Personal thoughts on the proposed idea of a gondola going across the Potomac River, next to Key Bridge, from Washington DC's Georgetown area to Arlington County's Rosslyn Metro station. Naturally, it causes me to recall crossing it on 9/11. Don't ruin the views of that iconic bridge -and the iconic views FROM it. NO to the #gondola

Per #DC #gazebo, having lived in #Arlington fm '88-'03, mile N. of #Ballston #Metro, I've walked across #KeyBridge 1,000-plus x's. NO Gazebo

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) May 29, 2015

A gondola is a lot less far-fetched than you might think. Here's why it's worth looking into: http://t.co/XQAYOqDqa5

— Grtr Grtr Washington (@ggwash) May 29, 2015

DC is contributing $35K for a feasibility study of a Georgetown-Rosslyn gondola: http://t.co/3j0hzzUDq7 on http://t.co/UHp43KPMLC

— Grtr Grtr Washington (@ggwash) May 29, 2015

GreaterGreaterWashington blog

Yes, it's worth looking into a gondola in DC 

by Topher Mathews 

May 29, 2015

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26925/yes-its-worth-looking-into-a-gondola-in-dc/

Having lived in Arlington County for about 15 years from 1988-2003, a mile north of Ballston Metro, conservatively, I've walked across Key Bridge about a thousand-plus times to get to and from Georgetown and Downtown DC from Arlington. 
It actually could be even more times, since I also worked part-time for a few years at stores in Georgetown, both at the Abercrobie & Fitch in the Georgetown Mall in the early '90's, and years later at the Barnes & Noble Superstore .and often walked home at night after closing.

USA Today's Susan Page was a very frequent visitor at Barnes & Noble, especially baseball-related books, and A&F was where I'd first told then-U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson -whom I was a big admirer of- just what I'd heard and read about the newly-elected to the House Bernie Sanders of Vermont, after he admitted that he'd never heard of him before.

Many if not most walks across the bridge came on weekends when the Metro runs less frequently and I could walk to Georgetown and its great Washington Harbour area, one that I so often used as a second home for writing purposes, in about 75 minutes.
Roughly the same amount of time as walking to Ballston Metro and waiting and waiting and waiting... and then walking to Georgetown from the Foggy Bottom metro next to GWU, George Washington University.
If the weather was even halfway nice I'd usually walk, especially on sunny Sundays when I could listen to sports radio on my walk into Georgetown and not really think so much about the distance.
If you hadn't already caught on from previous posts over the past eight years, I'm a longtime walker from way back...

As I've written about previously here on the blog, including back on September 11th, 2011, 

9/11 -George F. Will on the American landscape ten years after 9/11: Commemoration can’t heal what is self-inflicted

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/911-george-f-will-on-american-landscape.html

that includes my experiences on 9/11, walking from my office on Pennsylvania Avenue opposite the DOJ and the FBI, and walking' the seven-plus miles or so home because, 

a.) the Metro was packed like sardines times ten, and, frankly,

b.) I didn't want to be underground for so long and not know what was going on.

Everyone in my office had been kept informed via my awesome portable Sony radio the size of a sub sandwich, which had TV station audio reception back then, before FCC's Digital TV changes changed that.

We all listened to the audio of NBC's Today Show, but I didn't personally see footage of collapsing WTC Towers until hours later, at the Baltimore Orioles team store in downtown DC around the corner from NY Times Washington bureau, where I headed after my building was ordered to evacuate because of the fears that a plane -what we later came to all know was United #93- would be used to attack the Capitol Building or the White House.

Bud Verge was a friend I'd met and the very savvy and friendly manger of the O's Team store then, and it was there while he waited for his wife to come pick him that watching a TV that usually was running Orioles team highlights, that I first saw the two Towers fall.

Then I walked over to the NY Times Washington bureau to hear what some of  my friends and their colleagues had heard or was being reported, before I decided to finsih my walk home, a little bit better infromed than I had been when the fighter jets were flying directly overhead.

Lots of other north Arlington residents I know walked home by choice across Key Bridge from downtown DC or even Capitol Hill because they shared the same concerns I had, that given everything that had already happened that morning, to say nothing of all the rumors we heard reported at the time, like the State Dept. being partially-bombed, something would or could happen on the Metro -or to it.

With my work clothes in my gym bag over my shoulder and that radio under my left arm like a football, every few minutes I'd stop and let a group of passersby catch their breath, too. and together, we'd get caught up on what we "knew" at the time via uncertain voices reporting "facts" from DC or NYC.

