O’s wrong to change time of Earl Weaver remembrance ceremony

Since last season, the Orioles have done well in recovering their image as one of the worst organizations in professional sports. With the hiring of Dan Duquette, the separation between the day-to-day club operations and owner Peter Angelos, and the subsequent success of a team winning with what some may call a group of broken pieces, the O’s are no longer in the category with the Marlins and the Pirates, but working their way towards Red Sox and Yankees status.

So there has not been much to complain about in the area of fan relations; no bobblehead giveaway of a player who was recently sent down to the minor leagues or a T-shirt of a middle reliever who is now in the same role for the White Sox Triple-A club. They started to understand how to make fans happy in 2012. The beautiful statue giveaways and ceremonies that packed the Yards and created special moments for the fans and the surging team almost covered their mistake in giving fans who “voted orange” 25-times for the All-Star game a voucher for $5 off eight tickets (a $40 value as defined by their official press release), but later back-tracking on their offer, telling fans that they only meant $5 off one ticket, explaining that the eight ticket limit meant you could only buy eight tickets at a time. Makes sense, right?

For 2013, the Orioles scheduled very view promotional giveaways, a sign of either the money they spent last season on the items or their expectance of fans to attend games regardless.

One ceremony, however, did unexpectedly appear on the Orioles’ schedule after the unfortunate death of Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver. For Saturday, April 20^th prior to a 7:05 game at home against the Dodgers, the O’s planned to allow fans into the stadium at two o’clock for a special ceremony remembering the life of Weaver. With the O’s planning to kick everyone out of the stadium before re-opening at their usual 5 o’clock time, the ceremony seemingly would be able to last around two hours.

This week, however, the Orioles changed their plans for the Weaver remembrance, moving the ceremony to 6:00, one hour before the scheduled first pitch, stating the time change was “in an effort to allow more fans to honor Earl Weaver.” With the ceremony beginning at six, that means it must end in 30-40 minutes to allow for the teams to warm-up on the field before the game, an issue that contradicts the sole reason the team gave for changing the time. The ceremony will have six guest speakers (Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Buck Showalter, National Baseball Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson, and Earl’s son Mike Weaver), all expected to properly remember Earl with only five minutes apiece.

Simply, it is an injustice to the legacy of Earl Weaver. What is the point of a rushed remembrance?

And the reasoning for the time change does not even make logistical sense. The Orioles moved the time to give more fans a chance to honor Earl. Presumably, they were worried that the original 2 o’clock start time would interfere with the fans’ work schedules. Personally, I would assume as many people work Saturday during the day as work Saturday at night. Also, the time change not just cuts down on the length of the ceremony, but also forces the fans who want to attend to have a ticket for that night’s game. You cannot possibly pick the ticketless fans out of the seats in ten minutes.

It seems to be a move by the Orioles that has a deeper business impact than what the club is saying publicly. Most likely, they did not want to have to pay their workers to work from 2 until the game’s end at around 11.

As with last year’s All-Star ticket vouchers, Orioles, you should have thought about this ahead of time and not offered up a nonsensical excuse.