I've had almost a month
to take things in, digest just what the
heck happened on September 21st
downtown, inside and outside of Camden
Yards.
My first thought is this: I will ALWAYS
be proud of what we did, going back to
tell management how lousy we think
they've been.
From how lousy, WE, the fans have been
treated to how our past heroes have been
treated to how the team stinks not only
out on the field, but more importantly,
out in our community where WE live. And
how our hearts aren't in it anymore, but
we really DO want to feel connected
again, especially as a mere handful of
us are watching the baseball playoffs
every night in our living rooms.
The arrogance, the mean-spiritedness in
regard to everything from Elrod
Hendricks back to Jon Miller and
everything in between should be the
indisputable evidence of the
incompetence of this ownership group.
And if this were anything other than
baseball, I would just give up the
fight, much like I had done for the
previous 28 months when I just sneered,
closed my wallet and my heart, and
stayed away. Like I've said all along,
when a restaurant makes bad food, you
stay away, but when it's something like
baseball -- something my family has
participated in and supported and adored
and taken to heart since I was born in
1968 -- I now believe you have to stand
up and fight to get it back.
Staying away from the ballpark clearly
wasn't working.
The day after the rally, as you can
imagine, I got a boatload of phone calls
from just about anyone and everyone who
has ever been in my life. Old friends,
inside the media and outside, as well as
many, many people who I've come in
contact with in one way or another since
I grew up in Dundalk and started taking
the No. 23 to the No. 22 en route to
Memorial Stadium back in 1973 with my
Pop.
I had promised my wife and even my
employees that we'd do one event -- The
Rally on Sept. 21st and do it in a grand
way -- and just go away, hoping that the
impact of headlines alone and the
subsequent media pile-on would force
Peter Angelos to think very humbly and
hard about what he's done to this
community because of his mismanagement
of the baseball team.
How it's NOT about him, anymore. It's
about Baltimore and what's good for the
city and the state.
I thought that perhaps he'd finally
realized the destruction and pain he's
caused. I thought he'd realize how many
jobs have been lost through his
mismanagement. About how the Inner
Harbor is deserted on most game nights,
when an Oriole home game should be
bringing upward of 50,000 people to
downtown Baltimore 81 times a year to
spend money and enjoy all that the most
beautiful city in the world has to
offer.
I thought maybe we give him a peak of
how incredibly unpopular he is and how
people don't really care much for his
ownership or management style. (Some
people have used the word hate, but I
DON'T "hate" Peter Angelos. I don't even
know him, so how can I hate him?). For
the record, I HATE what he's done to
baseball in Baltimore, the Orioles and
my social life, both behind the
microphone and in "real" life. For me,
baseball was never a "job" -- it was an
extension of my life and my passion!
Spring training, Opening Day, holiday
games, the 4th of July, the All Star
Game, the pennant race, the playoffs,
the World Series, the hot stove season
and the promise of another spring.
My biological clock revolved nearly 100
percent around baseball.
This is a sick admission (as were the 19
chapters of embarrassing, shameless,
geeky love of the Orioles): Baseball
occupied a significant portion of nearly
every day of my life for 35 years!
Now, most baseball insiders consider the
Orioles and Peter Angelos' ownership to
be an industry-wide joke, if not a total
disgrace. And this comes from a group of
geniuses who have all conferred and
honestly believe that playing ALCS and
NLCS games simultaneously at 8:30 p.m.
on school nights is a grand idea. And
from folks, like the Oakland A's front
office, who think NOT allowing fans to
buy tickets into a half-empty ballpark
last night during an ALCS game is
another good idea. The entire upper deck
looked like my backyard pool did on Bank
Street between Labor Day and Memorial
Day.
Yet, much like the Orioles, the A's
would tell you business is just fine.
Yet, clearly, baseball's problems extend
way beyond the Chesapeake Bay.
Baseball is a total mess as an industry,
but let's fix one problem at a time,
huh?
Many of the few Orioles' corporate
sponsors who still exist do so because
they fear Angelos politically, not
because they truly want to support the
team or spend money. Some feel an
obligation, others just do it because
they always have.