And all you could do was shake your head at what you were hearing.

That was never more the case then when standing halfway across Key Bridge over the Potomac looking at the nearby Washington Monument, looming larger than ever.

I still remember exactly how that felt.

So yeah, while I understand the arguments for studying the gondola idea cited by GreaterGreaterWashington, I'm firmly against a gondola that would ruin the view of that iconic bridge and the views that you can see FROM it.

Let 'em walk across the bridge.
Or call Uber or lyft.

For a whole generation of Oriole fans like me, Paul Blair was the living embodiment of The Oriole Way. So very, very sad at the news that my all-time favorite Oriole, the baseball player I most patterned myself on as a CF, died Thursday night. THE player I studied so intensely so many days and nights at O's exhibition games at Miami Stadium in the 1970's, looking for any hint of how to do things the right way -The Oriole Way. He was always smiling, always friendly to fans, always hustling and always a great teammate. R.I.P. # 6 #Class; Roy Firestone

For a whole generation of Oriole fans like me, from South Florida up I-95 to Maryland/southern PA, and knowledgeable baseball fans from coast-to-coast who appreciated players who paid attention to detail and did the small things in a game that make the difference between winning and losing, Paul Blair was the living embodiment of The Oriole Way.

Got the awful news tonight that Paul Blair, my all-time favorite Oriole, my baseball role model as CF, died tonight at age 69. RIP #6 #Class
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 27, 2013

So very, very sad at the news Thursday night that the former Oriole legend and masterful centerfielder died Thursday night while bowling in suburban Pikesville.

Paul Blair was my all-time favorite Oriole, the baseball player I most patterned myself on as a Centerfielder in Little League and Pony League in North Miami Beach's Optimist League, just as it often seemed to me years later that Ken Griffey Jr. would pattern himself on years later -playing shallow in CF- after watching Paul while his Dad and Paul were teammates on the Yankees of the late '70's, which earned paul two more World Series rings for a total of four.

One year, when one of my Pony League teams got new uniforms but all the numbers started in the fifties -like we were all minor league pitchers who'd only be at spring training for a few weeks before going back to our minor league teams- I quickly grabbed #51 out of the box and ripped-off the shrink wrap because 5 + 1 = 6, Paul Blair's jersey number.

My last two years of playing NMB Optimist Football in the mid-1970's, for the 115-pound team, though I was primarily a defensive end and special teams player, I also wore #6 because... 
Plus, like him, I was the fastest player on my team.

The Hall of Fame remembers former #Orioles, #Yankees and #Reds center fielder Paul Blair, who passed… http://t.co/SaGlfDqD9Y
— Baseball Hall (@BaseballHall) December 27, 2013

Photo of Paul Blair at Orioles spring training HQ at Miami Stadium, Miami, FL.

Paul Blair was the one player I studied intensely on so many days and nights at O's exhibition games at Miami Stadium in the 1970's -with family and friends- when they were in their glory days, and I was looking for any hint of how to do things the right way -The Oriole Way, because that's how I wanted to do it, too. 

Once they closed camp and left for baltimore, I listened to the team and his personal exploits via Chuck Thompson and Bill O'Donnell's expert play-by-play and color commentary, back when the O's affiliate in Miami at the time, WGBS-AM, carried ALL their games. 

I'd listen to those games no matter where I was -which my parents didn't always appreciate- and l'd fall asleep at night with my small brightly-colored Radio Shack transistor radio under my pillow listening to West Coast road trips, back when the A's really were the Amazing A's.

(If they'd won that ALCS series with the A's in 1973 and '74, they'd have played in the World Series 5 out of 6 years and I definitely think they'd have beaten the Mets in '73 and the Reds in '74.)

Asd I have written here on the blog before, I was such a big Orioles fan that I not only had every Orioles yearbook from 1970 until I left for college in 1979, agonizing when they lost to Pirates in the World series, but in February and March, at least once a week, I'd catch buses at the 163rd Street Shopping Center out to Biscayne College where the Orioles' minor league teams trained, always hoping to see the new/next Don Baylor or Bobby Grich in-person.

In those pre-Internet days, I'd always hope to run into a Baltimore area media type who could point out who was who, esp. someone like John Steadman.

Every family car we had in the 1970's I made certain had the circular bumper sticker of the cartoon Oriole at bat, so everyone would know, esp. on vacations, like up to Asheville in the summer of 1972, when they were part of the O's minor league system, that I/we were real Oriole fans.

