Pete,

That attendance was exactly what I thought it would be at the beginning of the year. You should just forget about traveling to New England and come back home to Baltimore to watch the Orioles sweep the blue jays!

I do not have time for this: But I would love to see one of the smarter accounting guys that you have that post to your blog can figure out the attendance for all home games except the Redsox and Yankees. Now that would be an interesting number. I remember that there is one blogger in particular that was really good with numbers but I cannot remember which one.

Pete: It used to be that the NL attendance is based on people that walk in the gate, not tickets sold and the AL was total ticket sales for the individual games, is that still true?

Cumberland has your back on Trembley!

http://www.times-news.com/opinion/local_story_274234518.html?keyword=topstory

It's all about the No. 2 draft pick. The O's are just 1/2 game worse than Pittsburgh and they need to maintain that edge.

I'm really surprised that The Sun does not deem this worthy of any mention at all.

So - the END IS NEAR!!! End of summer, already, end of another pathetic Orioles season, end of the agony of defeat and maybe the end of the Trembly era?! I guess we might what find out this weekend - huh?? I know Pete and many others including myself get tired of all the bashing and lord knows there IS plenty to choose from if one is in the bashing mood. But it is staggering to step back and see just how far Anglose HAS run this once historicly grand/great franchise into the ground!! MY OH MY - he could not have possibly done it better/worse than if he had set out to do exactly that!! He must be proud, few in the history of sports have ever accomplished such a dramatic and utterly complete turnaround! I remember scuffling to find a contact who could GET me a pair of tickets to get INTO Camden Yards - for years!! Now it's often an embaressment of emptyness UNLESS it's full of fans rooting for the Red Sox or Yankees, which is even more embarressing!! He must be proud! And the future - baby birds, SOME look promising but everything else SIIGGGHHHHHHHHH. He ran off our 2nd best ever manager Daey Johnson, ran off our best ever announcer, ran off our beloved Icon Brooksie who doesn't even feel comfortable coming to see his beloved team whohe still bleeds Orioles Orange & Black for! Yes I hope he is proud - few could have done it better or more completely!

section 34 -

It's a well known fact that the Pirates pass on top 10 talent because of signing bonus concerns.

This year they took Jorge Sanchez, who was projected as late first round talent, with the 4th pick.

In '07 they took Daniel Moskos over Matt Wieters.

In '06 they took Brad Lincoln over Brandon Morrow, Andrew Miller and Clayton Kershaw.

In fact, they only time in recent history that they've taken the best available player with a top 10 pick was when they picked Pedro Alvarez with the #2 pick in '08. And considering what they had to go through to sign him, I don't think they're going to be taking big bonus top talent any time soon.

I'd like to go to one of the games, if only to get the tankard but I am actually busy all three days. Anyone who goes to Sunday's game over watching the Ravens-Patriots is out of their mind.

1,000 fans less per game isn't really significant money wise. Even if you assume those people spent $40 per person that is only $3.2M which in running a baseball team isn't much. That might not get you a Eaton or a Trachsel.

Hopefully one day salaries will drop dramatically. Having someone like Arod making $30+ M and marginal pitchers getting $4-8M is crazy. And a freakin golfer has over $1B? What a messed up society. I believe talent should get paid but not at those levels.

Literally,

Anyone, accept for players immediate family, and front office folk, who go to the game Sunday to watch these pathetic losers, instead of watching the Ravens/Patriots game, need to be tested for substance abuse.

Even the players (like BRob) would look into the stands and say 'what a bunch of geeks and nerds'.

BUT, instead of letting the front office get the message of an empty stadium, there will be enough 'losers' in the stands to make them feel enough have bought into the Plan.

Those above saying 'Three game sweep of Toronto', '2nd draft pick', etc, need to find the geekiest blogs you can find and become charter members.

Proud geek/nerd here. Not really that interested in football, and may be using my Sunday game tickets to see the game, say bye to Mora, etc. I hope we avoid 100 losses, but also wouldn't mind that #2 pick. I think 100 losses will stick out in potential free agents' minds: it might mean the Orioles would have to pay even more to sign some needed guys. So the games this weekend could, in some way, be quite important!

Imagine Pete,

Writing a Blog about a winning team. Not a playoff team mind you, but just a team with 83 wins. Wouldn't that be nice??

With such would bring real optimism. The Texas Rangers for example, have reason to be optimistic. Their Plan is in place and it's working.

