Baseball Miscellany

Today is announcement day. Wagner still holding strong at 78% but I think he’s going to fall a few votes short

That would suck. Isn’t this his last year?

According to the Twitter HOF tracker guy, only Sheffield is in his final year of eligibility. Wagner will get another shot and almost certainly make it next year if not this year.

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He has one more shot next year if he doesn’t get in today. Last year he was 72% before the release and 68% after. It’s going to be close either way.

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John Angelos selling the Orioles for $1.7B

Wow. The party in Baltimore is going to be unreal. That family is loathed.

I wonder if Manfred will make them switch leagues.

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Yeah they should be with their natural rivals are the Nats.

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I’ve been to one Angelos party in my life. You try to guess how the other half (1%) lives but what you imagine is not even close to the actual opulence.

And, now that I’ve read your comment more closely (loathed, not loaded), yes, the entire city is celebrating.

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One of my really good friends that I’ve known for a very long time grew up in Little Italy in Baltimore, and the celebration happening on his facebook page/with his friends is mind blowing.

Every single one of them absolutely hates that family, and could not be more excited for the future of the Orioles without him.

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Any ownership group other than the Angelos family will be strikingly good for that organization. It really would not take much to turn them into a perennial juggernaut, and this may be the one thing that makes that happen. The Yankees and the Red Sox should be shaking in their boots.

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I hope it’s Vince McMahon.

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1.7 Billion seems like a bargain. So much potential there.

That’s just a month’s salary for Elon Musk. Quite the bargain.

Please don’t give him any ideas.

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What I’ve read so far in WaPo and from Ken arose that is interesting. One of the private equity billionaires is from Baltimore and a lifelong Orioles fan. He and his partner aren’t buying the team outright. Right it’s a minority share ~ 40%? Because of capital gains taxes, they won’t acquire an outright majority until Peter Angelos passed away.

Ironically, when Angelos purchased the team back in ‘93, the sale was celebrated because he was a lifelong Orioles fan and everyone believed he would make/keep them competitive. Now, I’d say the celebration in Baltimore is undoubtedly on par as what happened in DC when Dan Snyder finally sold the Commanders.

Apparently Cal Ripken Jr. and Michael Bloomberg are also part of the new ownership group.

I lived in Baltimore in the early 90’s and the Angelos were not unpopular when they took over. Those were the early days of Camden Yards, Cal was still playing, and Mike Mussina was a rising star. I didn’t follow it closely, but things seemed to head downhill in the 2000’s with (or after) Mussina leaving (left) for the Yankees and after Cal retired.

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Oops.

Last I heard they were going to start demolishing the Tropicana at the beginning of April. They might want to get this sorted out sooner than later.