I was having a conversation with my dad yesterday, that went something like this:
Me: So now Duquette says he’ll address these rumors “when it’s appropriate.”
Him: Why isn’t MLB doing anything about this? Isn’t it tampering?
Me: Well…[goes into a long diatribe of trying to explain how MLB actually seems to be pushing the Duq-to-Toronto thing, as another example of how they’re mad at the Orioles and Peter Angelos]
Him: Shit.
The meat and potatoes of the “long diatribe” above involves a bunch of moving parts including how the Birds were supposedly a shoe-in for the 2016 All-Star Game, only to have it handed to San Diego at the last minute, and the ongoing dispute over MASN money that Angelos continues to fight.
Over at Camden Chat today, Mark Brown (@eatmoreesskay) laid out the evidence in the “this time they really are out to get Baltimore” case, and it’s worth your time to head over and read. I’ll certainly be sending it my pop’s way.
The main points:
1. MLB probably rigged an arbitration between MASN and the Nationals nearly three years ago, the result of which, if upheld, would be that the Orioles-owned network would owe something like $70 million in back pay to the Nationals. They were threatened by outgoing Commissioner Bud Selig with “the strongest sanctions available” should they take this dispute to court, which they have now done.
Did MLB somehow forget who they were dealing with here? Peter Angelos built his empire with litigation, and he’s not one to sit back and be pushed around. In all likelihood, he’s been building his case since those arbitration hearings, and thumbs his nose at the threat of sanctions. He lives to fight in court.
Meanwhile, the O’s are hit with the “sanctions” of…
2. In a move so convenient that no one on Earth could possibly believe it to be coincidental, MLB decided to abandon its yearly alternating of All-Star Games between AL and NL stadiums to double up on the National League for 2016, an All-Star Game that had previously been believed to be favored to be held in Baltimore.
3. As if that wasn’t enough, MLB is or has recently also been engaged in unspecified efforts to help broker a deal between the Orioles and the Blue Jays so that the Toronto club can steal away the O’s Executive of the Year winner with four years left on his contract. This is probably less accurately described as “brokering” and more like “threatening the Orioles.”
4. Not that I’ll be feeling sorry for Peter Angelos the person any time soon, because he’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but Peter Angelos the Orioles owner was conveniently removed from the inner council of owners on which he sat. Sounds legit.
It all stinks to high hell. Even those of us who don’t normally buy into the conspiracy theories that you hear thrown around by Baltimore fans – which range from the mundane to the Dave-in-Salisbury – can’t help but ignore the procession of events from being threatened by MLB to now losing things that we want, such as the All-Star Game, and, possibly, our MLB Executive of the Year.
As the offseason started, and the Birds lost such players as Nick Markakis, Nelson Cruz, and Andrew Miller, I implored my fellow fans to give Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter the benefit of the doubt. After all, haven’t they earned it at this point? Judge the offseason not in December, I said, but in April.
Now, I feel those tinfoil hat thoughts creep into my mind…
What if MLB is telling Duquette not to try to improve the Orioles, as part of their deal to help him become Blue Jays CEO? They want us to be bad again to get back at Angelos!
GAHHHHHHH. Out of my head!
Just as things were starting to feel so much better in Birdland again. Three straight winning seasons, two playoff appearances, a division title, ALCS games at Camden Yards…
And now this.
What do you think?
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