I give you credit Pete, not only is your business environment difficult these days, but the team you most cover, isn't worth covering at all. I mean you went on a trip half way around the world, and the team you covered didn't win once.... not once! And they were bad before you left!

But, you still hang in there with Blog after Blog, attempting to be as creative as you can while your friends in cities like St. Louis again have real games to write/blog about.

So thanks for what you do, and thanks for attempting to entertain a fan base who literally has no baseball to cheer about (ever), unless they have a second team in another city.

Cheers!

wow,

To think one really has to dig so deep in the most foul pile of shxt imaginable, just to find relevance in an o's game....well that just takes balt baseball fans to yet another level.

Have fun!

Pete i have to give it to you , your profession should have been a campaign manager. Your latest article reminded me of a last ditch effort to save dave t's job right before the election. I must admit i think you actually changed a lot of peoples minds who were on the fence who didn't know who to vote for. It's amazing to me the sympathy that this manager is getting, what about the previous managers that had to play with the same bad hand, hargrove lee, sam p i don't ever remember the out pouring of grief to save there jobs. Every media figure in this town has been brain washed by andy, you can hardly listen to the pre and post game shows anymore with dave johnson, who has turned into the biggest apologist ever and tom davis.Then there is you and roch who never say anything negative about this team or dave t even when it is well deserved to do so. dan , jeff and coward rarely are negative but at least once in awhile report the truth. Andy has put the stop to all negative writing and reporting concerning the orioles in this town. Like i said many times before where are rick maese and david steele when you need them, but of course we all know the answer to that question don't we. 3 games to go pete , so there is still time for 1 more good article to try and save his job.

It would be so nice if the O's were lucky enough to sign Bryce Harper as the 2nd pick.

Hi Al,

I guess you can count me in as a Geek or Nerd, beause I am going tonight, as I have a couple season tickets left to burn and not much else to do. I guess I am going out of morbid curiosity.

Anyone who regularly reads the blog knows my feelings about the ownership.
I admit that when it comes to the Orioles and Peter Angleos, I am a lot like Bryant Gumbel on the Today show years ago. Gumbel could not begin a sentence without saying"Due to the Raegan years, or "As a result of the Raegan years".
So it is with me and the Angelos family. I can't help it. Good people, bad owners.

I do have one nagging concern about our baseball team and it is tied to the loss of the Colts years back.
Both cases are becoming earily similar, although Angelos is a local guy with ties to the community.

Two owners who mismanage and run their sports franchises into the ground, driving down attendance with it.

In the Colt's case the drunken cretin of an owner partly blamed the low attendance as in indication that the fans wouldn't support the team, so he moved it. His actions becamee self fulfilling.

I am worried that as attendance continues to decline, that John angelos will start pushing his father to move the team. I don't want to lose our team.

That's why I will continue to support the team financially, bitching all the way.

B: You might be right. But Pirates management has changed, and they actually spent a lot of money on the draft this year, just not on the first pick. Their justification was that after Strasburg and Ackley, the talent level dropoff meant the next guys weren't worth their asking prices.

The Orioles used exactly the same theory in picking Hobgood. It was interesting that the Pirates got attacked in the national press for taking Sanchez but the O's basically were supported in their position, even though some said they would have taken different high-school pitchers. I took that as a sign that Joe Jordan has earned some respect for his draft successes, and the Pirates have not.

Anyway, circling back -- it's not clear what the Pirates would do if they had the No. 2 pick, so I'd rather have it. What the hell, it's only three more losses.

The O's meaningless sweep the last weekend of the Yankees cost them Mark Teixeira

If the O's win two of three, will MacPhail count that as ending the second half of the season on an upswing?

Al,

There will be people there. Not many but I think the don's have got the message already.

Are you from Baltimore?

I think last night's win was huge. It ended a 13 game losing streak that might have stretched out to 17 if the Jays sweep us this weekend.(which is a possibility as they are on a roll and have some young hitters that can go yard(Hill, Lind, Snider, Ruiz).
We could have had all winter with that sour ending(not that 21-51 isn't bad enough!) as well as the losing streak intact.
So, for the sake of trying to find some optimism, hats off to Chris Waters. Hey, he's probably thinking he's sewn up a spot for next year(or at least a spring training invite).
What sort of Fan Appreciation does the O's brass have in mind-free coupons for Boog's BBQ, maybe a couple of Roger Freel or Adam Eaton tee shirts?
Personally, I would normally watch a couple of these games on the tube but OHL hockey takes priority and Sunday is golf or even NFL.
THankfully, this nightmare season ends and then we can all wwatch some real baseball-let's go Tigers!! Wouldn't that be a great upset?

