It's been tough to be an O's fan for the last decade or two. I see they did not get Carlos Delgado, but I'm not overly sad about that since I read he refused to stand for "God Bless America" all last year as a war protest. JMHO but I don't want a guy like that on my team screwin' with the chemistry.

Ponson seems set to have another mediocre season as staff "ace".

Looks to me like we'll be lucky to hold down a distant 3rd place this year.

3rd place??? your quite the optimist. I am thinking they will be lucky to beat Tampa Bay for 4th. They're big excuse is that until they know what kind of deal they get from MLB they can't commit money to get players..COMPLETE B.S.!!
Angelos is a cheap TOOL! The sooner he sells this team and gets out of town the better. I have been an O's fan for 30 years and I can honestly say I will be rooting for the Nats this year and until Angelos is gone I couldn't give a rats #$% about the O's

Yeah, having a no-morals bigwig trial attorney for an owner doesn't help my interest either. But I do not like the city of Washington, D.C. either, despite my love for the Redskins. Most of my baseball excitement will probably come in rooting for whoever is playing the Yanks and hoping Randy "Whiner" Johnson falls flat.

Not a big DC fan either. I have always liked the expos though. They always have good young talent. They just can never keep any of it. they have a very stocked farm system and with an influx of $$$ they could actually be very good in a couple of years. I think by the time they move into the new stadium they could be playoff bound.

There was an article on SI.com (sports illustrated) yesterday about how the Orioles dropped an egg in the free agent market this year.

I'm thinking 4th place for them also.

As a DIEHARD BLUE JAYS fan (yes, that is not a typo), I cannot wait until we surprise everyone. We should have some great pitching.

Then again, all we have is some great pitching (in theory). I've been a hardcore Blue Jays fan since 1985 and I was born in 1984, so let's hope I won't have the misery of 7 straight 3rd place seasons and last year's atrosity of a season.

It gets harder each year to get excited about "my" sports teams. With free agents team-hopping at the drop of a hat (or dollar) and most players showing no sense of wanting to stick with the same team or showing any real fan appreciation, it gets harder to get into it. The last several years it has been more fun to watch my kids play sports in shcool and LL, etc. but even there some "win at all costs" coaches and parents (as well as some spoiled jerk kids) tend to put a damper on the fun at times.

Ahhh, take me back to the good old days when my body could take the pounding of a no-pads football game on a frozen (or muddy, or snowy, or hot) field and "halftime" occurred about every 20 minutes for a trip to the cooler for some potables...

I think they'll have another bad year.

Choke-O's



I love when the birds have a bad season................ what am I on about? I'm a Tigers fan. Please disregard.

Whoa. I never saw this coming. ESPN is reporting that Samy Sosa is going to be traded to the O's for Jerry Hairston and some minor leaguers. I doubt it will help anything but ticket sales. And the O's will probably get a few more nationally televised games for me to watch in hi-definition.

I thought ComcastSportsNet used HD frequently???

If only my Blue Jays would do something worthwhile this offseason...

They do, but Antietam Cable doesn't offer Comcast's HD channels. Too bad, because I think they showed almost all the O's games in HD last year. Alas, I have to wait for them to have an ESPN or Fox broadcast national game to see them in HD.

I like the O's, but honestly, I've lost touch with them over the past few years. It's probably been 5 years since I sat down and watched 2 games in a row.

I'm not real impressed that they got Sosa; who will be playing - Sammy with the corked bat, or the real Sammy?

And even if it's Sammy who can hit, they need consistently good pitchers. Otherwise, it's more of the same.

And Sammy's going to pass a physical?

I pray my Blue Jays will actually finish ahead of the Orioles. I guess the Blue Jays have joined the Orioles on the decade-long rebuilding plan.

birds of a feather flock together?

So the Cubs will pay 10 MIL of his 17MIL salary this year. Thats 7 MIL plus he is owed 18 and 19 MIL for the next 2 years. They can buy him out for 4.5 at the end of the year. So we will be paying him 11.5 for this year if we get rid of him after the season and 44 MIL for 3 years if we keep him! This is a guy that is in rapid decline and is by all accounts a clubhouse cancer! You mean to tell me that we couldn't have found a pitcher or 2 for 11.5 MIL? I don't care what Sosa does if you have NO PITCHING you don't win! How many 11-9 games does Mazzilli plan on winning and how long do you think it'll take before Sosa gets tired of losing and destroys any chemistry this team might have had? this trade was made for 1 reason. To put people in the stands. Good luck! i know I won't be one of them

If Sosa tries his me me me stuff I hope a guy like Palmeiro, Tejada, or Surhoff takes one of his corked bats and whacks him with it. I hate multi-million dollar crybabies.

