your trip, I'd actually love to hear where you went (your itinerary)!

The Asian contingent in the press box for Oriole games is huge. When they play New York or Boston.

Baez's contract was the worst since Marty Cordova.

Pete's reply: Bob, let's tone it down a little bit. Nobody's ass gets kicked around here, except the O's' of course.

Gotta love it.

I'm starting to think Trembley just wants to go home. I just hope he isn't back next year.

I'm starting to think Trembley just wants to go home. I just hope he isn't back next year.

Peter:
I was too tired to respond when this was posted. How do you do it?
But, why is the picture of me and Fr. Stew so small? ;-)

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Pete's reply: Glad to see you are over the jet lag. Unfortunately, I have a new case here in LA. To answer your question about the size of the picture, you can fix that by getting a bigger monitor.