Soccer Dad

Baseball Musings Thoughts

In "Invading Baltimore" Baseball Musings cites an article in a Baltimore Sun article about the preponderance of Yankee fans at Camden yards.
I had the perverse pleasure - OK, it was no pleasure at all - of attending two games of a four game sweep by the Yankees in August 2003. With my two Yankee fans sons (and some other people.) What astounded me was that the entire upper deck - where we were sitting - seemed to be filled with Yankee fans.
I talked to the people sitting next to us. One time it was a couple from Pennsylvania, another time it was a couple from (I think) New Jersey. Since seats are not available in Yankee stadium these people (admittedly a small sample size) made a vacation of coming down to Baltimore and seeing their favorite team. Nearly a decade of mismanagement has cost the team the loyalty of their fans, so there are plenty of seats available. Even with the improvement this year, people haven't returned to their seat buying habits of old. (I'm sure season tickets are way down. Earlier Baseball Musings had noted that the Orioles had an auction of an opening day suite. Fact is that a few years ago, all the suites were taken by corporate sponsors. Now there are empty suites and it has nothing to do with the Nationals.) The place where there are probably the fewest season ticket holders is the upper deck; hence the invasion of upper deck Yankee fans.

Tejada
Since my boys have become baseball aware, they've preferred the Yankees, the choice between their father's bad team and their grandfather's great team hasn't been much of a choice at all. At the beginning of last year one of my boys started showing some interest in the Orioles (after all they had a good two months at the beginning of the season). But this year we went to the next level. For the first time since they've been baseball fans the Orioles probably have a more exciting player than anyone on the Yankees (Cal was at the end of his career; Mussina was great but the Yankees had pitchers nearly as good or better). This year though, what Yankee is more exciting than Miguel Tejada? (Well maybe A-Rod.) We got my boys Tejada t-shirts and they love them. Tejada is simply one of the best free agent acquisitions of all time. (Right up there with Raffy 1994-1998.)
47-34
At midpoint in 1989 the surprising Baltimore Orioles stood at 47-34 and were looking pretty good. That's the time when I realized, for sure, that the team would do well. Alas they went 40-41 the rest of the year, but not a bad year, especially when they lost 107 the year before and set a record for consecutive losses at the beginning of the season.
Last week I thought that the O's would easily reach that mark this year, but after the six game losing streak they have to win four more straight. I'm doubtful that they will reach it now.
The Washington Nationals, though are poised to reach that record. Which is interesting because Frank Robinson managed both the 89 Orioles and this year's Nationals. He also managed the 1982 Giants another team that far exceeded expectations. Other than those three years with his teams vastly exceeding expectations, Frank Robinson's managing career hasn't exactly been stellar. That begs the question as to whether there's a common thread that explains the surprising 1982 Giants, 1989 Orioles and 2005 Nationals. In "Men at Work", George Will argued that the defense of the 1989 Orioles was their secret weapon. Or was it Greg Olson as Chad Cordero is this year for the Nationals? I really don't know but I wonder if anyone would look into the phenomenon of Frank Robinson's three outstanding years as manager.
BTW, if there's a Baltimore Washington World Series (or even if both teams make the playoffs) I'm sure that Peter Angelos will regret fighting the appearance of a team in Washington.

Posted by SoccerDad at June 30, 2005 6:48 AM