O’s, Oriole Park, Snubbed Again for All-Star Game

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Eternal words cried out by posthumous Academy Award winner Peter Finch in 1976’s hit Network. It sums up how most Orioles fans are feeling these days, watching inferior teams and ball parks rake in the accolades of the latest MLB All Star Game city announcements.

If that sounds harsh, it is. Numbers don’t lie though and despite better numbers in attendance and wins and overall ballpark experience, Oriole Park at Camden Yards has been looked over for the 2016 and 2017 games; the commissioners have given the game to the San Diego Padres’ PetCo Park and to Miami Marlins Park, respectively.

I’m going to throw out some numbers so just try and stay with me on this. For now we’ll focus on attendance, wins, and game day experience, as that’s where MLB would rather draw our focus. I won’t be taking pettiness or retribution into account, although when you see these numbers, that may be the conclusion you draw. Just “leaving it right here”, as they say.

[RELATED: Is MLB Out to Get the Orioles?]

Cincinnati is hosting the mid-Summer classic this year, very much in line with the tradition of the American League and National League switching hosting duties every year. The cycle has been broken twice, the first being in 1951 so Detroit could have it coincide with the city’s 250^th birthday, and then again in 2007 when it was given to San Francisco so that the Game would be a part of Yankee Stadium’s last season in 2008. San Diego will be the second straight NL city to host in 2016, breaking that cycle for the third time, and Miami the third straight in 2017, breaking it for the fourth time, for no apparent logistical reason whatsoever.

The Padres have endured losing six of the past seven seasons. In that seven-year period from 2008 to 2014 they never did better than 11^th in attendance with an average of 26,645 tickets sold to any given game. In 2007 they had a winning team and no playoff appearance, finishing 1.5 games back in the division. That was the last year they were in the top ten in attendance, finishing in 9^th place. In 2014 and 2013 they were 12^th out of 15, having risen from 14^th out of 16 the previous year. (Houston moved leagues in 2013 to finally even everything out.)

Just a couple months ago, rumors were swirling that the O’s were the frontrunners to host in 2016. Back in August when Selig visited Baltimore, it looked like a foregone conclusion that the O’s would get the game. As the months dragged on with no answer it felt like Baltimore was slipping out of favor with Selig. Was it the MASN lawsuit or something else? It was a final dagger as good ol’ Bud handed the game to San Diego before making way for Rob Manfred on January 25, 2015.

Manfred is a lawyer and Harvard graduate who grew up in upstate New York (read: Yankees fan). Not even a month into office Manfred made a huge production in south Florida where he awarded the Miami Marlins as hosts of the 2017 MLB All Star Game.

The Mid-Atlantic region between Baltimore and Washington DC exploded with rage. It appeared that Selig, in passing the torch to Manfred, pulled him close and whispered in the new Commish’s ear, “keep Baltimore waiting.” A wink and a nod and the Orioles would be shunned from the new MLB overseer, pulling the Nationals into the orbit of oblivion with them.

According to the Miami Herald, the city and its team are still feeling the pain of having the 2000 game “snatched away” from them after the “dismantling of the 1997 World Series team.” Manfred wanted to reward the “great fan base” of the Marlins as well. This “great” fan base has posted an abysmal 20,075 ticket sale per game average over the last seven years, the first two of those years (’08 and ’09) being winning seasons with an attendance of 17,278.

Those are ghastly numbers especially for a team who has won the World Series twice in the past 20 years. The attendance the last time they won it all in 2003? 16,083 tickets sold a game, on average, and ranking 15^th out of 16 NL teams in attendance. In 2013 and 2014 they finished last. Time to reward that fan base Manfred!

I’m sure you want to see how the Orioles fan base matches up with all this numerical nonsense. I also took a look at the Nationals, because I know that if they would have been given the 2017 game then that would have been one more arrow to put in our conspiracy quiver.

In the last seven years from ’08 to ’14 the Orioles have averaged 29,028 tickets sold per game. In those years we only placed out of the top ten once, our best year being last year where we were 6^th out of 15 AL squads, won the division, made the playoffs, and advanced. Yes, Camden Yards is the oldest stadium on this list; Marlins Park opening in ’12 and PetCo Park arriving in ’04. The Padres hosted the game in 1992, the year before Baltimore had it, making Miami and D.C. the only teams not to host.

The Nats fans should be more upset then we are, honestly. They’ve never had it and their ballpark will be celebrating only its seventh birthday this year. Ticket sales over the last seven years have been about 27,446 per game, on average, well over what Miami has been seeing. Plus the Nats have been really good the last three years, making the playoffs in two of those. In those three winning years they’ve also had top 10 attendances, which is more than the Marlins and the Padres can say.

So if it’s not the attendance or winning seasons, why was Oriole Park at Camden Yards, “the stadium that changed baseball”, looked over? It can’t be our experience rating. According to stadiumjourney.com, Oriole Park received the only perfect 5 Star rating on its FanFare Score and a MLB leading 4.5 on the Crowd Score. The FanFare Score is based on Food/Beverage, Atmosphere, Neighborhood, Fans, Access, and Return on Investment, while the Crowd Score is a user driven rating system by members.

How’d everyone else do, you ask? Glad you did. Here they are in order by FanFare Score, followed by Crowd.

Padres’ PetCo Park was 4.0 and 4.1.

Nationals Park was 3.7 and 3.3.

Miami Marlins Park scored 3.6 and 3.5.

Wow. Now I’m stumped. Baltimore’s team, attendance, and venue are better than both future host cities and we were neglected? Not just neglected but teased and then dumped by the prospect of entertaining the Major League Baseball nation just to have it given to teams and cities that have hardly been on the baseball map the past few years. Nationals fans should be feeling the same way especially since 2017 is the National League’s turn to host, despite the idea by yours truly that maybe (just maybe) they would give it to us in 2017. But here we are…

I’m mad people! Clearly something is going on here! I’m mad because Baltimore had a real chance to be the center of the baseball world for a few days. Our gleaming, beautiful stadium on display for all to see; it would’ve sent Adam Jones into a hospitality fueled pie-slinging siege. Not to mention our fan base. We would’ve had stars in our eyes and bragging rights!

I’m mad because no matter how well our team does they are almost always counted out of their share of recognition for being a pillar in the sports community. We are almost certainly being punished because of this Nats vs O’s MASN madness, and that’s unfair to both fan bases.

I’m mad because we may be out of the loop when the American League comes up to host again in 2018. By then the “new” Yankees Stadium III will be celebrating its 10^th year and the only other AL teams not to host the All Star Game in the last 30 years would be Oakland and Tampa Bay.

By all accounts the lack of hosting duties for these teams has been their “terrible” venues, so without new stadiums they may never get it. That leaves Baltimore and Toronto as the teams who haven’t hosted the longest in the American League, the Blue Jays hosting in 1991.

Based on the numbers I cited earlier, Baltimore should be chosen soon. But if the Yankees get the 2018 nod, and I have a terrible feeling that they might, do we hold out for 2020 or just give up the notion of hosting an All Star Game in our stadium? Can we establish some sort of rotation? The pessimist in me says to just forget about it and focus on having our team bring home something far more valuable than an All Star Game.

The best way to make MLB come to us, to make our city the hub of baseball, to make them talk about nothing but the Orioles for a whole week, would be to win the whole freakin’ thing. There’s no bidding or voting in that process, only winning numbers leading to greater recognition. Win the Series and they will come.

Maybe.