I agree with you samy0. The O's need pitchers, not big $$$ "stars."

I hate to see Hairston go. He's one of the few on the team that I really liked.

Sammy Sosa...corked bat.

Albert Belle...corked bat.

History repeating itself?

Does Peter Angelos have any baseball sense at all? He upgraded the offense last year however he still fails to address the pitching issue. Even with the additions of Tejada and Lopez, the Orioles still only increased their win total by 7 games from the year before. That will not cut it in the A.L. East. Way to go Angelos, you laid another egg again in the offseason. So like everyone else, I agree the O's need PITCHING!!!

Agreed, the O's need better pitching. That's easy to say. But who is out there to get who is worth the money? Their young staff should be a little better this year, but they can't compete with Yanks and Boston.

If what George Michaels said when DC was negotiating for its team is right, Peter Angelos doesn't care if what he does makes sense. DC had to guarantee that no matter how badly DC does, no matter how badly the O's do, Peter Angelos is going to get some God-awful amount in his pocket. Why does he care whether the team is actually successful?

Besides, he might be like Daniel Snyder - thinks he can buy a championship!

Snoopy, agreed its easy to say. But is Sammy Sosa really worth the money he is going to get (granted the cubs will eat some of the salary). In fact at the start of the winter meetings quite a few pitchers were available that would have been worth a gamble to help boost a very young starting rotation. But sooner or later the young excuse wont fly and they need to get a true number one who can help anchor the staff, and Sidney Ponson is not the answer ( although he is out of that Aruba jail )

I wish they could have held Sir Sidney another month or two in the joint down there. Maybe he could have dropped 40 lbs. on the prison food diet. that would get him down to 300. Ponson is turning in Sid Fernandez before our very eyes!!!

I did read where the O's will only pay around 5 million of Sosa's salary. The cubs desperately wanted him gone!

This whole thing stinks of Angelos. I hope that Sosa bats .125 and that the Orioles lose 100 games. Anything to make that old bastard sell the team.

Any O's fans here jumping ship to the Nationals (or whatever they're called)?


I'm sticking with them. I've always stuck by my teams. It makes the good years that much sweeter. I will confess though, I've been tempted to hop on a bandwagon or two over the years.

I will always have a rooting interest in the O's but from now on I will only buy Nat's merchandise and go to their games (as dangerous as DC is) until Angelos is gone! I refuse to put 1 more dime in his pocket!!!!

It'll be interesting to have another "local" team to watch on tv, but at the prices the major leagues charge I think I'll stick with going to the Suns games!

Yay, Naomi! 64 days and counting until the Suns opener. It's a Thirsty Thursday, too!

I'm sad hey are the Mets affiliate now, 'cause I won't know any of the players. I hope we get a good guy as our host player this season!

Ahhhh...another one repeating a tired old urban legend. RFK Stadium is in a middle class residential area. There are huge parking lots that surround the stadium and there is a subway station within two blocks of the stadium. No fan would ever have to walk in a "dangerous" area to get to the game.

Are there parts of DC that are "dangerous". Of course...just like there are in Baltimore but they aren't near the stadium.

Stay in certain places at certain times and you'll probably be fine. Take a wrong turn in either of those two towns and you can be in a whole lotta trouble in a real big hurry. And it's not like no crime ever occurs in the subway or in parking areas near subway stops. It isn't a urban legend that DC as a whole is dangerous -- one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

RFK doesnt scare me but you do know where the new stadium is being built right?
Yes that lovely section of town known as Anacostia! I worked in DC for 6 years and I can tell you that if you want to get mugged, shot, or carjacked take a stroll down MLK ave. RFK is a stop gap for 3 years until the new stadium is built. Would i take my kids to RFK? Yes To SE? NO!

The new stadium is not being built in Anacostia. Anacostia is east of the river across the bridge. The stadium is being built on the SW waterfront in an area of non descript repair shops, gay nightclubs, parking lots, mom and pop stores, light industrial operations, all of which will be demolished. Very few people actually live in this part of DC. MLK Ave is miles away from this site.

You don't get to DC much?