RShack
12-09-2007, 04:48 PM
On Dec 9, 1965, the Frank Robinson trade was announced.
At the time, it was controversial and a little bit scary in Baltimore. Milt Pappas was our ace. Frank Robinson was a scary black guy who carried a gun, didn't take any crap from anybody, and who the Reds thought was over the hill. While nobody used the label "clubhouse cancer" back then, that's basically what a lot of people were worried about.
IMO, this began the 3rd era of the modern Orioles: The First Era was Paul Richards. He was mainly a wheeler-dealer who liked the idea of trading everybody. Not only did he once do a 17-player deal with the MFY's, he almost traded the entire 25-man roster for the 25-man roster of the KC A's.
The Second Era was AM's daddy. Lee MacPhail took over in '58 and stayed 7 years. His own daddy, Larry MacPhail, ran 3 different teams, owned some of them, and is in the HOF. Larry's son Lee is the guy who built the Baltimore organization from top to bottom. He's the guy who made the O's the best organization in baseball. He's the guy who got the whole Oriole Way underway. Within just a couple years, the O's were contending with the MFY's, who were *way* more dominant then than they are now. (Back then, the MFY's went to the WS 4 years out of every 5, like clockwork.)
The Third Era began with the FRobby trade. With the best farm system of anybody's in place, and providing fresh ML'ers just about every year, they went outside the org to add whichever parts were missing. Immediately after he set up the FRobby trade and left, the O's were a monster, won the AL by a mile, and swept the Dodgers. Immediately after his successor did the Mike Cuellar trade, they went to the WS three years in a row.
Lee MacPhail's organization pretty much lasted until Hoffberger sold the team in '79. That's when the Fourth Era began. We can also call it the era of "Farm system? What farm system?" The last good position player they signed was Cal in '78. After Hoffberger sold it to EBW, the organization was left to rot. The next guy they signed who wound up playing everyday was BRob who they signed in '99. That's a 21 year gap. That's an awful long time to produce absolutely nobody. In the middle of the Fourth Era, PA tried to buy a ring. Didn't work. But that was just an island of unsustainable almost-success during the Fourth Era of organizational suckitude.
While different people have different opinions, I think Flanny *tried* to get the Fifth Era started. He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to rebuild the system. And he has. Sorta. The lower-level MiL guys look pretty good. But Flanny also seems to have been in over his head, evidently didn't know exactly how to fix an entire organization, had one hand tied behind his back, and managed to make some bad decisions about ML signings. Oh, well. Now we've got AM. He appears to know how more than Flanny knew how. No surprise, really. AM grew up with this stuff. Flanny grew up learning to be a pitcher. Different skill sets. Plus, AM appears to not have one hand tied behind his back.
So, this is the Fifth Era, and it's just debatable about whether it starts with AM or whether it really started with Flanny worrying about the farm system for the first time in a quarter-century. Regardless of that, we'll see how it goes. It took AM's daddy 2 years to get a contender, based on young pitching and one big bat, and 8 years to finally win it all based on more of everything.
Times are different now, but baseball is still baseball, and nobody stays on top forever, not even the MFY's, and certainly not the Red Sox. Somebody's gotta be next, it might as well be us. That would be good for everybody: It would be good for us.
It would be good for the AL East.
It would be good for baseball.
It would get AM's ticket to Cooperstown punched.
It would make the idiots in Bristol, Conn humble up and look beyond the end of their collective nose.
It would be a good thing all around. Personally, I'm betting it happens.
ps: AM's daddy shoulda first won it all in '64 instead of '66. That was Brooks' MVP year. But they folded at the end. Good thing the Phillies folded even worse, because everybody remembers them folding and completely forgets about the O's folding. At the time, it was heart-breaking. But people loved them anyway. That was before message boards. People didn't hate their team back then.
At the time, it was controversial and a little bit scary in Baltimore. Milt Pappas was our ace. Frank Robinson was a scary black guy who carried a gun, didn't take any crap from anybody, and who the Reds thought was over the hill. While nobody used the label "clubhouse cancer" back then, that's basically what a lot of people were worried about.
IMO, this began the 3rd era of the modern Orioles: The First Era was Paul Richards. He was mainly a wheeler-dealer who liked the idea of trading everybody. Not only did he once do a 17-player deal with the MFY's, he almost traded the entire 25-man roster for the 25-man roster of the KC A's.
The Second Era was AM's daddy. Lee MacPhail took over in '58 and stayed 7 years. His own daddy, Larry MacPhail, ran 3 different teams, owned some of them, and is in the HOF. Larry's son Lee is the guy who built the Baltimore organization from top to bottom. He's the guy who made the O's the best organization in baseball. He's the guy who got the whole Oriole Way underway. Within just a couple years, the O's were contending with the MFY's, who were *way* more dominant then than they are now. (Back then, the MFY's went to the WS 4 years out of every 5, like clockwork.)
The Third Era began with the FRobby trade. With the best farm system of anybody's in place, and providing fresh ML'ers just about every year, they went outside the org to add whichever parts were missing. Immediately after he set up the FRobby trade and left, the O's were a monster, won the AL by a mile, and swept the Dodgers. Immediately after his successor did the Mike Cuellar trade, they went to the WS three years in a row.
Lee MacPhail's organization pretty much lasted until Hoffberger sold the team in '79. That's when the Fourth Era began. We can also call it the era of "Farm system? What farm system?" The last good position player they signed was Cal in '78. After Hoffberger sold it to EBW, the organization was left to rot. The next guy they signed who wound up playing everyday was BRob who they signed in '99. That's a 21 year gap. That's an awful long time to produce absolutely nobody. In the middle of the Fourth Era, PA tried to buy a ring. Didn't work. But that was just an island of unsustainable almost-success during the Fourth Era of organizational suckitude.
While different people have different opinions, I think Flanny *tried* to get the Fifth Era started. He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to rebuild the system. And he has. Sorta. The lower-level MiL guys look pretty good. But Flanny also seems to have been in over his head, evidently didn't know exactly how to fix an entire organization, had one hand tied behind his back, and managed to make some bad decisions about ML signings. Oh, well. Now we've got AM. He appears to know how more than Flanny knew how. No surprise, really. AM grew up with this stuff. Flanny grew up learning to be a pitcher. Different skill sets. Plus, AM appears to not have one hand tied behind his back.
So, this is the Fifth Era, and it's just debatable about whether it starts with AM or whether it really started with Flanny worrying about the farm system for the first time in a quarter-century. Regardless of that, we'll see how it goes. It took AM's daddy 2 years to get a contender, based on young pitching and one big bat, and 8 years to finally win it all based on more of everything.
Times are different now, but baseball is still baseball, and nobody stays on top forever, not even the MFY's, and certainly not the Red Sox. Somebody's gotta be next, it might as well be us. That would be good for everybody: It would be good for us.
It would be good for the AL East.
It would be good for baseball.
It would get AM's ticket to Cooperstown punched.
It would make the idiots in Bristol, Conn humble up and look beyond the end of their collective nose.
It would be a good thing all around. Personally, I'm betting it happens.
ps: AM's daddy shoulda first won it all in '64 instead of '66. That was Brooks' MVP year. But they folded at the end. Good thing the Phillies folded even worse, because everybody remembers them folding and completely forgets about the O's folding. At the time, it was heart-breaking. But people loved them anyway. That was before message boards. People didn't hate their team back then.