Two things that still annoy me most about the Maier catch:

1. All of the media attention the kid got after the catch. He was on dozens of talk shows, including Letterman. Heck, Guiliani gave him a key to the city! All because he was stupid enough to reach into the field of play to grab a fly ball. And because Richie Garcia was too blind to see what he did.

2. The fact that a lot of Oriole fans essentially blame Maier for the series loss.

Most O's fans forget that Maier's catch was in the 8th inning of Game 1.

They forget that the O's had one more regulation inning and two extra innings to win that game. They forget that Randy Myers gave up a game winning home run to Bernie Williams in the 11th.

O's fans also forget...

- That ]he O's tied the series in Game 2.

- Todd Ziele's throwing error in the 8th inning of Game 3 that allowed the Yankees to break a 2-2 tie and score three more runs.

- Rocky Coppinger giving up five runs in 5.1 innings in his Game 4 start. Armando Benitez gave up another three in the 8th inning, putting the game out of reach.

- That the top of the 3rd inning in Game 5 was a disaster. Roberto Alomar's throwing error helped Scott Erickson to a six run inning in which he gave up three home runs.

The Maier catch wasn't a good way for the '96 ALCS to start, but the Orioles didn't do themselves any favors in that series.

i moved to nyc a few days before the jeffrey maier incident. never thought i'd be still living here 13 years later. never thought i'd see the same things happen again. i gotta get out of this place.

Pete,

Do you think baseball will ever be fair again? I'm serious here as I refuse to go to a MLB baseball game as the system is broken.

Why is their an unbalanced schedule first of all? Why if American League teams have to play National League teams, why do the Orioles have to play teams in their division more than other teams in the American League. Wouldn't it be more fair if the schedule was balanced.

The way baseball is now, in 3-5 years when Matt Weiters is the best hitter/catcher in baseball, the Yankees or some other high dollar team will swoop in and pay 30 million more than anyone else and get him.

In my humble opinion, the game of baseball is being ruined and I think it's showing up in lower attendance at games.

Any comments anyone?

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Pete's reply: I feel your pain. Maybe a balanced schedule would help the O's, but even they don't want it because they want all those big crowds when the Red Sox and Yankees come to town.

book 'em guy,
i completely agree with you. the yankees have an unfair advantage over every other team in baseball. couldn't stand to watch those two yankee d bags hit hr's last night. people act like it's so amazing that a rod is doing what he's doing in the playoffs, but shouldn't they expect that? the guy gets paid 30 million AND he took steroids, so in my mind he should be doing that every time. the yankees are not a "dynasty", like i heard one announcer say, theyr a bunch of overpaid jerks with way too much swagger. give any team 250 million to spend and i'm pretty sure they'd be as good as the yankees. joe girardi seems like a pretty bad manager if he can't beat a team that shouldn't even be in the playoffs, with his 250 million dollar group of d bags. they are everything that is bad about baseball.

also, that stadium is a complete joke. no one should be able to hit a 320 foot line drive home run, especially to end a game in the playoffs. if that game was in any other park, it wouldn't have been a homer. something should be done in baseball to stop the advantage the yankees have. FTY!!

The thing that really bothers me is how much the national media loves the Yankees. If they had their way, the Yankees would be declared world champs in April, and we'd all move on to football.

Let's just say that Major League Baseball is the most rigged professional sports organization in the Western Hemisphere and leave it at that. Yankees v. Twins? The fix is in! Why should I watch that donkey phizzoo? MLB must think we're all idiots, BUT I'M NOT STUPID!

I want somebody in the media to really step up and make a true issue on how bad the umpiring has been in the playoffs already. There were clearly 2 blown calls at first base in the first game of the Red Sox/Angels game, the blown Mauer call. If you watch the pitch tracker of the MN/Yankee game last night - all night long balls way off the plate were being called strikes. Then in another game (forgot which one) I swear the ball was in the complete middle of the pitch tracker box that was called a ball. These are the one's I've seen and I haven't seen every pitch of the playoffs, but we've only played what 8 games to this point. Truly riduculous, can you get somebody in the media to run with this and make it an issue and get some kind of explanation from MLB.

Fellas, the unbalanced scheduled is a relatively new thing in baseball. It was added because many fans wanted it. The idea is to make for better division races. Same thing happens in football: you play the teams in your division twice as often as teams out of your division.

Also, how do you figure that the unbalanced schedule is a clear advantage for the Yankees? I'm betting the Yankees (and most of the AL East) would rather play the much weaker AL Central and AL West teams if a playoff spot is on the line.

Good comment from Tom Boswell when asked who was a worse owner, Angelos or Snyder?