And once they buy their season books,
most folks can't give the tickets away,
except when the Red Sox and Yankees come
to town.
LITERALLY!
If the Orioles attendance numbers are on
the up and up -- and who can ever think
they're honest again after giving us
"blue" Brian Roberts bobbleheads three
months ago? -- then there are CLEARLY
thousands upon thousands of full, unused
tickets in some executive's desk in
Ruxton. Maybe as many as a half a
million of them!
Those are tickets that are PAID FOR
ALREADY and no one wants to use them!
AND THEY'RE THE GOOD, EXPENSIVE SEATS!
The unused tickets don't affect Peter
Angelos' life. But it affects the
bellhops at the Sheraton. It affects the
bartenders at the DSX. It affects the
waitresses and waiters everywhere from
Hooters to the Hard Rock to Ruth's
Chris. It affects the cabbies. And it
affects the mojo of the city I love and
the place I call home.
Anyone who is even remotely connected
with anything in this city can get free
tickets for an Orioles game almost any
time with a mere phone call -- and
tickets many nights are only $5 if you
actually have to buy them -- and WE
STILL DON'T COME!
But our message about why we don't come
was completely lost on Peter Angelos
when we finally DID come back on Sept.
21. He didn't even take the time to try
to understand why a few thousand people
would come down to the ballpark on a
Thursday afternoon and raise hell and
hold up signs disparaging what was,
until he got involved in baseball and
the Orioles, a good name in the
community.
Instead of awakening on the Friday after
the rally feeling like we'd accomplished
something significant because the media
was creating a story with "legs," I
honestly felt bad.
I was pissed -- yet not surprised -- at
the media cover up by some
organizations, like David Ginsburg and
the Associated Press, who reported the
crowd at "nearly 1,000" throughout the
country and the world when it was
clearly in excess of 2,000 people and
any of the videos or pictures will
absolutely back that up.
I was actually amused that WBAL Radio --
Maryland's NEWS Leader -- was in the
middle of the biggest NEWS story of the
day in the city at 5:15 in rush hour
traffic with a live microphone and
NEVER, EVER alluded to the fact that
there was a major and clearly audible
protest going on. Not even when the
chants of "Elrod Hendricks" and "Jon
Miller" and "FREE THE BIRDS" were
ringing through the AM band on anyone's
radio who was tuning in.
Is that funny or just, flat-out pathetic
and sad?
Does Peter Angelos own the team or the
radio station's news department?
And, as the great Scott Garceau taught
me very early on in my journalism
career, when I was his intern at Channel
2 running for Little Caesar's pizza and
logging Washington Bullets games in an
editing suite -- "You only get one
chance to lose your credibility!"
As least Channel 2 and Jamie Costello
had the stones to acknowledge that there
was going to be a significant civic
rally to protest the Orioles before The
Rally happened. The other three
television stations -- all vying to get
weekend Oriole games for their stations
next season and beyond -- pretended
there was no Rally, just like WBAL
Radio.
And, of course, our "competitors" over
at Infinity are so busy cozying up to
Angelos and MASN in an attempt to steal
the flagship rights from WBAL to offset
their loss of the Ravens' rights, that
it's a transparent, daily embarrassment
so profound I don't even need to comment
on it.
Angelos ought to get in bed with
Infinity. They deserve each other!
All you need to do is put on MASN on any
afternoon -- why not, you're paying two
bucks for it in your Comcast bill every
month, right? -- and you can see where
Anita Marks and her employers are so
busy downing the orange Kool Aid and
trashing an effort that is so rooted in
honesty and civic concern that only an
out of towner or a fool couldn't see how
on the take for money they all look.
I got one phone call in the aftermath of
The Rally that shook me up and has
brought me back to you today with an
extension of FREE THE BIRDS.
A friend called 24 hours after The Rally
and laid down the same gauntlet that the
original Berlin Wall guy did. He asked
me if I had accomplished what I wanted,
basically pointing out that if all we
wanted to do was embarrass Angelos, have
him say more mindless and mean things in
the media and get some notoriety, that
we were pretty successful on that front.
