Help. Please. Someone. Anyone. It's beyond words and belief. (still watching, though)

Well, ruth, at least YOU are still watching. I can't bear to even turn on the game on TV anymore. And for the first time in 15 years, I will not be buying tickets to an O's game this year. When they don't have a snowball's chance of winning, why would I want to watch the torture?

If the O's don't turn things around soon, they will be playing in an empty ballpark and will have no sponsors for television broadcasts.

Jim

Pete whats happening on the trade front. Read an story that Kevin and Ty would like to become Mets. I don't blame them anywhere else but the O's.

Pete: This season has been a bad joke. Andy made a lot of promises last offseason and fed us a lot of BS about "wins and losses", but the bottom line is...this team has REGRESSED, again.

The worst part is that nothing will change as long as Andy has his "Yes Media" guys from MASN in his corner sugar coating everything he says and does because they want to get the next "exclusive" interview with him.

LOL

As much as I agree with the comments of other fans of the Orioles, and with their frustration, let us all try to go back in time and remember one very important event.

In 1993, Peter Angelos put up $173 million of his own and some other investors' money to but the franchise in a bankruptcy auction. That act ensured the Orioles would remain in Baltimore -- a fact that apparently has been forgotten by Angelos's critics now.

There were other bidders, and it didn't have to turn out that way. So give the man some credit: at least we still have a baseball team.

As much as I agree with the comments of other fans of the Orioles, and with their frustration, let us all try to go back in time and remember one very important event.

In 1993, Peter Angelos put up $173 million of his own and some other investors' money to buy the franchise in a bankruptcy auction. That act ensured the Orioles would remain in Baltimore -- a fact that apparently has been forgotten by Angelos's critics now.

There were other bidders, and it didn't have to turn out that way. So give the man some credit: at least we still have a baseball team.

I bet Millwood is counting the days until the trade deadline. It's kind of like that old MASH episode where Winchester, after endless tormenting from Pierce and Hunnicut, finally blurts out, "Get me the HELL out of here!"

You call what we have on the field now a baseball team, David?

What team have you been watching this season?

Apologies for the double post -- it's an old man v. computer thing.

You can't win in any sport without being confident. The O's haven't had any of this in quite some time.

Here's My 5 Obvious Ways to Make the O's More Confident:

1) Let them grow beards.

2) Give them "real" orange jerseys.

3) Get a new manager.

4) Get a new hitting coach. (I think our current one may have been been part of at least 11 of our past 13 losing seasons).

Sorry Crow, but things might not be working. I'm pretty sure you were even making fun your own team during BP this week.

Yea-ah, the hitting coach.

T-5) Create an MLB salary cap.

T-5) Angelos starts caring about Championships instead of money.

I know they aren't a very good team. Hopefully things will change. I would rather go Baltimore to watch major league baseball (even if one of the teams doesn't quite fit that description) than go to D.C. or Philadelphia.

I was a fan in the 1950s, and they weren't very good then, either. But I got to watch them play the Yankees, Red Sox, every other team in the AL, and it was good. Count your blessings, my friend.

jason, the fact that you can say the team "we" have is the point he was making, and you know that.

It makes people on here look like idiots when they can't even give a bit of credit. Angelos deserves credit for what D. Robinette was talking about.

Don't spin it to the suck. We know. We watch. We get it.

Let's get this straight. I am as frustrated as any other O's fan out there, but I am really getting tired of all of this whining and crying. The O's ARE a better baseball team than they were last year. Don't take my word for it, ask ANY baseball analyst who follows teams for a living. Look at the roster for God's sake. These guys are genuine major league ball players. They have been in the past, and they still are. Are they struggling? Duuh! Yes, and they certainly aren't constructed to withstand the rash of injuries to the few key performers that they have. The veterans need to step up, and you know, despite your whining, that they are. Won/Loss record notwithstanding, this team IS better! It IS improving, and we need to just wait out the storm. Is Dave Trembley, et al gonna be fired? Probably, and I'm sure most of you circling sharks will rejoice, but get this.... it's NOT his fault. He can only send out the best players he has, and hope for the best. His decisions usually look terrible because his team is letting him down. So root for another team, stop attending games (like I believe you are now....NOT!!!), but PLEASE, do me a favor. Stop with the whining! This is one of my favorite sites for O's info, and it's just wrong to see all of you complaining about everything going on right now. Yes, they are playing badly, but I believe, alone or not, that they WILL turn this season around. When? As soon as this curse, or whatever it is wears off, and the talent starts coming through. Until then....
Go O's!

