Remember when the word “Orioles” was followed by the word “magic”?
The only magic we have now is making fans, and managers, disappear.
Friends and I sat through another O?s calamity on a recent Saturday night, and, as I looked at all the empty seats, I wondered about the collateral damage done by such inept management. Even as I was writing this column, another Orioles season crashed and burned.
Owner Peter Angelos kicked another manager to the curb ? firing the likable Sam Perlozzo because of a 29-40 record.
It wasn?t always this way.
We had an all-time Orioles attendance record of 3,711,132 in 1997. We?re on pace for fewer than 2 million 10 years later. Almost 2 million fans were chased out of the stadium and out of nearby stores, bars and restaurants.
To find numbers this low, you have to go all the way back to 33rd Street in 1988. After the team started that season with 21 straight losses, Orioles fans knew it couldn?t get much worse. But the pathetic Orioles of 1988 managed to win just three of their last 20 games as well, finishing 54-107.
We?ve endured a decade of teams that have lost 80 games or more.
Let?s look at the damage the destruction of a major local business can do to a community.
Take Detroit. It?s not the Tigers dragging that area down, it?s the motors of Motor City. The automotive industry is no longer centered in Detroit, and American manufacturers are losing ground to Toyota and Honda.
For decades, it served as a good example of the impact a major business can have on a community. Now, the Big Three no longer rule supreme. Both Detroit and the state of Michigan have begun a downward spiral of job losses, foreclosures and a localized recession.
Come back to Baltimore, and it?s easy to see attractions, bars, restaurants and novelty stands struggling.
Pregame drinking and tailgating used to be a staple. Now, fans want to drink only after the game … to drown their sorrows. The pregame crowd was barely noticeable ? on what should have been a busy Saturday night.
Inside the Orioles? offices, they were trying to hire chief operating officer Andy MacPhail, part of a respected baseball family, and Joe Girardi, a new tough-guy manager.
Reportedly, MacPhail will be the new power in the front office. But will he be enough of a magician to bring Orioles magic back to Baltimore?
Dan Gainor is the Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow at the Media Research Center?s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].