We had a giant story in the New York
Times. We were all over ESPN. We were in
every major newspaper in the country. It
was a major media blitz.
I literally got 3,000 emails the day
after The Rally.
And I never, ever thought about The
Rally as a publicity stunt when it was
in progress. I looked at it as a conduit
for positive change for Baltimore -- the
first step in righting a major, major
wrong in our community.
But then my friend challenged me. He
said, "If we really want to enact real
change -- as in a new owner for the
Orioles and a way for all of us to go
back to loving the team and supporting
it and enjoying it like we do the Ravens
and putting some gusto back into our
collective summers -- and we MEANT it on
Sept. 21, then we still have more work
to do."
Maybe a HELLUVA lot of work, if Angelos'
initial intimate feelings about my
character and our intentions are any
indication of how he will combat what
will inevitably be thousands more of you
the next time around when we have "The
Rally: Party Two" at Camden Yards again
next spring.
Look, you all know that I wrote 19
chapters and bored many of you to death
my stories of baseball, my life, my
childhood and how it begat this crazy
little radio station.
I don't just think this is kinda, sorta
important -- I've devoted my entire life
to it over the past three months.
And I don't need this fight. I really
don't.
My life is good and happy and my little
radio station is successful and
profitable beyond even my wildest dreams
as a kid. I have all of the money and
respect that I need to fill five
lifetimes.
And back in June, I was happy just
waiting out another dog summer until the
Ravens' season started, just like the
rest of you. But I'm tired of doing
that. And I'm tired of feeling crappy
and negative and miserable about the
Orioles.
They're here, we paid for them, that
stadium is beautiful, this city is
amazing and we deserve better than we're
getting. And now we're demanding what we
feel entitlement to: a baseball team and
an organization and ownership group we
can support and love and be proud of, in
victory or defeat!
I feel very galvanized to create change
based on the incredible, heartfelt
feedback I got in the days following
Sept. 21. I was very moved, especially
after meeting and touching so many
people who feel the exact same way I do
-- only they don't have a voice or a
microphone or radio station or a
rallying point.
Well, now you have a place, a place that
my Pop would've come to like he did to
WCBM and Charley Eckman and Colts games
and trivia contests back in the 1970's
when I was a kid in Dundalk.
And then I keep thinking about you
incredible people who came downtown and
followed a silly idea that took on an
ocean wave of support in the most
grassroots way possible. And I owe it to
all of you to not let this thing die on
the vine, especially since so many of
you told me not to, that you had my back
and that you feel the same way I do and
you're ready to fight and rally and
protest until we get the BALTIMORE
Orioles back.
I've had a dozen letters that have made
me burst into tears, stories of
friendship and love and mothers and
fathers and 33rd Street and how much
baseball means to them and how much the
Orioles mean to them.
And I can't imagine a more joyous
celebration of our city's love of
baseball and the Orioles has ever been
staged anywhere, including 33rd Street,
on that day last month.
THAT was some SERIOUS "old school"
Oriole Magic on Sept. 21. And if you
doubt me, just go watch the video and
look at the pictures.
Most people who were there said it was
the most fun they've ever had at a
baseball game at Camden Yards.
The Elrod cheers. The "Eddie, Eddie"
chants. The O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheers,
reverberating off the concrete. The walk
out of the bowl of the stadium and
feeling those walkways shudder and rock
with the echoes of the sound of "FREE
THE BIRDS." And, of course, the walk
through the bowl of the stadium, which
took more than 30 minutes.
The pictures and the videos will last a
lifetime, but there's still plenty of
work to be done and more messages to
send.
The whole day was kind of surreal, right
down to me sitting out in front of the
stadium waiting for my lawyer to arrive
because the word was that I was going to
be arrested at the front gate. The rumor
was that they were going to drum up some
goofy charge to try to put me in jail so
I couldn't enjoy the rally myself. And
they also brought in the S.W.A.T. team!
(For the record, I've never been
arrested for anything…not that I
couldn't have been arrested at different
points, but so far, so good!)
