Walk into any bar in Baltimore and randomly shout the identify “Angelos.” Chances are somebody inside earshot may have some form of visceral ideas on the household that own a majority of the Orioles. Same as Steinbrenner in The Bronx or Buss in Los Angeles. The Angelos household patriarch, Peter, is 93. Team CEO, son John Angelos, can also be the president and chief working officer for the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), which airs the O’s video games regionally. John Angelos’ brother, Louis, sued John and their mom, Georgia Angelos, for management of the Orioles final June.
What does Angelos assume a press conference is?
For the primary time for the reason that lawsuit was filed, John Angelos was made obtainable to reporters on Monday, which was additionally Martin Luther King Jr. Day. His uncommon public look got here alongside Baltimore’s mayor, Brandon Scott, because the crew pledged $5 million to the CollegeBound Foundation, a nonprofit that helps Baltimore’s youth attain school levels. And with the Orioles’ lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority expiring at the tip of this yr, there are loads of questions for the household to reply publicly. Enter The Athletic’s Dan Connolly, a fixture on the Orioles’ beat for round 20 years, and somebody the Angelos household ought to know just like the again of their palms in the event that they learn protection of their beloved crew.
At a press conference the place John Angelos chosen the time and date, he’d be an fool to not know questions on the crew had been coming. Showing your face at an occasion designed to tout one thing in entrance of reporters and tv cameras isn’t pure public relations within the skilled sports activities world. After all, the Angelos household’s tenure atop the Orioles will have a good time its thirtieth anniversary this yr. So, unsure when the following probability will come, if one does, to ask John about his state of affairs, Connolly posited a prolonged, however truthful, query on the Angelos household and the Orioles’ long-term future in Baltimore. Connolly additionally directed a query at Scott on how he felt about setting up charitable occasions just like the Orioles’ donation with a sale of the crew forthcoming.
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What occurred subsequent was a pure deflection from Angelos, as if his preparation to reply questions from the media had all failed. He invoked MLK and mentioned the questions had been inappropriate at a press conference he known as. Reporters by no means select the dates or occasions of media availability. Beat writers are at the desire of the groups they cowl. When they make gamers, coaches, and crew leaders obtainable is wholeheartedly up to the representatives of the varsity or franchise. Connolly didn’t curse, make any private assault, and even take a stern tone with Angelos. He said information and requested a collection of questions diehard baseball followers would like to know the reply to. Connolly serves his readership and being their eyes, ears, and megaphone is a part of his job.
The Orioles have been mired in unhealthy baseball for many years
Connolly states an Orioles spokesperson confirmed media members who cowl the ceremony and the crew would get to ask Angelos questions at the conclusion of the occasion. This wasn’t a paparazzi scenario or an off-the-cuff or unsuitable setting to carry these in energy accountable. Chairs had been set up for the media in entrance of the place Angelos and Scott spoke. If Angelos went rouge and determined to attempt to make an instance out of Connolly for asking him an in depth query at his first media look not hooked up to bringing a music legend to Camden Yards in additional than 4 years, it was much less profitable than Walter Mondale’s 1984 Presidential marketing campaign.
I’m not going to share massive elements of Angelos’ response. The full video is included above on your viewing pleasure. And to be trustworthy, the four-minute phrase vomit sounds extra disconnected from actuality every time. Calling somebody “out of touch” within the context Angelos used it was past comprehension. Touting the farm system and the crew’s 2022 turnaround, with out a fact-checker, doesn’t distract from how he went out of his strategy to namedrop MLK and mentioned Connolly’s questions had been unfit for that day. Even although Angelos knew he’d need to reply questions on a federal vacation.
It’s simply one other day of an individual in energy attempting to keep away from accountability for his or her actions or believing they’re above the overall movement of life. Talk about out-of-touch habits. And Scott by no means bought a phrase in. The better part about Angelos’ response about being “very transparent” was providing to point out reporters the Orioles’ funds and governance selections. That can be fairly the reversal from how the group has been run. Baltimore’s sports activities media would eat that up. I doubt Angelos stays true to that decree. And as anticipated, that will be removed from his candid projection. It’d be extra of the identical from the Orioles, who’ve gained two playoff collection since 1998.
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