Paul Blair was always smiling, always friendly to fans, always hustling and always a great teammate. 
R.I.P. #6 #Class
-----

Very sad to hear about tonights passing of @Orioles Hall of Famer Paul Blair. #RIPPaulBlair pic.twitter.com/uCz9c9HwyZ
— Dugout Legends (@DugoutLegends) December 27, 2013

Photo of Paul Blair and son at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, MD.

Here's a quick blog post on the grasp Paul Blair and his tremendous CF play had on Baltimore during the glory days: http://t.co/KDqPQmjYuT
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) December 27, 2013

And here is the updated news story on the death of Paul Blair: http://t.co/IBqh0rPwON
— Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) 151151177728">December 27, 2013

Just how good a CF was Paul Blair? His 18.6 career defensive WAR ranks 2nd all-time among fulltime CFs (Andruw Jones, 24.1). #Orioles
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) December 27, 2013

Rip my friend for 42 years..the GREAT and I mean great Paul Blair. pic.twitter.com/jCrOSnj2fn
— Roy Firestone (@RoyFirestone) December 27, 2013

Above, former Baltimore Colt RB/Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinee Lenny Moore, broadcaster Roy Firestone and former Orioles center fielder Paul Blair on Brooks Robinson Day, for the unveiling of the larger-than-life bronze sculpture of the Oriole Hall of Fame third baseman outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Sept. 29, 2012, Baltimore, MD.

Few would know how true this was more than Roy, whom I first met 41 years ago.
As I've written here before, at the time, Roy was a University of Miami student and was also working for Channel 4 Sports back when it was still Ralph Renick's WTVJ-TV, and their Sports Dept. was the class and envy of the state.
I was an 11-year old camper at the Bob Griese-Karl Noonan boys sports camp up in Boca Raton, where Roy was a counselor who soon became a friend because of his sense of humor, common sense and amazing knowledge of the same things I was most-interested in: sports, journalism and films.

When I was a senior at North Miami Beach High School and he was already working out in Los Angeles at KNX-TV, Roy was also one of the many people I spoke to and respected who recommended that I attend Syracuse and the S.I. Newhouse School of Communication, the home of so much of ESPN and the sports television and marketing establishment of the past thirty years.

But after things didn't work out financial aid-wise for my longtime first choice, The University of Southern California (USC) -who offered me a great deal of financial aid , but still not enough for me to swing it financially from Miami to Los Angeles, especially given how expensive it was to fly back and forth from LA to Miami back then- I went to IU, knowing only one person in the whole state of indiana, and they weren't in Bloomington. 
Syracuse just seemed too cold and isolated for me.

Without a Shadow of a Doubt (or a Shadow of a Stadium) in MLB, it's Location, Location, Location and that's bad news for Tampa Rays. In my opinion, no stadium location in that area will ever suffice because the fundamental problem is there simply aren't ENOUGH middle-class baseball fans there to make it worthwhile. That area will always be the dog-chasing-its-tail when it comes to a new baseball stadium; @StadiumShadow, @fieldofschemes, @darrenrovell

All the geeky math on a Tampa #Rays stadium so far: http://t.co/7Cv8kqNRKB #StadiumSaga
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 10, 2013

ICYMI: What Bob Buchkorn & Ken Hagan said Friday…and what they didn’t on a #Rays stadium in Tampa: http://t.co/Dr682Kl9X9
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 10, 2013

@noahpransky That's honest, I guess. But hard to know what it's worth spending without estimating net revenues.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) August 10, 2013

Mayor @BobBuckhorn: $200-$300M from #Rays would be necessary; city would need to kick in $100-$150M. (via @graysonkamm)
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) August 9, 2013

Tampa’s proposed $100m for Rays stadium is only worth half that http://t.co/D9ZnbWeKto
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) August 8, 2013

Tampa readies Rays stadium task force, now just needs any idea whatsoever for how to pay for stadium http://t.co/43krUgGt0v
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) August 7, 2013

@NickCubero @Rags2Rockets @JeffWMason @darrenrovell Tampa Bay Rays struggle to fill seats after winning. http://t.co/UAEY840vKF
— Troy Kirby (@SportsTao) August 9, 2013

Predicate reading for this subject is Noah Pransky's Shadow of the Stadium blog
http://shadowofthestadium.blogspot.com/ and Neil de Mause's Field of Schemes blog: http://www.fieldofschemes.com/

Tampa Bay Rays wearing retros tonight that they of course never wore pic.twitter.com/ry0J0u0KwF (H/T @sportslogosnet)
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) July 6, 2013

Much as I try to follow the Tampa Rays new stadium and attendance saga, in the end, it usually makes me think of the dog-chasing-its-tail, and the dog thinking that its making progress when actually it's doing nothing of the sort.

