Pitchers and Catchers Report

With the players descending on Florida and Arizona over the next few days/weeks, Spring has sprung, kids, and it slud into second base like an Ol’ Diz Dean expression.  The Baltimore Orioles minor league training camp is about a mile from my house.  No real activity yet, after all the O’s will be doing the most of their work at Edward Smith Stadium here in Sarasota.

Some thoughts on the O’s:

• I am not a Peter Angelos baseball’s answer to Napoleon fan.  I believe that what he has done to the Orioles since he bought the team is the worst thing to happen to Baltimore since Edgar Allan Poe died there.
• What Angelos Napoleon did to the Washington Nationals all in the name of the almighty dollar was a sham and a shame.
• Baltimore used to be the class of the league, so much so that there was an Oriole way to doing things.  That meant excelling at fundamentals.  Now the Oriole way is to sign aging free agents to mult-year deals, while letting the stars of your team get away.
• The O’s stadium, Camden Yards, opened in 1992.  That gem of a ballpark is 18 years old.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you should make a pilgrimage.
• Cal Ripken, Jr. on Brooks Robinson from the Sporting News:
  • SN:Do you remember the first time you got to meet Brooks?
    CR: I do. When my dad first came to the big leagues. I was about 14 or 15 years old, and I had the chance to go down and say hello to Brooksie. He didn’t disappoint; he was as nice of a person as I thought he was. Took all the time in the world for me. I still have yet to find a person in the world who says a negative thing about Brooksie. He was my man.
• You can still wear a Number 5 or Number 8 O’s jersey and wear it proud.
• My favorite foul ball story is about the time my friend, The Umpire, and I attended a game at Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street.  Willie Wilson hit it off of Ben McDonald.
• Can you attend a Spring Training game and cheer for neither team?  That’s what I’ll be doing in March when I take The Coach to see his beloved Yankees play the O’s.

It’s a little bit late for this, doncha think?  The Orioles’ 30 year lease to use Ed Smith stadium is dependent on a major renovation project being approved by the local government.  A citizens group in Sarasota is suing over making those renovations to on the heels of the players reporting to said stadium.  I’m a firm believer in doing what we can to boost the economy and in responsible government.

What could be more responsible than renovating an aging stadium to boost the local economy?