The Low Height of Arrogance

We've been here before, but it's once again time for me to wax indignant about Peter Angelos' latest affront to sentient baseball fans in the mid-Atlantic region. On Sunday, Angelos wrote a letter in the form of a full-page ad in the Sports section of The Washington Post to outline the Orioles' position on their "rights" with regard to the newly arrived Nationals. Well, actually, Angelos hid behind his organization, signing the letter simply, "Orioles". What tiny, infinitessimal shred of respect I may have had for Angelos faded in the cowardice of that particular act.

I won't go into a great deal of detail about Angelos' position - The Post's Thomas Boswell does a fine job of that here - but I continue to be amazed by the Oriole owner's brazen disregard for the intelligence of the baseball fanbase in this region. Angelos doesn't own this territory any more than I do - he simply had a de facto monopoly based on lack of competition. More importantly, though, he seems to think that bluster and blunt language is all that's necessary to sway public and private opinion on the matter.

In years past baseball fans had little choice but to hold our noses and make the trek north in order to watch big-league ball. That's no longer true, and instead of recognizing that and working harder to make his organization competitive on the field and in the marketing arena, Angelos has chosen to ignore the will of his fellow owners and the people of the D.C. area and staked out an extreme position. His arrogance has served him well in the past, as his franchise value has accelerated even in the face of egregiously poor on- and off-field management, so it's easy to see why he might choose the most aggressive option in this situation. Easy to see, but still less than palatable.

Angelos has clearly made his choice, and now I've got one to make. As small a gesture as this may be, and as much as it may be more personally painful to me than to the multi-millionaire that runs the Orioles, I hereby resolve the following: I will no longer attend any Baltimore Oriole game while Peter Angelos owns the franchise. I'll get my major league baseball from the Nationals, or I'll go to Fenway when I'm in Boston, but even though it means I'll likely not get to see the Sox very often, I'm not going to Camden Yards while it remains under the stewardship of a man who cares not at all about anything more than his pocketbook.

My gesture may be a small, and ultimately empty one. Last year I'd have been certain of that. But my sense is that I'm not the only one, now that the Nationals are just down the road. I hope I'm right. See you at RFK.