I have promised myself that throughout
this fight to FREE THE BIRDS, that I was
going to be the bigger guy, to take the
highest road possible because it's time
for me to grow up personally and be a
role model, especially considering the
owner of the team has lacked the class
and dignity to answer questions, let
alone understand how you and I think and
why we love his baseball team.
And the arrogance and mean-spiritedness
in his most recent interviews and his
lame actions make every stupid gesture
I've ever made toward FREE THE BIRDS
seem sorta worthwhile.
It wasn't easy waking up on Friday
morning after attempting to do something
good for our community and having the
owner of MY baseball team taking almost
comical personal shots at me, especially
when it's so clear that he's so devoid
of the facts that it's almost kinda
frightening. He doesn't know me, or you
and doesn't appear to want to get to
know any of us anytime soon.
He came off as the mean-spirited,
miserable, fabulously wealthy and out of
touch old man we all think he is.
And this happened on the same day that I
wrote an honest, passionate and
damn-near adult-like letter with the
facts about what's happened in our
community regarding baseball. If you
doubt that baseball's dying in
Baltimore, just ask anyone you know or
work with or are related to just who is
playing in these playoffs or to name any
of these players. Ask around and see if
anybody even knows the names of the
starting pitchers for any of these
remaining four teams.
And, it's my belief that once you lose
interest in a sport as a whole, it's
doomed. Especially with no hope at all
on the horizon as long as Peter Angelos
owns the team.
I personally believe the biggest reason
is that the best players in the game
will NOT come here to play. Just wait
another 60 days, once free agency is in
bloom. The current regime will say that
all of the MASN money -- money that you
and I are footing the bill for every
month when our Comcast bill shows up,
basically baseball "welfare" for this
ownership group -- will assure that
they'll get the big names. I'll believe
that when I see it. I'm not convinced
that Miguel Tejada won't ask for a trade
yet again. And I believe that come
spring training all the leaks in the
boat will once again reappear, even when
the Orioles offers appear to be well
above market value for second-tier free
agents.
Even Alex Rodriguez, who has to be DYING
to get out of New York, would never,
EVER agree to come here, even if Angelos
kicked more money IN for him!
And, as most of you know, I'm pretty
much an optimist by nature.
(Think about my Ravens coverage -- have
I EVER been pessimistic about the
Ravens?)
I haven't called Peter Angelos names in
years. But, I'll gladly take his name
calling in the newspapers and laugh as
long as he doesn't come and demand my
lunch money. He's already squeezing me
for two bucks a month on my Comcast bill
and that's plenty.
I've decided at 38 that I'm going to
allow my honest, positive actions to
speak louder than any of my words.
And the rest of the media who have
behaved like flip floppers or just plain
cowards can take all the potshots and
dole out all of the personal abuse and
attacks they feel necessary over the
winter in my direction. I know what I'm
doing and why I'm doing it and I'm not
afraid.
And I generally post my honest and
heartfelt feelings all over my website,
so there's no agenda here other than
trying to support Baltimore sports in a
positive fashion and have a fun, full
and productive life.
And I'll gladly lay it out as honestly
as I've always done during my 15 years
on radio.
So, just why am I bothering to keep this
FREE THE BIRDS thing going?
There are probably a zillion reasons why
I'd want FREE THE BIRDS to succeed in
getting the eventual goal of the sale of
the Orioles to another ownership group.
But here's a short list:
I love the Orioles and I've always loved
the Orioles.
This city needs the Orioles to be
strong. It's hurting Baltimore
economically and everyone is scared to
death to write the story or report the
facts.
My summers aren't the same because
I've loved baseball my whole life.
My job is NOT any fun six months of
the year, which is really why I retired
two years ago from a daily show.
I own a sports radio station that has
not spent one nanosecond of airtime in
nine years discussing anything of
substance regarding baseball and the
Orioles. The situational baseball talk
-- the stats and the actual strategy of
the game -- has long been an
afterthought. What difference does
pulling a pitcher or batter in a
late-inning circumstance make when the
team hasn't played in a meaningful game
since October 1997?