Prediction on Trembley:
99 losses - he stays
100 losses - 50/50 depending on if McPhail is willing to pin the 100 loss mark on himself for dealing Sherrill/Huff.
101 losses - if they look bad getting swept McPhail probably goes after LaRussa/Duncan or Jim Riggleman.

number 2 pick, number 3 pick...who cares....by the time anyone they pick amounts to something, they will be in pinstripes. The O's could pick numbers 1-10 in the draft and still not have a winning team by 2015.

Can't throw away my Ravens stuff because I don't have any Ravens stuff, or any stuff of any other NFL team for that matter.

I'll be at Oriole Park though.

Football and basketball are just sports, but baseball is a way of life.

Started this season in Puerto Rico at the WBC, will end it this weekend in Baltimore.

Can't wait for Spring Training 2010.

This year the question is whether Trembley should stay or not. Same time next year we will be talking about MacPhail.

This year MacPhail gave us more of the same.

During his tenure with the Cubs he had 5 seasons of 94+ losses. That trend continues here with the O's. I don't have reason to believe he can succeed with the O's if he could not do it with a much bigger market team with deeper pockets and willing to spend in order to win.

MacPhail is a master of buying time. He did it for 12 years in Chicago. And when you have an owner that does not go to the ball park, not even once in a season, it's that much easier.

Hey Peter, off topic but how soon before we hear the reason Chicago lost out on the 2016 Olympics was due to racism? With the likes of Jimma' Carter, Massa' Jesse, Rev. Al and Oprah, you know it's coming.

Love that hustling double by Izturis. Waters pitched a gem for his 5 innings.

Let's do it all over again tonight!!

Slugger,

There you go again bringing up the venerable owner who has managed to to take the fun out of Baseball in Baltimore, unless you are a Yankee or Red Sox fan.

What I don't understand about the man is his desire to hold on to ownership while strangling the franchise and torturing the local fan base.

He is actually not a bad person away from the Law offices and out in the community. I do some charitable work and he is a very good person when it comes to giving and caring for the less fortunate. He is humble and generous in that regard and doesn't seek publicity for his gifts.

In a twisted way he must think that he is doing the community a service by owning the team. He just really sucks as a Baseball owner and needs to sell the team to Cal Ripken jr.

It was quite insightful to hear the comments earlier this week about how "happy" Chris Tillman was with his major league performance this year. Happy? Since when is a 2-5 record, 5.40 ERA and a staggering 15 HR's allowed in just 65 innings anything for a major league player to be happy about. Happy perhaps thinking about his bonus and salary, but his performance should be quite humbling.
Similarly, its also gratifying to hear that Jeremey Guthrie is so pleased with the prospect of maybe pitching 200 innings this year, his 10-17 record and 5 plus ERA nonwithstanding. Makes me curious to know how Jim Palmer must have felt as he regularly racked up 300 innings per year.

Contentment with such modest accomplishments is mind-set exhibitied all too fequently on this club and a reason they are headed for another dismal season. Where's the desire of a Ripken or Dempsey? The fire of a Frank Robinson? The unrelenting pursuit of excellence of a Palmer? ? With a few exceptions, these guys are quite content with 90 plus loss seasons, as long as the checks clear.

Maybe it's because I witnessed nine horrible years of Tampa Rays baseball (they had the first pick more times then you want) only to see them in the WS or maybe because I will always love the Birds, but I believe 2010 will be better (probably not .500) and 2011 will be THE YEAR! The O's are on the right track and need to be given some support. I wish I was in Baltimore this weekend because I would be at every game letting those young guys know that we appreciate what they have done. O's fans...you want the team to be a winner? Then you start acting like a winner.

DT is back...

Trembley another season. Expect the Orioles will get the number 1 or 2 draft pick in 2011 also.

Was at the game. Got excited... then Tor tied it up... ugh... assumed the same story as previous games... then home runs from Weiters and Aubrey!

Wouldn't it be great if Aubrey turns in to a solid 1B player with some power. He is a contact hitter... and I know folks want a power 1b like the sox and yanks... but I'd love to see this kid make the starting squad next year. see what he can do.

going to the game tomorrow... crossing fingers for another bright showing from the youth of this club. Nigth.