In following this story it's hard not to notice that of all the many criticisms of the Rays attendance problems over the years, many rather predictable, it's hard not to notice that many in the Tampa Bay area media are reluctant to say what I've always thought, perhaps because they really don't want to think about how truly insignificant the Tampa Bay area is in the whole national scheme

of things, baseball or otherwise. 

(And that's in NOT adding southern Orlando or certain Polk County residents to Tampa Bay's overall population to make it seem larger, as I have seen some places, as if to justify the current situation.)

The problem with the Rays isn't with the location of the stadium, it's the location of the team.

(Just like with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.)

I don't think it matters where the Rays stadium is, the team won't draw enough fans regardless of where you place the stadium.

This is completely unlike the situation with the Orioles and their shift from Memorial Stadium to Camden Yards, making it much more attractive and reasonable to Washington area fans to go during the week.

Along with two friends, we controlled four seats for an Oriole 17-game mini-season ticket plan for the first 8-9 years of them playing near the Inner Harbor, and I personally went to 20-25 home games a year (out of 81) despite living in Arlington County, though those long weeknight games and the drive home to Northern Virginia often made me useless at work the next

morning until I'd had enough coffee with hazelnut cream to mellow me out, i.e. around 10:45.

In my opinion, Charlotte, Nashville and San Antonio would all do a better job of consistently drawing baseball fans on a yearly basis simply because there are MORE middle-class income people living within 45 minutes of wherever they put the stadium, because there are more middle- management jobs there to begin with. Period.

Those cities have a more diversified economy than the St.Pete/Tampa area and greatly benefit from that.

Tampa Bay is what it is, but diversified it is not, just like South Florida over-dependence on tourism and real estate.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

ShadowOfTheStadium.blogspot.com  

@StadiumShadow https://twitter.com/StadiumShadow

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/

 @fieldofschemes  https://twitter.com/fieldofschemes  

"This is what I've dreamed about my whole life" -Miami connection of Baltimore Orioles' future arrives early as Oriole's 20-year old star prospect and Miami-area native Manny Machado gets called-up from Double-A Bowie to start at third base in Thursday's Royals-O's ballgame, and 2010 First Round pick impresses with two hits in O's loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards; #MannyMachado

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23768641&source=MLB&gid=2012_08_09_kcamlb_balmlb_1

"This is what I've dreamed about my whole life" -Miami connection of Baltimore Orioles' future arrives early as Oriole's 20-year old star prospect and Miami-area native Manny Machado gets called-up from Double-A Bowie to start at third base in Thursday's Royals-O's ballgame, and 2010 First Round pick impresses with two hits in O's loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards 

The Baltimore Sun
Manny Machado makes his major league debut — even sooner than he expected

By Eduardo A. Encina

11:57 p.m. EDT, August 9, 2012

He had replayed the moment in his mind many times before growing up, but Manny Machado didn't know exactly what playing in his first major league game would feel like. One thing was certain: Knowing it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, he wanted to make sure he was able to make Thursday night memorable.

Less than 24 hours earlier, he came off the Double-A Bowie team bus after Wednesday night's game in Altoona and be told by manager Gary Kendall that he was about to become a big leaguer the next day.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-manny-machado-debut-0810-20120809,0,6084272.story

See the Baltimore Sun video of Manny Machado at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/videogallery/71742592/Sports/VIDEO-Machado-This-is-what-I-ve-dreamed-about-my-whole-life

Great photo of Manny Machado at  http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_external/manny_machado_arrives/11417719

See also:
Baseball America
Prospects Blog
Orioles Calling Up Manny Machado
Posted Aug. 8, 2012 11:56 pm by Ben Badler
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2012/08/orioles-calling-up-manny-machado/

Above, some of my tickets from the last few Baltimore Oriole games I saw in-person at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 2002, before I moved back to South Florida in 2003.

The Orioles are in it to win it!
-----
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/

Is 2012 the year you finally become a blogger?; New monthly record for eyeballs coming to Hallandale Beach Blog: November 2011 Pageviews: 22,430

Late Fall evening in 2002, looking south at The White House from Lafayette Park, with statue of Gen. Andrew Jackson in the foreground. Photo by South Beach Hoosier. If only I'd started a blog back then -or earlier!!!