Brimmie There's probably some other really cool blogs around that won't banish you

Andy MacPhail has to do something about this cluster-F. You've got to fire the manager, make trades, dump players, fire front office personnel, replace minor league managers. An overhaul needs to start now. People need to lose their jobs, "superstars" need to be sent to the minors, open tryouts need to take place. I don't care. Whatever you've got to do to put every effing loser in the organization on notice that the losing ways are over and everyone is expected to put in overtime to turn this ass-clown franchise around.

When you start doing exactly that, you get rid of the losing mentality and you are left with those who are serious about winning. Accountability should be demanded at every level, starting with Andy MacPhail and all the way down to the water boy. This team needs a rude awakening, and If Andy MacPhail can't do this, he needs to get the F out of town as well.

Hoosier Oriole,

I don't know whether to be angry of laugh my ass off at your post. You're pathetic!

Lots of apologists in the house this AM. Well if they're not annoyed at what Angelos/MacFail have done to destroy the Oriole legacy and defraud the fans for yet another season, they will never be. MacFail could take a crap on an Orioles logo at home plate and they would applaud.

Thank you sir may I have another?

David Robinette,

Investors put money to keep the Rams in St. Luis, and the Al Davis kept the team in Oakland, what's your point?

By your logic a woman is getting the crap beaten out of her from her husband should be happy she is not single?

Just save the crap. You sound ridiculous.

Can somebody help me remember correctly?

I'm not positive about my memory of this, but I'm pretty sure that Jim Joyce's first weekend in the majors also featured some crazy controversial calls in the amazing 1989 Orioles 'Why Not' season. In mid-season, the O's played the Angels and had a ridiculous comeback capped by Mike Devereaux hitting a 9th-inning homerun that Joyce deemed had grazed the foulpole in left at Memorial for a 10-9 win. Then, the next game (which I went to), we won on a Tettleton 9th-inning double down the firstbase line that Joyce (now at 1st) ruled fair for a 3-2 win. I'm pretty sure that Joyce was just up from the minors as an ump when he made those calls, because the Angels were livid. But the O's had a charmed season that year.

This team has become so bad that they're getting good. We've got a center-fielder who continues to blow bubbles before he drops the ball. We've got a manager who won't confront players who make bone-headed plays because of his "24 hour rule". We've got absolutely no power from the two most important power positions - first and third base. It's the 1962 Mets!

OrsulakFan:

I was at the game with the Devereaux HR, and I was sitting with my father right at the base of the LF foul pole. I watched the ball curve toward the pole, and I looked up to see if it was going to be fair or foul.

I swear, what I saw (and I know this is not possible) was the ball go THROUGH the foul pole! I had a great vantage point on it, and looking straight up as the ball cleared the fence, it appeared to me to go through the foul pole.

Hoosier -

The reason you fire Trembley is the reason you cite - the team is better than they are playing. Managing the 25 players is Trembley's job. He's failing at it. So replace him with someone who brings a different approach to the resources he has. If the 2nd guy fails, you've lost nothing. But at least you tried.

The manager is the 1 person who can affect change during the season.

The longer we continue to lose, the more damage it does to the young players and any chance of rebuilding. If they don't learn how to win here, they'll go into free agent market as soon as they can to get onto a team that does win.

Just look at our pitching mentor, Millwood. He says if the Mets would trade for him, he would go. Great message to send to the younger guys.

Make the change now before you damage things even more, and then, if AM has the balls, make more changes. So far this year, this organization is handling things the same way BP is handling the oil spill...

Hoosier Oriole,

Why are the O's doing so badly this year?

"The O's ARE a better baseball team than they were last year... These guys are genuine major league ball players..."

So maybe it's the manager's fault?

