A special tip of the hat to WNST’s Nestor Aparicio for posting this about the Orioles and Ripken.
The Orioles have had a lot of problems for years and to hear that Cal Ripken – for one reason or another – was told ‘no thanks’ for a front office job within the organization is galling.
This was first reported by Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal.
After reading this, the thoughts in my head were, “you must f**king be kidding me, right”.
The Orioles, losers of nine of their first 10 games, could use a little help.
Yet, owner Peter Angelos recently declined to hire the franchise’s biggest legend, Hall of Famer Cal
Ripken Jr., in a baseball capacity, according to multiple major-league sources.Angelos, however, nixed the idea in a separate conversation with Ripken, telling him, according to three sources, that he did not want Ripken to receive credit once the team returned to prominence.
Ripken did not discuss a specific role with MacPhail, one source said. However, another source said that Ripken wanted to work with young players such as catcher Matt Wieters and help them “finish off” their developments at the major-league level.
Ripken and MacPhail, according to that source, agreed that their relationship could be mutually beneficial. Ripken would have helped MacPhail with his vast baseball knowledge. MacPhail would have helped Ripken learn the administrative side of the game.
Angelos, however, was reluctant to create any perception that MacPhail was not fully in control, a source said.
Seriously, everyone knows Andy MacPhail is in control of things and having Ripken – a Hall of Famer, Oriole legend and a successful businessman – would have been a great boon in terms of credibility, excitement and public relations for the organization. I don’t know what to think.
Who knows if he could have been successful or a failure in a front office job, but the team perhaps could have used his business acumen and knowledge of the game for some good. Then again, what did Ripken want to do with the team?
Who knows what’s true or not. If any of this report has some validity to it, fans must be wondering what in the world is going on at the very top…
