The last time I put on a glove and took the field in an organized baseball game was over 25 years ago in Little League. Much has changed in baseball since then, but one caveat remains as true today as it did then: You cannot win without quality pitching.
So I ask myself, how could Peter Angelos and the Orioles let Mike Mussina get away when he is clearly a top-tier pitcher and a fan favorite? Better yet, why?
Perhaps regular Joes such as myself will never know the real reason, but I suspect ego more than economics.
Mr. Angelos has shown in the past that he is motivated more by his personal feelings than by what is best for the ballclub (see Rafael Palmeiro, Davey Johnson and Jon Miller). Mr. Angelos has demonstrated that he knows his way around a court of law, but he seems to circle the bases from third to first when it comes to operating a major-league baseball franchise.
I have been an Orioles fan all my life. Not anymore. I cannot in good conscience continue to support a franchise whose owner puts his own needs and wants ahead of the club's. That's not good baseball, or good ownership. It's not good business, either.
If I were Cal Ripken, I would retire before the 2001 season and save myself from any potential embarrassment through association.
Thank God for the Ravens. At least one pro team in Baltimore seems to know what it's doing.
Brian D. Hess Bel Air
As a loyal yet frustrated Orioles fan, I would like to comment on the negative effects that Mike Mussina leaving the team will have. For me, there will be one fewer reason on a dwindling list of them to go to the ballpark in 2001.
"The Moose" has been a mainstay and a constant professional on the Orioles for several years. Besides the aging but nonetheless legendary Cal Ripken, Mussina is the only other player who is really exciting to watch.
There is so-called "young talent" on the team, but professional baseball is a business where winning is key to the fans, myself included. Mussina was and is a winner. Unfortunately, Mr. Angelos does not appear to have treated him as such, and he may have lost my business.
Mike Maloney Crofton
Most of us fans probably don't begrudge Mike Mussina getting good money for his skills and getting away from Peter Angelos.
But most of us probably do begrudge the way Angelos is turning this franchise into an unattractive environment for quality players and an exercise in exasperation for loyal followers.
