Peter Angelos makes a clubhouse appearance

[SilentJames]

How is firing Davey Johnson the best decision for the club? He let Moose walk to NY.

I'm not saying that Angelos is without fault. He and Davey never got along, in Angelos' mind the team might be better off in an environment where the ownership and management at least talked to one another. He wasn't willing to give Mussina the big money/ years deal - felt that the likes of Scott Erickson could anchor the staff.

I'm not going to try to ameliorate his tenure, he made very very poor decisions. But he is not the cartoon super-villain that people make him out to be.

[Ampontan]

They also spoke to Louis Angelos in the clubhouse. He said signing Jones to a long term contract was huge,and next we would like to sign Wieters long term.

This is extremely interesting. Wieters is a Boras client. We know that Boras will want a lot of money for his premium clients. We know that they often leave for new teams instead of stay. We know that PA had problems with Boras dating back to Ben McDonald, IIRC, and the team has only begun drafting Boras top tier clients recently. (Wieters the first?)

How this plays out should tell us quite a bit about the direction of the franchise in the future.

N.B.: This is only premium clients I'm talking about. Mike Flanagan once said Boras was easier to deal with for other clients. They've included David Newhan, David Segui, and Rodrigo Lopez. Lopez did go to arbitration one year (and lost), but that's not such a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

[Ampontan]

He reminds me of Hyman Roth in "Godfather 2" but the voice was very different.

Never saw that movie, but it is apparent from the video that he is intelligent and carries himself like the very successful businessman he is.

[Frobby]

It's pretty funny to always read what you guys assume about PA- 99% of it is wrong. There's a ton I'd love to say, but can't. One thing- he comes to TONS of games. He's also very close with certain members of the team and coaching staff- very close.

Also, one day he will get some credit for hiring Buck and DD. Without saying much more, neither we're popular choices in the warehouse.

The city needs to cut him some slack at this point and just enjoy the ride.

GO BIRDS!

I think it is ridiculous when people suggest Angelos doesn't care about the Orioles because he is rarely seen in public at a game and rarely makes public statements about the team. First of all, nobody buys a baseball team and doesn't want that team to succeed. Second, Angelos was villified when he did make public statements about the team and kept a higher profile, so he wisely took a step back. He has made a lot of terrible mistakes as the Orioles' owner, but seems at long last to have learned from those mistakes. Our front office seems to be working very smoothly, the GM is in sync with the manager, and Angelos is staying out of the way, for the most part. I'm glad he stopped by the locker room to lend his support, and now we don't need to see him until next October. He can watch the games in his suite and do what he needs to do to support his front office behind the scenes.

[MemorialStadKid]

I remember someone here once said that PGA sounds like "Frank Drebin with a Baltimore accent."

As someone who is not a fan of his Orioles ownership, I do respect what he has done for Baltimore City. VERY nice to see him actually talking to players and interacting in a positive way. Maybe this truly is a major turning point on multiple levels.

MSK

p.s. Was up for the last 48 hours at the ALDS. Burnt out in the best possible way.

[cmurter]

I think it is ridiculous when people suggest Angelos doesn't care about the Orioles because he is rarely seen in public at a game and rarely makes public statements about the team. First of all, nobody buys a baseball team and doesn't want that team to succeed. Second, Angelos was villified when he did make public statements about the team and kept a higher profile, so he wisely took a step back. He has made a lot of terrible mistakes as the Orioles' owner, but seems at long last to have learned from those mistakes. Our front office seems to be working very smoothly, the GM is in sync with the manager, and Angelos is staying out of the way, for the most part. I'm glad he stopped by the locker room to lend his support, and now we don't need to see him until he's holding up the Commissioner's Trophy. He can watch the games in his suite and do what he needs to do to support his front office behind the scenes.

Fixed that for you.:beerchug1:

[Orange_Crush]

You say this part as if it is a good thing. It isn't. It is the main reason the Orioles have been such a mess under his ownership. He has done a great job this year staying away and not undermining the authority of management. I assume this is due to Angelos getting up there in age and not as involved with the club. It needs to stay that way. The last thing this team needs is Ol' Pete getting involved again in the offseason - vetoing trades, forcing some big ticket free agent signing. He needs to let Buck and Dan do their jobs.