I've been meaning to post this bit of positive news for a while now, but kept shunting it aside because of other matters, including what has been a LOT MORE time this past month dealing with family health concerns, and then coming home exhausted, only to run head-long into longstanding problems with AT&T's U-Verse service.

Thanks to you readers out there in the blogosphere, especially a very loyal core of large-volume readers in certain cities, including some in Europe, which the Feedjit widget never fails to disclose in the right-side column, last month set a new record for eyeballs coming to your humble blog: November 2011 Pageviews: 22,430.

Hallandale Beach Blog also set a new daily record on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, November 22nd, with approximately 2,863 individual pageviews of something on the blog, for whatever rhyme or reason. (More than 119 an hour.)

That's more than one-tenth of the month's total!

Who says that people who work in offices aren't hard at work the week of Thanksgiving?

Uh... the actual evidence.

Doing simple math, that monthly total means that there was a daily average for the 30 days of November of 747.66 pageviews.

Before the end of the year, I'll disclose some of the positive changes that will be coming to the blog in the new year, as well as some of the new tools I'll have that will play an important  role in what you can expect to see here.

I'll also probably have some practical suggestions for those of you who have written and asked what sorts of common sense things they should consider or have before starting a blog, since a new year always gives people the chance to do lots of things they've heretofore put off doing, learning or experiencing, including reinventing themselves as bloggers, after putting it off for years, so they can finally share some insight, curiosity and experience they have with the wider world.

That's especially true when they want their newly-christened blog to have at least an occasional oversight element that involves informing the public about local, county or state government chicanery, skullduggery and crony capitalism.

What do you know, Florida is not only the Sunshine State, it's the home of both Old Style and New School govt. chicanery, given the number of Floridians I've heard from who say that when reading the posts here, their favorites are not necessarily the ones about pop culture or sports or the news media -MSM and local- but rather the ones where they can really sense the delicious satisfaction (and occasional glee) I feel in helping to expose elected officials and highly-paid govt. staffers to a degree of scrutiny they hadn't counted on.


Of showing them becoming so blase about riding the gravy train in the Pay-to-Play culture hereabouts, that they forget the public duty they have to those they they are supposed to serve, not become affluent off of.


Of simply taking the time and energy to do some of the investigatory research and field work that the local and state news media should be doing -but isn't- to show the public thru both self-evident photos and hidden records what the genuine reality of their actions, words and policies are.


I can't deny that when you have the goods on one of them, and they can't explain away the facts they find so uncomfortable because you have stolen their crutch or wrath, it's a good feeling.

Given what we already know about the caliber and competency of many elected officials and government employees at the city, county and state level here in Florida -and probably where you live, too- this is a particularly target-rich environment for would-be bloggers who want to hold them accountable thru old-fashioned reason and common sense, regardless of whether you are conservative, liberal or just plain angry at the intersection of political culture of self-enrichment and ego-tripping.


My experience is to let the facts tell the story, along with some informed commentary that you can back up with hard evidence.


There are clearly a lot of people in South Florida who possess the intelligence, common sense and tools to make a positive, tangible difference in their own community, they just need some positive encouragement.


So whether you know someone like this who has talked to you in the past about their desire to start a blog, and you didn't take it upon yourself to encourage them, or you yourself are that would-be blogger who has let things get in the way, DON'T procrastinate this year like last year.


Get organized and get started on giving your community the added oversight and accountability that only serious concerned citizens can give.


I know from personal experience how procrastination is the creative blogger's worst friend
-or even the would-be blogger- since while I was living and working up in Washington, D.C., many of my in-the-know, tech-forward friends on Capitol Hill, in the myriad federal agencies, think tanks and news media, encouraged me to start a blog right at the point in the late 1990's when when blogging was becoming easier to do for non-techs like myself.


A blog that would incorporate many of the interesting and delicious tidbits of information and insight that my friends and I knew first-hand, whether thru discovery or, sometimes, literally, stumbling into it, which we mentioned whenever we got together.


But lacking a blog or website of my own to tell the tale, I shared it with people who already had a news media perch, many whose names you'd recognize, who eventually got the word  out, via print or TV.
Me, I always had an excuse not to do it, usually, involving lack of time.

This was back when I was averaging going to about 25 Baltimore Oriole home games a year at Camden Yards, despite living in Arlington County, so I really didn't have a lot of free-time during the baseball season, since I'd usually not get back home from those long American League ballgames until about 1 a.m., and had to leave the house by 7:15 to walk to work via the Ballston Metro station.

