He's Got Some 'Splainin' to Do

Michael Cox

The exact time of their flight is secret, presumably to deter potential skyjackers demanding to fly to Tulsa, but by the time you read this, the Orioles should be on Cuban soil, checked into the best hotel in Havana and preparing for their game against a team of Cuban all-stars. But even as the ESPN cameras are set up and Castro's seat dusted off in Latinoamericano Stadium, critics are coming out of the woodwork to blast O's owner Peter Angelos for his steamroller approach to getting this deal done.

Cuban-Americans have come down almost unanimously against the idea, including both Cuban-American members of Congress. MLB players of Cuban descent generally disagree with the move as well. Rafael Palmeiro said that if he had re-signed with the team, he would have refused to go. In that light, it's even more interesting that he wasn't re-signed. In fact, the Orioles currently have no one of Cuban heritage on the roster.

From the second the opening appeared, Angelos was relentless in his pursuit of an Orioles-Cuba game -- or rather, two games, because the return match at Camden Yards was so important to him that he was willing to schedule it during the regular season. That, as well as bringing his team to Havana in the first place, costs money and lots of it, and judging from union head Don Fehr's utter silence, cash was not an object.

In fact, there tended to be very few objects in Angelos' dogged pursuit of his desire. When the Cuban government balked at the US demand to give proceeds to a humanitarian organization, Angelos worked on the Clinton administration until he got them to back down. When the Cubans wanted to make attendance by invitation only, Angelos said "sure thing." Don't be surprised if he deflected the Cubans' fear of defections by offering to hire armed guards to make sure no players defect while they're in the States.

Lest you think this is some kind of political rant, let me ease your mind. Although that's bad enough in and of itself, my concern here is purely focused on one thing: What does Peter Angelos get out of all this?

Is he purely interested in the brotherhood of humanity, so much that he's willing to hock up his own cash to pay off the MLBPA and cover travel and lodging expenses? Umm,...no. Is he a Godless pinko who wants to appease Castro with a pleasant diversion? Well, he has a trade union background...but no. Well, maybe -- he sure seems to want to spread the team's money around evenly between the players who deserve it and the ones who don't. That's not it, though.

Peter Angelos realizes that his team is hitting a revenue ceiling, and he wants to make the O's America's Team.

Marlins boss John Henry added to the invective tossed Angelos' way on Friday when he complained that the other owners have been out of the loop entirely. In other words, there wasn't even a discussion of putting together an all-star team or allowing owners to vote on the team who would represent MLB.

What better way to leverage our national pride than to play a team from the country considered to grow the best baseball players in the world? And for those non-baseball types, wouldn't they love to see us stick it to Castro by beating his best? "That's for the Bay of Pigs, commie!" Let's see the Yankees or Braves do that!

Also, as Henry was quick to point out, don't discount the desire to have every baseball player in Cuba know the Orioles' name when they consider that makeshift raft trip to the Bahamas.

Of course, Angelos has had a willing accomplice in all this -- commish Bud Selig, who admittedly may just be clueless. Bud set a new record for talking out of both sides of his mouth in February by praising the games one moment as "something constructive that transcends baseball," then the next he discounted protests by chiding, "We'll take care of the baseball politics and let the governments take care of the other issues."

Will that be before or after Angelos takes care of the governments?

about the author

Michael Cox is currently waiting in vain for a Pirates-Italy series. Offer psychoanalysis at mc@strikethree.com.