"Peter's team is worse. But at least he's bottomed out and now will probably turn up. I hope so. The Redskins may have bottomed in behavior, but have they bottomed on the field? Remember, the Orioles were once considered too rich to ruin __back when they'd drawn 47,000 every night forever. Nothing is too stroing to break or too rich to ruin."

The Orioles beat the Red Sox in attendance by 1.3M in 1996-1998. The Red Sox didn't out draw them until 2003!!!! the Red Sox were on the rise with a new owner who hired Theo Epstein as GM. John Henry hitred great people to make the team successful both on the field and in marketing and business.

Last I checked, New England has seen a tripling of population over the past decade, so market size hasn't changed.

The Orioles payroll in 2000 was $77,940,333 and the Red Sox was $81,447,435. By the way the Orioles payroll in 1998 was the highest in the majors at $71M. wleve years later, the Orioles will enter 2010 with about $45M in payroll (needing some players to fill the roster of course).

Conclusion- Angelos has turned a mid-market team into a small market team due to mismanagement. The Orioles wanted a network like the Red Sox have and Selig gave hime one. He also gave him guaranteed revenue and sale price for the team. The resources and revenue streams are there, but the apttitude is not. The Orioles can't compete with the Yankees' payroll and don't need to. But they can certainly be much better than they are and have been for too long.

I wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate my American friends on the selection of their President as the recipient to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Although I like America very much, and I wish Mr. Obama all of the success in the world, this one stumps me. I feel it is like awarding Matt Weiters the Hall of Fame after his performance this year. Perhaps some day he will earn it, but it all seems so premature.

In my life I have met several American presidents, though Mr. Clinton is not one of them. I can only imagine what he must be thinking and feeling about this award. Maybe he would have felt worse if Hillary had won the nomination/election/Nobel Peace Prize. Who knows?

Last week I lectured on the French Riviera. Some Americans were in the audience, and it is very interesting to see the reactions of Europeans to Americans now. With the election of Mr. Obama, they now feel it is OK to like America again. Since I never stopped liking America, I no longer feel so lonely in European circles.

By the way, I hope the Ravens beat the Bengals tonight. I will be listening to the game on my computer.

I think Daniel has it right - the announcers are far more disposed towards the Yankees. Maybe this is because everyone, whether we like it or not, knows a lot more about the Yankees because so much gets published about them, but the whole thing is a self-perpetuating circle. The Yankees are a classy organization and there is a lot there to respect, and I do - even though I hate seeing them win.

For the record, I thought the Twins - Tigers playoff game was really exciting, and a model of what we want all playoff games to be.

European Prof -
Shows even Europeans can be fooled also. Then again, they were fooled in WWI and WWII also.

Nice try to put the Orioles in a political post.

American Citizen-

I apologize if you felt my post was inappropriate. I like reading this blog because it is not limited to only one sport, and sometimes it has current events.

My point was not to express a particarly partisan opinion, since I am not partisan in your political affairs, but to express my congratulations to you since I assumed that you would be proud since that prestigious award usually reflects well on an entire country. However, I thought that you would also be interested in knowing that bewilderment for the choice extends beyond your borders. It is my earnest hope that Mr. Obama lives up to the award that he just won.

Again, I hope I did not offend you. And I was very disappointed by the Ravens.

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Pete's reply: No need to apologize, prof. You can write about anything you want here. This is largely a sports blog, but I occasionally veer off course and into current events, and you're welcome to do the same.

European Prof - you took my comment the wrong way. I should have said something like - nice analogy with Weiters.

Pete- he was apologizing to me! ;)

I have one simple question for European Prof: Can you pitch?

jim66:

I like your assessment about salary cap issues, etc. in the previous post. You're absolutely right that it will never happen in MLB.

And you comments about the NFL are true also, the owners trying to look like "nice guys" compared to the "greedy" players. And no owner is more Greedy than the owner of the team I used to love, the 'Skins. He has done a Peter Angelos caliber job on that team, and is going to take a miracle to turn it around anytime soon.

As for the next NFL CBA, I really hope the Union pays more attention and fights harder for the injured/disabled players who get so messed up they can't lead a normal life after their career ends. Your superstars are indeed the face of your league and are the reason it's so popular, and they should be paid as such. But let's not forget about everyone else... the average career length in the NFL is 3.5 seasons. Many of the players holding that down are just not good enough to stick around, but many more simply have to stop playing due to injuries.

I'd like to see the Union fight for all of the nameless guys who spend a few years "fighting in the trenches" so to speak, and see that they are taken care of once they have their inevitable career-threatening/ending injury. Or side effects that pop up later in life from the outer layer of their brain turning to mush... which according to the owners has nothing to do with playing football for several years.

The league generates so much money on the backs of these guys, the least they could do is take care of them when they're gone.