Even after returning here to South Florida, it took me a few years to finally bite the bullet.

Every day that I stare at my computer screen now, I think, "If only I had started this
blog earlier!" 


When I think about all the crazy, amazing and useful things things you readers would already know by now -but don't!- about many nationally well-known pols, pundits, reporters and Washington-area institutions, to give you a sense of why they are the way they are, both good and bad, but don't because I hesitated, it's frustrating beyond words.
(And perhaps best explains why my posts on Washington tend to be so lengthy?)


In the hands of a serious and dedicated blogger, truth, fairness, context and facts are king.
But they're meaningless if you don't jump at the opportunity that presents itself.
Don't repeat my mistake by procrastinating too long!


Like I have with Twitter, which will change in the new year!

Mike Flanagan's death leads Ken Rosenthal to reminisce about what "The Oriole Way" once meant; WBAL-TV continues to get heat for Gerry Sandusky story

Fox Sports video: Fox Sports national baseball correspondent Ken Rosenthal, formerly a hugely popular columnist for the Baltimore Sun -and constant presence in the Washington, D.C. radio scene as well thru his frequent appearances- discussed on Wednesday night what Oriole pitching great Mike Flanagan meant to devout Oriole fans and how he exemplified "The Oriole Way" of doing things, an ethos missing in Baltimore for so many years that when I bring it up, people look at me like I'm a dinosaur.

http://youtu.be/kGadVyXI9Pc

For those of you who only know Ken Rosenthal from his work on Fox-TV game broadcasts, Ken is a very classy guy and a very talented writer who knows how to get to the heart of a story and share the context in an interesting and informative way.

Which puts him on a very short list.

If you don't think I shared an email or two -or dozen- with Ken while he was at The Sun...

Years before it was being written about just about everywhere, I told Ken about litigator and Orioles majority owner Peter Angelos' interest in pursuing the link between the use of cell phones and brain damage/cancer, based on reports coming out of Europe.

Rick Dempsey: He played 'The Oriole Way':

THE HERO!

Rick Dempsey, Baltimore's World Series MVP, October 24th, 1983

I could've predicted this criticism below in Baltimore Sun's TV critic David Zurawik's column Thursday, early Thursday morning when I sent my previous email with the WBAL video with Gerry Sandusky.

And guess what, he doesn't even link to it.

http://youtu.be/ayBjp9r7fH8

WBAL put the video on their YouTube Channel, which I subscribe to, but they made it un-embedded so that they keep it as exclusive. They have NOT placed any of their news stories about Mike Flanagan from Thursday on the Channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/wbal

Can't help but wonder if that's due to laziness or because of station management caving-in to dopey fans like the ones below calling and complaining.

Fans who even in the year 2011 think that because they see someone on TV or have seen them in person, that they REALLY know them.

You'd think that the cases of O.J. and Tiger Woods would've enlightened people about this ridiculously naive approach, but then even when I was going to 25 games a year at Camden Yards from my home in Arlington County, VA, for a decade straight after it opened, often getting home around 1:30 a.m. during the week, parochial Baltimore locals were STILL preciously saying that the D.C./Northern Virginia fans were "ruining things."

No, actually devout fans like me saved the franchise from irrelevancy and made the Orioles a big-market team (in a small market) by selling-out that stadium day-after-day, night-after-night.

But even that financial alchemy couldn't prevent Angelos & Sons from micro-managing and ruining a good thing, firing Davey Johnson shortly after he was named AL Manager of the Year, and they haven't been the same since.

(Davey Johnson being the last MLB batter to ever face Koufax, in 1966 World Series, when 'the Baby Birds' swept the Dodgers.)

The direction of the Baltimore Orioles -their glorious past, absymal present and rather uncertain future- both on-the-field and up in the B&O Warehouse, where Angelos & Co. brook no dissenting opinions, will be the subject of even more posts here in the future.

My "THANKS CAL" BUTTON FROM 2001

Cal Ripken Jr.

The ONLY new WBAL video on Flanagan storyline is this 29 second interview with former O's pitcher Tippy Martinez. http://www.wbaltv.com/video/28978855/detail.html

Pathetically, on their own website, as of Midnight, 2 of the 3 news stories about it are NOT theirs! The third?

The aforementioned 29-second video.

Thursday night on MASN, which I watch on DirecTV from here in South Florida, even though much of the programming is blacked-out here, after midnight, rather than show the scheduled repeat of the Twins at O's game, they replayed the Orioles' last home game at Memorial Stadium from October 6th, 1991, against the Tigers.

