Brady Anderson to the Rescue…Or Not

Here’s something that completely flew over my head yesterday: an op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun defending Peter Angelos from the widespread media attacks of late, penned by former Baltimore Oriole Brady Anderson.

In sum, Anderson paints Angelos as a caring citizen of Baltimore who values fans, cares about players, and despite Sports Illustrated’s contention, is far from one of the worst owners in Major League Baseball.

The problem? Brady Anderson, one of the earliest pin-up models of steroid abuse (or allegedly so), is the defender.

He’s always vehemently denied it, but history and headlines will always serve as his judge, jury and executioner.

His timing was bad then in maintaining ungodly performance on the diamond, and it is even worse now.

Even if Orioles fans agreed with his assessment of Angelos—which we overwhelmingly don’t—Angelos and Orioles Nation have at least reached a happy medium of co-existence.

The Orioles are in a good place. Angelos has resigned himself to stop interfering with the general managers he hires, and went out and got one of the best in Andy MacPhail.

The core of young talent in Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, and Brian Roberts is legit and will be enhanced by the arrival of Matt Wieters.

Pitching has looked strong of late, and with the exception of last night, hopes are brighter than they were just a month ago.

Brady Anderson is the last person the team needs rushing to its defense. Even if he was not tied to the greatest disgrace of the sport next to racial segregation, Anderson can offer little more than casual observations on the team’s success, and a player perspective on what is like to put the work in on and off the field in Charm City.

And with things going better than they usually do around this time, who cares what Brady Anderson thinks?

I caught Brady on 105.7 FM yesterday, being lobbed softball questions by Scott Garceau and Anita Marks on what he missed most about playing for the Orioles and other meaningless topics.

I will admit, his article was articulate and raised several good points about the ownership and direction of the Baltimore Orioles.

But the truth is that I, and likely many other people, missed the message—not because it's unimportant, but because we just aren’t that into the messenger.