I am jealous of Jacob and Pheobe who have not one but TWO teams to be legitatly excited for in the playoffs. My (from a long time ago) Celtics, more recently Knicks, and now (begrudgingly) Wizards are all BIG disappointments. About a week and half ago I was going declare that despite my shakey relationship with the city to the South - my coming to terms with the fact that Baltimore is my home, AND my difficulty in believing (agreeing with ben here) that the Wizards were really a basketball team to be taken seriously, I was finally ready to take on the Arenases as my home team and pull for them the rest of the way. And then... well you all know what happened. Maybe next year.
So in the last week of the season, I wait. Now that the Knicks aren't on the bubble, I can't think of a reason to care about who gets the 8th seed. Chicago and Cleveland will both win their first series (I think) though the Heat will be a lot harder to beat than the Net. Everything else is a lock. Out west - I guess I want Golden State to pull it off - mostly because a Dallas - GS first round series might be the most redeeming pieces of the first two weeks of playoff basketball. But mostly I wait.
Luckily while I wait, I have baseball. Becoming an Orioles fan has been easier than becoming a Wizards fan. I have already been to Camden Yards once - will go again at least once this weekend. The weeks waiting for SWEET playoffs basketball should be just about enough time to shatter my hopes that MAYBE THEY WILL BE GOOD THIS YEAR. I can't quite figure out why they aren't - but they aren't. Two questions about baseball --
(1) My friend made the following comment at the game on Tuesday: "The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a better chance of winning the world series in the near future than the O's or the Royals". It had something to do with too much fan oversight for the O's and the need to at least try to be a contender every year and therefore screwing up any chance for long term planning. Agree? Disagree?
(2) People in Baltimore hate Peter Angelos like a fat kid hates Coke zero. Those with knowledge/outside perspective - is it justified?
3 comments:
I will agree that the Orioles are horrible, perhaps the worst team in baseball this year. Though I don't follow them closely, Angelos seems to have done everything wrong after a decade in which the team was consistently competitive in one of the toughest divisions in baseball.
Around 1999, they got really old and made a lot of really bad moves, including signing Albert Belle (wtf?). Sosa was also a pretty foolish move. They have some OK offensive talent at the moment, including Mora and Tejada, and the promising Nick Markakis, but their pitching is a damned disaster. Jaret Wright? Steve Trachsel?
These are transparently horrible acquisitions, and small-time improvements like Corey Patterson, Ramon Hernandez, and Kevin Millar have been inconsequential. They need a staff is what they need.
But really, the Devil Rays' outlook is equally apocalyptic. I know, I know, they have a ton of prospects. But this is a team that has NEVER WON more than 70 games. They've finished last in the East in every year but one, in their entire existence. Delmon Young, B.J. Upton and Elijah Dukes look promising, and I suppose Iwamura and Zobrist could pan out, but they have serious holes in their rotation after Kazmir. They basically need all of their promising young hitters to blossom in a big way - at the same time. Otherwise they'll lose frustrated new stars to free agency year after year.
I am going to go ahead and disagree with your friend. The Blue Jays have become nominally competitive in the East by spending money. There is unfortunately no other way, the division is simply too competitive to expect a scrappy young crew to compete with the perennial all-star squads in NY and Boston. Even the wild card is inconceivable without a really expensive team.
So I think Angelos has the right idea, he just hasn't shelled out for the right players. At all.
Simon -- I love that phrase, "like a fat kid hates coke zero" ... I'm definitely going to use that. I thought you also like the nuggets?? They're on a roll right now...
also, re: wizards -- gilbert arenas' blog has gotten really awesome since his injury... talking about surgery, playing video games, etc....http://www.nba.com/blog/gilbert_arenas.html
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