(A game that was commemorated by the Orioles thru seemingly manufacturing a million green or black plastic soft drink cups embossed in gold that were used that last series at Memorial Stadium. I had about five of them when I left a game against the Tigers that last week. But they were still being used at Orioles Park at Camden Yards so much into the next year that after a while it became an inside joke to Oriole fans.)

In that last game, Mike Flanagan came in with one out in the top of the 9th with O's trailing 7-1 -he struck out the two batters he faced.

And left to a standing ovation.

I taped the show and will endeavor to post some screenshots I took of Mike Flanagan here later.

I'll also go thru my Orioles stuff I have on hand and see what I might have that might interest you.

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Baltimore Sun

Z on TV

WBAL-TV stands behind Sandusky report on Flanagan and reasons for suicide

But police investigation offers different explanation for Flanagan's act

By David Zurawik

The Baltimore Sun

10:47 p.m. EDT, August 25, 2011

WBAL-TV is standing behind its Wednesday-night report by sportscaster Gerry Sandusky linking the suicide of former Baltimore Orioles pitcher and executive Mike Flanagan to him being "despondent" over being perceived as having failed the team and fans during his time in the O's front office.

Read the rest of the post at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bal-wbaltv-stands-behind-gerry-sandusky-report-on-flanagan-suicide-20110825,0,6876360.story

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I will try to find out what Beltway-area baseball maven Phil Wood, late of MASN, whose WTEM radio show I listened to every Saturday morning for years -like all my friends did, too- is saying about the Flanagan story-line all of this and share that with you over the weekend

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/

http://www.youtube.com/user/wbal

Mike Flanagan: An Oriole Great When the 'Oriole Way' Still Meant Something; those days never seemed farther back in time than right now

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-co-flanagan-house-death-20110824,0,4675762.story

August 23, 2011 11:51 pm

Wow!

WBAL-TV is reporting this: "sources confirmed that Flanagan took his own life “despondent over what he considered a false perception from a community he loved of his role in the team’s prolonged failure”

WBAL-TV video: WBAL-TV Sports Director Gerry Sandusky -a former Miami sportscaster and son of the former Dolphin assistant coach, John Sandusky- reports the tragic news:

http://www.wbaltv.com/video/28969408/detail.html

http://youtu.be/ayBjp9r7fH8

I found out this terrible news just after 11 p.m. Wednesday night and am still in a bit of a shock while I try my best to find a Baltimore-area radio station on the Internet that is actually talking about this instead of running syndicated fare, like WBAL is, running Yahoo Sports instead.

Really.

Jesus, what ARE they thinking?

This is just like what happened after the UM fired Randy Shannon, and every single Miami sports radio station kept their syndicated programming on rather than put the plug on that and put their own people on the air to let listeners talk about it.

Yes, that's the news media ethos down here in a nutshell.

I've tried finding something on MASN, DirecTV 640, but there was nothing.

Jim Palmer spoke about his friend and teammate:

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110824&content_id=23719698&vkey=news_bal&c_id=bal

See also:

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_08_24_balmlb_minmlb_1&mode=recap&c_id=bal

I hardly know what to say other than... Mike Flanagan: An Oriole Great When the 'Oriole Way' Still Meant Something; those days never seemed farther back in time than right now.

See this photo below...

Hendricks remembered

(Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr. / December 29, 2005)

Orioles Executive Vice President for Baseball Operations Mike Flanagan and his wife Alex leave the memorial service for Elrod Hendricks.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-hendricksphotof1229,0,5308516.photo

The event above was YET ANOTHER disgraceful Oriole moment of SO MANY over the past dozen years, with only one then-current player showing up for Elrod Hendricks' funeral, Melvin Mora.

My friends all over the country and I were absolutely LIVID over this and yet the Oriole ballplayers then were totally f-ing oblivious to what that show of disrespect to someone who had bled for this team for over four decades meant to everyone who ever cared about the Orioles.

If I'd had a blog then, I'd have positively crucified the players, one-by-one.

And yet Peter Angelos & Sons STILL walk the earth among us... where's the fairness or silver lining in that?

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http://www.baltimoresun.com/

http://www.wbaltv.com/

LA Dodgers questions great & small: wither McCourt, padding of attendance; Alyssa Milano's +1 is most heartening Dodger news; McCourt = Steven Ross

Above, thru thick and thin, actress & activist Alyssa Milano remains TRUE BLUE!

Los Angles Times

Dodgers Blog

Will we ever know had badly Dodgers' attendance is down?