"it's NOT his fault. He can only send out the best players he has, and hope for the best. His decisions usually look terrible because his team is letting him down..."

So when will this team do better?

"As soon as this curse, or whatever it is wears off, and the talent starts coming through..."

Thanks for the insight.

Hoosier Oriole,

Thanks for the shot at optimism. I don't particularly care for all the whining either. However, how do we know this team is better? We could look at stats, but those show quite clearly that we are worse.

Think about each player and tell me which one is better than they were last year. Wigginton and ... that's about it really. If one player slumps, you wait it out, if two or three slump you cry about it and wait it out, if they all slump the whole year you fire the coach.

The front office has to make a decision soon. By not doing anything you're still sending a message and that message is "Everything is fine. We don't need a change."

That's not true. I'm a huge O's fan and always will be. I still watch or listen to every game. But things are not alright. We are not better. I would submit that the team has regressed, and without a change they will continue to regress.

Here's hoping they do something soon.

Pete,

I think in 2005 you upset little Petey Angrlos by asking him to open his books. I think we need a similar column today, unless things have changed between the SUN and the Orioles. Ask him to open the books and show us how much profit he is making, upwards to 40 mil, and where is the MASN money going. He himself said when we have our own network we can compete financially, not with the yankees but with most others. Instead payroll has been slashed and our international scouting is still near the bottom. We had to draft a "signable" player last year, why? Where is this cash going. MLB has guaranteed him a profit for the O's of 100%. Everyone in this area was forced to have MASN on regular cable and is paying a decent fee for this, like it or not. Pete, I beg you for another one of those columns!

JohnD,

It is possible the ball passed into a parallel universe and returned to ours on the other side of the pole.

a good meal is about all you will get out of it peter. what a real shame for the way the orioles are playing.

Pete

I dont mean to be off topic BUT......I had this idea last night while at work .
Here goes :

Suppose you , Jeff , or another Sun writer , meet ALL or MOST of the people that Angelos either fired or forced out by him.
Managers like Davey Johnson , Ray Miller , Lee Mazilli , Phil Regan , Sam Perlozzo to name a few ....
General Managers like Pat Gillick , Frank Wren , Jim Beattie , Mike Flanagan , Roland Hemond and others .

Then ask them these questions

1) Why do you think O's been losing past 12 yrs and this year ?
2) Why were you fired or forced to resign by your boss Angelos ?
3) Where do you put the blame for the O's sad state of affairs ?
4) If you have the power , how would you remake the O's ?
5) Do you think it would be O's best interest if Angelos sell the team ?

Then go run their stories in the Sun , the bigger the headlines , the better . I am sure all this will make Angelos uncomfortable .
my question is......how else are we get Angelos to take look at himself in the mirror ?

While there is always reason to be optimistic about the future of the O's, it is laughable to defend/justify anything Angelos has done in the past 13 years, or MacPhail has done in 3 years.

You've got to be optimistic because most of your players are under 25 years old and they are good, but they are still learning how to crawl before they can walk.

Look at Matusz for example. Once he learns how to put back to back to back good starts, he is going to be a pitcher to be feared in this league.

I am disgusted with what I see from this team, but I am optimistic that the O's would very soon put together a winner. The only way you do that is by establishing accountability and nothing less than winning should be acceptable.

I see it in the eyes of players of opposing teams. They get pissed off when they don't perform as they are expected to. The dude that got a perfect game for the A's was beside himself about some error he made that allowed a man to get on, when they played in Baltimore.

Every man in the O's organization needs to hold himself to a high standard of winning. There has to be a business culture shift.

Take the Ravens for example. Everybody watches their back. Nobody's job is safe. You get to play when you can perform. Unless players feel they have to prove every day in and day out, you wont see a winner.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and a fan said that people have to stop saying the Oriole way when the organization has 4 winning seasons in the past 25 years. That put into perspective for me. It's hard to be optimistic when you think about it like that.

Look wayne ' s alter ego Allan is back ! We ' re bound to see Steve Eilerston soon !

Remember , wayne : space , punctuation , space .

T h a t w i l l f o o l t h e m !

Someone really thinks I am Wayne . Remarkable . LOL