It sounds like he attended the Jerry Jones school for ownership, I would say Mark Cuban but all he does is sit behind the teams bench.

[Todd-O]

I'll admit a few years ago I was seething about PA. Hatred was rampant in my thoughts... Not for J. Miller or Davey Johnson... But for the state of the team and the stadium invasions (primarily Red Sox). I think it all came to a head after a Red Sox game I attended AND the fact that the best player we had coming out of the minors to replace injured infielders was Brandon Fahey.

I'm okay, though, now. Was about a year ago. I think the Sun article about him helped me to realize he wasn't a horrible person.

Anyhow, the positive things that happen in this team and the more the ownership relates to the players and the players relate to the fans shows steps in the right direction.

[Ori-Al]

How is firing Davey Johnson the best decision for the club? He let Moose walk to NY.

Davey Johnson quit. True, Angelos had no intention of signing him to an extension of his contract, but he wasn't fired.

[Tony-OH]

Winning "solves" a lot of problems.

[TradeAngelos]

This is excellent news.

Even if all the things that Angelos naysayers say about PGA are true, his building a deeper connection to the team should be seen as a good thing. As a general rule, most people tend to treat other people better when they have a personal connection with them.

Steps in the right direction

A leopard doesn't change his spots.

[PeteU]

During the 14 year dry spell, I never had a malicious view towards Peter Angelos. I never thought he was intentionally trying to harm the team or the city. I just thought the guy was majorly incompentent.

But all the claims that he was the worst owner in sports history were rather laughable. He's nowhere near Robert Irsay breaking a city's heart by literally running away in the middle of the night. Or Wayne Huzeniga by ripping apart a championship team before the champange was even flat.

I don't even blame Angelos for losing Mussina. Mussina was in the end a greedy jerk with little loyalty. I do blame him, however, for getting rid of Jon Miller and Davey Johnson, but that's pretty much ancient history now.

So long as he doesn't meddle with what Buck and Dan are doing with the team, I'll continue to have pretty much neutral--to even potentially positive--feelings towards PA.

[Frobby]

Davey Johnson quit. True, Angelos had no intention of signing him to an extension of his contract, but he wasn't fired.

You are right as a technical matter, but the way he treated Davey was absolutely unconscionable. He let Davey twist in the wind for about a week without offering him a new contract, leaking stuff to the media about how Davey hadn't had authority to order Roberto Alomar to pay a fine over to a charity with which his wife was affiliated, after Alomar had intentionally blown off an exhibition game in Rochester. It was truly outrageous to see him treat the manager that way after two seasons of playoff baseball, and he really gave Davey no reasonable option than to quit. And that was just one of a series of matters that were poorly handled by Angelos in the '96 - '99 time frame.

[TradeAngelos]

You are right as a technical matter, but the way he treated Davey was absolutely unconscionable. He let Davey twist in the wind for about a week without offering him a new contract, leaking stuff to the media about how Davey hadn't had authority to order Roberto Alomar to pay a fine over to a charity with which his wife was affiliated, after Alomar had intentionally blown off an exhibition game in Rochester. It was truly outrageous to see him treat the manager that way after two seasons of playoff baseball, and he really gave Davey no reasonable option than to quit. And that was just one of a series of matters that were poorly handled by Angelos in the '96 - '99 time frame.

Beat me to it.

Now back to the heaping praise for a guy who had ZERO to do with the success of this season, from folks who would have burned him at the stake 365 days ago. But they never really disliked him, just ask them.

I would love to dig up some old threads on this topic, to see the stark difference in opinion's about the same person just a year later.

Tony is exactly right, amazing how things change with a few more wins.

[Frobby]

Beat me to it.

Now back to the heaping praise for a guy who had ZERO to do with the success of this season, from folks who would have burned him at the stake 365 days ago. But they never really disliked him, just ask them.

I would love to dig up some old threads on this topic, to see the stark difference in opinion's about the same person just a year later.

Tony is exactly right, amazing how things change with a few more wins.

Look, it may be that the guy has learned some lessons in the last 15 years, the hard way. I'm not going to villify the guy now because he acted like an a-hole in 1997. I'm more interested in making sure that the team stays successful beyond 2012 than I am in reliving what happened in the past. If he's willing now to hire good people, give them reasonable resources and then get out of the way, I'm fine with him in 2012.