Being that major league baseball is
half of MY business too, it's depressing
for us to consider having a baseball
team that has mistreated virtually
everyone in the city and no one cares
about them…most people almost hate on
them privately, really!
Oh, did I mention I love the Orioles.
It's funny how many media people (and
even Peter Angelos' best friend) have
referred to FREE THE BIRDS as a
publicity stunt. I suppose if it WERE
just a stunt, I'd have claimed victory
and gone home.
But, NOT ONE FAN -- not ONE! -- has come
up to me and called it a publicity stunt
or said even one mean-spirited thing.
But you either get it or you don't. And
many, many people can see for themselves
that I'm the real McCoy and our radio
station is the real McCoy because we are
just like you -- we ARE the community,
so we're angry like you are and we don't
have to conjure up any phony portrayal
of what's happened with baseball over
the past decade here in Baltimore. We
FEEL it in our lives because it was
always a significant part of our lives
and all of our friends' lives and it
just isn't anymore. It was the HEARTBEAT
AND THE PRIDE of this city really for my
entire life until Peter Angelos bought
this team -- and as Phil Jackman would
point out, the two cats before him were
no great shakes either.
And as for the media here in Baltimore,
other than Keith Mills and Brent Harris
and Joe Platania and the guys at my
joint, what could any of them POSSIBLY
KNOW about OUR Baltimore Orioles?
Look, I like Peter Schmuck and Mark
Viviano and Scott Garceau and a bunch of
the people who weren't raised here --
they're nice people -- but they will
never be like us and have the same thing
we have with the Orioles. Their
childhoods were spent differently, and
that's cool. Schmuck went to Angels
games as a kid with his Mom, who loved
the Red Sox. Viviano was in St. Louis
bleeding red. And everyone knows Garceau
has a Ravens' Super Bowl ring and the
only thing that could have made it
better would've been to be green and
gold with a 'G' on the facing.
They get IT…but they don't get the
Orioles.
The Orioles have been the absolute focal
point of my life longer than any other
thing in my life besides my mother.
And what I found out on September 21st
was that there are THOUSANDS and
THOUSANDS of people who feel the same
way I do.
And we really don't need John Eisenberg,
who lived and died with the Cowboys and
even wrote a book about it (as well as
the Birds!), or Rick Maese, who simply
worships Peter Schmuck instead of any
sports franchise, to explain it or
understand it fully.
And you can't expect the out of town
media people to understand it. You just
can’t and it's not their fault. It's not
THEIR team to save -- and they feel as
though it's not their job to save the
team -- it's OURS!
But Vince Bagli and John Steadman and
Charley Eckman and Chris Thomas are long
gone from the airwaves and newspaper.
So, someone needs to do something and
I'm not going to wait any longer until
we have some tragedy like what happened
to the Colts or the Bullets happen again
to this town or this baseball team.
And if that's arrogant, oh well, I've
been called much worse.
Like an "instigator" or a "demagogue" or
a "fool" or "a very unimportant person
with delusions of grandeur."
And, in reality, Peter Angelos wasn't
calling ME those names. He was calling
YOU those names. Because I am, really,
just like you: I've loved the Orioles my
whole life.
As much as Peter Angelos talks about
Baltimore and sports and the Orioles,
what do you think he really knows about
Orioles baseball and its history that
you and I haven't already forgotten?
How many times do you honestly think
Peter Angelos rounded up the kids in the
station wagon outta Highlandtown and
went to an Orioles games? Or rose to his
feet in an O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheer?
How do you think HE'D fare in a
conversation about the 1979 Orioles or
the 1983 Orioles or where he was the
night Gregg Olson uncorked the wild
pitch in Toronto?
It just leaves me even more sad now,
that he somehow sees FREE THE BIRDS as a
one-person vendetta, like the
loudmouthed kid from Dundalk who loved
the Orioles since birth has somehow
become some sort of Jim Jones, selling
anti-orange Kool Aid to the poor people
of Baltimore.
