Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Yankees left Baltimore a MLB-worst staggering 22 games under .500, trailing AL East leader Tampa by nearly 20 games with the 2010 season not even two months old. The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck, while arguing that skipper Dave Trembley, “did the best he could in an impossible situation”, all but pleads Orioles owner Peter Angelos, “to stop tiptoeing around and put him gently out of his misery.”
This reminds me a little bit of the execution scene from the great Australian historical drama “Breaker Morant,” when the condemned Morant shouts his final words directly at the firing squad.
“Shoot straight, you bastards,” he yells, “and don’t make a mess of it.”
It’s hard to watch Trembley suffer. He came into a difficult situation with all the right intentions, and he fulfilled his mission as the caretaker manager of the MacPhail rebuilding effort during the first 21/2 seasons of his waning tenure. His biggest mistake might have been allowing himself to think he might evolve into more than that.
In that regard, he was seduced and abandoned, because MacPhail made it sound last year as if he would upgrade the talent over the winter and give him a fighting chance in a season that was supposed to be judged on wins and losses. Instead, he got a banged-up reliever (Michael Gonzalez) and a long-shot reclamation project (Garrett Atkins) to go with a couple of decent acquisitions.
Trembley can’t be held blameless, of course. There have been times when he might have done more to keep the club from coming totally unraveled, but let’s make sure we’re all straight on one thing: Earl Weaver in his prime could not have made this team competitive under these conditions.
I usually like Schmuck’s column but he’s pulling a major flip flop here – I’ve read at least half a dozen times this year Schmuck argue how it would be pointless to fire Trembley now he wants to pull the trigger??
He must be listening to the brain trusts who call into 105.7 sports radio and are deluded into thinking that Bobby Valentine, donning a fake mustache, will leave his spot at ESPN, roll into town and save the day.
Well you could not said better. for the Orioles “I be there in the good and bad times” but it really hurt to see the manager’s agony during the game. and the embarrassing during the interview. It is really hard to compete whit so little, we need to be realistic that the orioles are in tougher division, it seems like another losing season is coming.
I really feel sorry for the few talent player out there on the field. in a different division and team they would be Starts.
Cannot for the life of me understand why everyone is wanting to get rid of Trembley. There is not a manager around that could have done any better with the so called “talent” that we have. It’s not him out there “throwing the ball – catching the ball – hitting the ball”. He puts the players on the field and it is up to them to come through which they have not been doing. Come on now, 1 run per game – professional big league ballplayers – you gotta be kidding me. Looks like we are in prime shape to beat the Mets losing record by a mile. At least we will get in the record books again. No its definately not Trembley we should be concerned about. If we are going to look and play like a minor league team then get rid of some of the older players by trade, release or send them down and bring up more minor leaguers for a shot. What harm can it do. Nobody’s coming to the ball park anyway because it seems clear to me that no major league ballplayer is going to want to come to an organization like this no matter how much money you may be willing to throw around. So I say let Trembly finish out the season if he has a mind to and start looking for ways to give him some “talent” to do the job.
Mike Burford,
Are you watching he same games that I am? Obviously not! We don`t have much talent but……the talent we do have he couldn`t get motivated wih a fist full of hundreds.Why do you think he was a minor league manager all those yrers? Because he liked it down on the farm? Get in tune with baseball or go back to watching hockey or whaever you watch. Orioles nedd to SPEND HE MONEY and then get a coach to manage such acquisitions…..period!
change owners, as long as angelos is owner , balto will never have a winning team
15 – 39 hurts, it really hurts. If the O’s were a basketball team, the next draft or two could help, but baseball needs more than 1 guy to make a difference. Over the last ten years we’ve steadily improved to become a last place team, if we’re lucky, the worst team in baseball. What good does firing a manager do? Would the Orioles be a .500 team under a different manager? We really need some bats and some pitchers and when compared to other clubs, it seems like the O’s payroll is big enough to support a .500 team. I love the O’s but this woeful demise reminds me of what happened to the Colts. I hope someone,someday can turn this thing around.