Actions Speak Louder than Words

[Tony-OH]

Clearly Roch and Steve felt that much of Tony's piece is based on one particular scource; a disgruntled former emplyee. They apparently give little credence to what he said. The contrast between Tony's embittered attitude towards the FO, and AM in particular, prior to the article, and the reletively mild criticism found in the article, indicates IMO, that much of what this source gave him couldn't be corroborated.

You would be wrong on just about your entire take. Nice try though.

[MrOrange82]

Whoa...controversy. Let me apologize if anyone's offended by my media-related comments.

Outlining my problems with the Orioles, media coverage of the Orioles, etc. is difficult. Perhaps that's a problem the media shares, as well. It's hard to decide where to begin and how to proceed. However, for the sake of an attempt...

...media bias is everywhere. Newspapers come out in favor of political candidates, and you get a different spin for each paper you pick up or channel you flip to. More and more often, for the topics that have the greatest import (world events, national politics), you can't get impartial coverage of anything. IMO, on such a grand scale, these things can partly explain why significant improvements in a variety of areas are so seldom realized. Television news once helped to shed light on a major U.S. war...now I think it makes our foreign conflicts more confusing/alien to average citizens.

Something related to "the opposite," it would seem, applies to "fluffy" issues of local concern. When dealing with entertainment outlets, those things that by their natures help us to *not* think about all the weighty things alluded to above, we don't seem to want the boat rocked all that often. Sure, people prod. It's not as if the media in/around Baltimore has been completely blind to the Orioles' problems (or intentionally obfuscated the same), but (again IMO) it hasn't helped to shed a lot of light on an organization that residents of Baltimore and people further afield have poured millions of dollars into over the years. Rather than bias, we're left with what strikes me as an artificial attempt at total impartiality: certain digs at limited aspects of Oriole failings balanced against narrow, feel-good stories taken in snapshots.

In other words...the Orioles are presented to a tired public as though there's a true balance to portray. No, the media doesn't come out and say "oh, things are peachy," but single servings of "Tillman dominated his last AAA start" or "first sweep since 1995" somehow keep the scales level with the negatives when we've had 5 winning seasons in the last 25 years.

And for what? Not only is the on-field product terrible, but it's showed almost no signs of improving anytime soon. It's infrastructure is in shambles, its minor league system (with a couple of exceptions) bereft of impact talent, etc.

It's frustrating for me because, as fans, we're essentially given no options. If someone suggests a boycott, he/she isn't a true fan. If someone suggests that the media (which obviously has a far greater reach/impact potential than disgruntled individuals) should pipe up and decry the Orioles for obvious mismanagement and a plethora of other issues, then it's shouted down as encouraging media bias or compromising ethics (which still strikes me as odd, given that saying the Orioles are awful IS truthful...there's nothing ethically questionable about it...it simply upsets the fluff-balance I just mentioned).

In an era where professional sports championships are more and more often built on the backs of hired guns, where players are no longer (truly) parts of the community by virtue of gigantic salaries that segregate them from the vast majority of fans who make up the viewing population, where ties to the past seem more and more tenuous as the game evolves as a business...it's getting harder and harder, rightfully so, to articulate what it means to be an Oriole fan. If the team is somehow supposed to represent our city, I don't feel that it's done so for quite some time. There doesn't seem to be any Baltimore pride inherent in this team, and I doubt very many of the players who make up our roster want to win for the city (and, accordingly, fans who've supported the organization for decades).

So what's going to be the engine of change? You can't disown the Orioles, because if you do you were never a "real fan" to begin with. You can't call for the media to take the reigns, because that would make it biased somehow. And we can't storm into the Warehouse and make demands, because that would most likely lead to prosecutions of some kind.

Essentially, the feeling I get is that I'm supposed to sit quietly and take it. Someday the Orioles will win again, so keep watching. Cable bills, game tickets, absurd prices for everything connected thereto...all acceptable expenses for an organization that seems daily more divorced from the ideals that've historically made people cheer for professional sports teams.

Sigh...

[El Gordo]

You would be wrong on just about your entire take. Nice try though.

Really, Roch and Steve don't think that? It sure seemed that way from what they wrote. Of course what you wrote about the past screw ups pror to AM, probably came from multiple sources. But what about the stuff you couldn't corroborate? If that was coming from multiple sources why didn't you run with it?

[Tony-OH]

Really, Roch and Steve don't think that? It sure seemed that way from what they wrote. Of course what you wrote about the past screw ups pror to AM, probably came from multiple sources. But what about the stuff you couldn't corroborate? If that was coming from multiple sources why didn't you run with it?

You have an agenda and I have no interest in flaming it. Enjoy the board.

[El Gordo]

You have an agenda and I have no interest in flaming it. Enjoy the board.

I don't have an agenda. What could it possibly be? Unless it is being opposed to hyperbole, knee jerk judgements, hysterical overreactions, proselytizing, and going off half cocked with out all the facts. Those kind of things bug me because I am interested in getting factual information. I am not saying you are doing any of this, but I do see a lot of it here from others.