(For crissakes, he called me a
"demagogue!" Imagine my wife and I
laying in bed with the laptop at 6 a.m.
the morning after the rally going to
www.websters.com to look up what the
word even meant! THAT ALONE is a
priceless memory of FREE THE BIRDS! And
it somehow makes me feel better now that
I've shared it with a wider audience
because it's TRUE!)
Here's the saddest story I have from The
Rally, and it happened 10 days before
event.
In the weeks leading up to The Rally, I
went around to the local vendors outside
the ballpark on Conway and Howard
Streets and distributed shirts for the
cause (because I'm such a "huckster,"
according to one media source. I just
call it common sense!)
There was a young African-American kid
in his mid-20's who was selling peanuts,
water, soda, that sort of thing. He was
wearing a Red Sox jersey because Boston
was in town on that Monday night.
Like I did to each and every vendor
around the ballpark, I offered to give
him a FREE THE BIRDS shirt if he'd just
agree to wear it that night and promote
the cause.
You know what he said to me?
"Nasty, I'm with your cause, I really
am," he pleaded with me. "But if I wear
a Red Sox shirt tonight, I'll make
another hundred bucks I wouldn't make if
I wear your shirt because the Boston
fans all want to buy from me. And, man,
I've got three kids at home to feed."
I immediately acquiesced and understood.
And if THAT'S not the saddest story
that's come out of this mess that Peter
Angelos is responsible for, then nothing
is.
What the hell good is having a team that
no one in the community is proud of or
feels represents what the city and area
are all about?
And now Stan Charles and Pressbox have
decided to do a letter-writing campaign
to get Baltimore back on the jerseys.
Here's a prediction. At some point soon,
the Orioles will announce that Baltimore
is back on the jerseys and Stan will
take his fair share of the credit. Good
for him! I like Stan, listened to him
when I was a kid, even called his
post-game show a few times when I worked
at The News American.
So now Stan and our very own Drew
Forrester will finally claim victory for
something so stupid, yet so unbelievably
sensible, but it won't mean ANYTHING to
the bottom line of the way this
franchise does business, the way they
treat their own employees and certainly
won't do anything to help their identity
in this city or with prospective free
agents that it will take to make the
team competitive again.
For me, the ship has sailed on silly,
cosmetic things like BALTIMORE on the
road jerseys.
After all, they only wear the road
jerseys ON THE ROAD…and no one watches
the damn games on TV anymore anyway!
It won't bring back the first pitch that
Brian Billick and Ray Lewis never threw.
It won't rewrite the "2131" night when
Angelos made a mockery of the event with
his speech. It won't appease Elrod
Hendricks' family, who is still awaiting
a phone call. It won't bring back Pat
Gillick or Davey Johnson or Jon Miller
or Mike Mussina. It won't bring back the
years from 1993 on when this ship has
slowly sunk to the bottom of the sports
world.
My Pop believed in democracy and free
speech. He would have told me to speak
up and fight the power. My Pop belonged
to unions all his life, walked picket
lines, fought the man. He was the kinda
guy Peter Angelos would've represented
back in the day at Bethlehem Steel.
So, with the urging of several thousand
people via email and several thousand
more that I met at the three Ravens
preseason games, I decided to have a
little courage to be the one person who
spoke up and rallied the fans of
Baltimore baseball to Camden Yards on
Sept. 21.
We brought a peaceful, wonderful civic
message, but a very stern one.
And, sadly for Mr. Angelos and much to
his chagrin, I am but one small voice --
truly a "very unimportant person with
delusions of grandeur."
Art Modell told me that if I ever see
Angelos I should tell him that
everything he said in The Sun on Sept.
22 "was absolutely true, but I still
resent him saying it." You gotta love
Art Modell!
But I'm one of very, very many who are
-- just liked my quote in the AP story
-- fed up with the embarrassment that
the Orioles have become.
Look, it's not like I'm some deranged
Hunter S. Thompson kook.
But it's pretty simple. I want my team
back and I want it back while I can
still chew solid food. Time is a wastin'
and the entire sport is dying in this
city. I know because his customers ARE
my customers. And unlike him and the
Orioles, I listen to my customers.
