Still trying to decide whether to take to the streets with your fellow disgruntled Orioles fans and try to Free the Birds in this afternoon's protest?

Think about this:

There has been some hesitation by some to attend because of fear it might be a big publicity stunt by the radio station sponsoring it. That's not a good enough reason. What's the biggest fan revolt you can remember from recent years? Most likely the Detroit Lions Angry Fan March, or the Millen Man March, from last December.

That protest was started and heavily publicized by a Detroit radio station that plastered its call letters all over everything related to it, and the station hosts were in the front of the march from the beginning. And not only did it draw a huge turnout, and not only did it attract nationwide coverage, it did so without anyone coming away thinking they got used by the station.

The greatest outcome of that march is that a previously nondescript franchise, teetering on irrelevancy and not normally mentioned as the No. 1 most godawful organization in the league, got the entire country talking about how inept it is, because the fans decided they themselves had to do it.

Sound like any franchise we know?

Meanwhile, in studying the Lions fans protest, it's obvious that Orioles fans have a long way to go. Besides the page set up on the station's website, where's the outpouring of online grassroots outrage? Like, for instance, firemillen.com. Or firemillen.net. Or this Fire Millen MySpace page. Matt Millen has only been running the Lions into the ground for five years, and his detractors are splattered all over cyberspace. Are you telling me that after nine years, Orioles fans can't match that? I could be wrong, could be totally missing something, but a Google search of "Angelos'' combined with "fire'', "dump'', "sack'', "can'' and similar terms - even "sell'' - turned up nothing.

This isn't an endorsement or a call to action. Just saying: if you want to do this, do it right.