And last I checked, SOMEONE is
responsible, and every single person
I've spoken to or dealt with who works
in, or who used to work in, The
Warehouse points to HIM.
And HE OWNS THE F-ING TEAM!
He IS responsible for this mess. ALL of
it!
And he SHOULD be blamed.
And if he thought Sept. 21 was an
embarrassment to him or his family,
maybe he should go to his ballpark and
sit with HIS family in the upper deck
with an Orioles cap on when the Yankees
come to town. Or maybe when the Red Sox
come?
There's NOTHING more embarrassing to a
Baltimore fan that to have to endure an
evening at Camden Yards when those teams
come to town. NOTHING!
And if it gets personal and I get called
some names in the paper by him or by
some jackass on WJFK, then, oh well! I
can handle it. It makes me laugh,
honestly, because I know I'm right. And
it's easy to fight when you know in your
heart that you're doing the right thing.
But I'm absolutely, positively DONE with
name calling or stone throwing and so is
this radio station. Maybe it's because
I've done too much hot yoga, but I turn
38 years old tomorrow and I'm basically
a peaceful, loving person and I'm doing
my best to become a responsible grown up
in my middle age.
But, to me, leading this "crusade" isn't
really about me at all. Sure, I stand to
benefit, but we ALL stand to benefit by
having baseball and the Orioles back in
our lives in a positive fashion.
Owning a sports radio station in what
has essentially become a one-sport town
is not NEARLY as much fun as it should
be, to be honest with you. And it's all
become a drag, dealing with the Orioles,
their shenanigans, stories, tales, woes
and drama. From steroids to disgruntled
players to losing to excuses and
arrogant and bitter statements -- it's
not the losing that sucks, it's absolute
lack of EFFORT and CLASS and DIGNITY put
into doing anything that any normal,
struggling business would do.
Especially, when it's SO F-ING EASY TO
DO, selling the Orioles and their magic
and their heritage to Baltimore's
citizens and sports fans!
I suppose I'm the first one in the local
media with the stones to tell him what
I've known for a decade -- that he's
VERY, VERY unpopular!
And that's not MY fault -- it's HIS!
I know why I don't like him or respect
him and why I don't support his baseball
team, but every one of those thousands
of empty green seats every night
represent all of us who stay away and
all of our many reasons.
It's not ONE thing -- it's EVERYTHING!
Quite frankly, it would take more time
and more space than I have here, today.
And in light of his most recent series
of remarks -- much of it dedicated to
personally attacking me and my character
and intentions (and he doesn't know me
at all and doesn't care to) -- I'm going
to prove to him, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, just how many people don't like
him and how many are angry with him
about how the "Oriole World" and
Baltimore's downtown economy have been
rocked since he entered the picture in
1993.
So beginning today there's a whole
website devoted to all things about The
Rally and the aftermath of FREE THE
BIRDS. It's called
www.freethebirds.net and it's still
very much in its infancy.
It will be a place for disgruntled fans
to come, sign up, post their pictures
and videos from the rally for the world
to see.
But most importantly, beginning today,
with your help and support, we will
unionize!
Just go to the website and all the
details are there. It's absolutely free
to join The Union.
And I suppose, Angelos will now
disparage me again and The Union of
Baltimore Baseball Fans and he'll watch
us walk back into Camden Yards 10 times
stronger the next time with 10 times the
media coverage.
And there WILL be a next time, unless he
sells the team or makes a massive,
massive adjustment in his management
style, which I quite frankly believe is
impossible given his attitude and
arrogance over the past decade.
Much like many of those in those
asbestos lawsuits did a generation
earlier, we will unionize to symbolize
our unity in a cause.
And what could Peter Angelos possibly
say to disparage the same kind of union
that made him a wealthy man?
We want the Orioles back and we want to
feel good about wearing an orange and
black cap again.
We demand to be heard, respected and
treated with dignity. We are NOT your
customers -- we are fans! Customers buy
a product -- a fan devotes his or her
life.
And that should be completely respected,
if not rewarded, and it hasn't been.
In an effort to promote a totally
positive vibe and to make sure we're
sending the right message to the
baseball world, this website will be a
complete and total non-profit endeavor!
WNST nor myself -- and NO ONE and I mean
NO ONE -- will make any money off of
FREE THE BIRDS.
The idea is to raise money that we can
give to Little League programs or local
sports initiatives in Baltimore. At the
radio station, we always get solicited
for stuff for the community and quite
frankly we can't give to everyone who
asks so we find it hard to find a
balance in what we do. Maybe some of
those requests could be honored with
some dough from the FREE THE BIRDS swag
we'll sell.
And, yes, we have plenty of ideas for
T-shirts and hats and it will be stuff
you'll want to buy and wear proudly,
just like the initial FREE THE BIRDS
shirts!
You need to give me a week to pull it
all together, but we'll be doing our
best to premier the shirts and swag next
Saturday night when we host our first
official Union event: The "FREE THE
BIRDS Delusions of Grandeur World
Series" party will be held at The
Playbook on the east side of town (my
side of town) for Game 1.
Details will be on the website, but the
basic deal is this: we'll sell shirts to
make dough for charity, we'll have some
auction items, we'll decorate the place
in orange and black and we'll all wear
our Orioles gear and act like idiots
rooting for or against New York, St.
Louis, Detroit or Oakland. And we'll
high five, drink beer and try to imagine
what the Orioles could be again one day
if we can enact positive change.
And we'll raise money and have a helluva
lot of fun along the way.
And we'll organize other events, mixers,
etc. all with the goal of getting
baseball back into the youth of our
community and getting this team sold to
someone who cares as much as we do.
And by joining The Union, you will be
committing -- and I mean beyond the
shadow of a doubt, a true commitment --
that you'll be joining us in "The Rally:
Part Two" next year at Camden Yards if
the Orioles aren't sold or significantly
changed by April, which really means
February in baseball terms.
If you join The Union, be prepared to
give up a weeknight at Camden Yards and
nine bucks next spring. And be prepared
to walk out again at 8:44 (an obvious
choice for a walkout, I think you'd
agree!)
If you sign up to join the union, you
MUST come and you must march peacefully
and respectfully in a protest demanding
positive change for the Orioles and for
Baltimore. Everything that happened on
Sept. 21 will happen again -- and maybe
tenfold the next time.
We didn't get in Sports Illustrated
three weeks ago. My goal is to get the
cover in the spring.
The media tried to make a fool of me,
personally, on the crowd count, but I
don't want that to happen the next time.
We will have a united effort to know
exactly how many people we have coming
and we'll prepare accordingly.
And we'll go back to the ballpark
completely united the next time and
ready to march again.
But we need ALL of the people who feel
the way we do. I honestly think there
are THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of you out
there, many who would fly in from
wherever you are for the next event. So,
please, spread the word about
www.freethebirds.net to anyone you
know who would want to join.
You will not be hearing about this
website on any of the major media
outlets (or at least I don't believe you
will) -- TV, radio and print ALL
basically ignored The Rally until right
before the last minute.
I'm serious, I'm dedicated to the cause
of a positive change for Baltimore
baseball and WNST is galvanized by a
strong staff. Every person you hear on
the airwaves at WNST love the Orioles as
much as the station owner does.
And we're going to be heard. And we're
going to get louder and louder until our
message is received. And we're going to
do whatever it takes to get the Orioles
back because it's THAT important to us.
I believe we'll get the team a new owner
in the same way that I believed that
night that I sat at Bohager's with a
bottle of champagne on ice waiting for
the Ravens, only to see Jacksonville get
the ball.
I believe in the same way I knew that
getting the Ravens would one day bring a
Super Bowl championship.
I still believe that what we did on
Sept. 21 will bring about change, but it
won't be easy.
But I remember those Sundays without the
Colts for 13 years and I know what these
past nine years have felt like every
spring and summer night.
I want change. I demand change. And I
need help!
I hope you join The Union on the website
www.freethebirds.net and I hope you
buy some cool T-shirts and I hope you
stop by our World Series party next
Saturday at The Playbook.
We've only just begun.
But we'll get there.
You'll see. |