By Steve Dilbeck

July 29, 2011 | 9:16 am

Oh, we know it’s down. Have evidence that it’s way down.

But the published numbers don’t tell the full story; not even close.

Buoyed by a pair of 50,000-plus bobblehead crowds (for Andre Ethier and Fernando Valenzuela), the Dodgers are averaging 36,623 per game.

That’s 8,102 fewer fans than last season, and actually better than the 9,319 it was down earlier this season. The Dodgers' total attendance is off 453,694 for the season...

Read the rest of the post at:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgers/2011/07/will-we-ever-know-had-badly-dodgers-attendance-is-down.html

The above is not the Ghost of Christmas Past, but rather The Ghost of the Dolphins' Future.

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FYI: Fox owned the LA Dodgers from 1998 to 2004, and also owns the the sole national broadcast rights as well as the broadcast rights to 14 MLB teams on its regional sports channels -including the Florida Marlins- most of which I watch on DirecTV.

New York Times

TV’s Supporting Role in Dodgers’ Drama

By Richard Sandomir

July 3, 2011

The fight for control of the Los Angeles Dodgers that reached United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Tuesday pits Frank McCourt, an owner desperate to keep his team, against Commissioner Bud Selig, who believes that McCourt has turned the iconic team into a financial wreck.

But away from the legal battle is the story of a long relationship between the Dodgers and Fox Sports, which underscores the rising value of sports television rights and what a media giant will do to keep them.

In the case of the Dodgers and Fox, it is a tale of mutual self-interest in which each side has taken turns at being the alpha male: the team knows it is valuable but needs money; Fox needs the team and has the cash.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/sports/baseball/dodgers-plight-highlights-influence-of-tv-in-sports.html

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Los Angeles Times

Frank McCourt has worn out his welcome

With Frank McCourt, the solution to his Dodgers dilemma is always somewhere over the rainbow. But fans aren't buying the loaves-and-fishes spiel. If he knew enough to exit quickly, he might earn some gratitude, but never forgiveness.

By Bill Dwyre, Times columnist

August 5, 2011, 2:14 p.m.

The most stunning aspect of the current Dodgers situation is not the greed of Frank McCourt, but the blind stubbornness.

Now, he is planning to sue his lawyers and projecting that, just maybe, the proceeds of that might be enough to pay off debts and get out of trouble. That's similar to his stance that, if he is just allowed to make his $1.7-billion-to-$3-billion deal with Fox, he'll be free and clear.

With McCourt, the solution is always somewhere just over the rainbow. He turned a Boston parking lot into ownership of the Dodgers and now wants us to believe he can keep them by multiplying loaves and fishes. He is a huckster's huckster, a poster boy for the buy-now-and-pay-later.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre-frank-mccourt-20110806,0,5892585.column

Long before financially self-serving LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's antics finally kept devoted Dodger fans away from Dodger Stadium this year in droves, after he fired Davey Johnson as Orioles manager in the off-season after he was named AL Manager of the Year for 1997, after getting the Orioles to the '97 AL Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians, Oriole fans were loathing Peter Angelos and Co. and refusing to come to Camden Yards -my home away from home for most of the 1990's- and fork over one cent to him, preferring instead to watch all the games on cable channel HTS (Home Team Sports, now MASN) at home or sports bars.

Under current Dolphins owner Steven Ross, the Dolphins have morphed into the worst on-field aspects of the Detroit Lions and the worst off-field aspects of Frank McCourt's tenure as Dodgers owner.

Ross is an acute embarrassment to the teams most loyal fans -like me- and seems NOT to have learned a whit since becoming owner, continuing the Dolphins era of complete insignificance.

Dolphins use outside agency to chase season ticket holders

Posted by Mike Florio on August 6, 2011, 5:46 PM EDT

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/08/06/dolphins-use-collection-agency-to-chase-season-ticket-holders/

Touch by Alyssa Milano Miami Dolphins Women's Sleeveless Top

Orange you glad that I decided to add this one?

Although it hurts her to see her Dodgers so often used as a punchline this season, on her always amusing posterous website, one of my favorites, actress Alyssa Milano, is having the best year of all among celebrity Dodger faithful.

Check out the photo at the link, one I sent out to sports media friends within just minutes of her posting it.

#Dodgers I Love L.A. (picture)-->, from late July 2011

http://alyssamilano.posterous.com/dodgers-i-love-la-picture

Like bambino-to-be, like mother...

Above, Los Angeles Dodgers Royal Women's Primary Logo Tri Blend Long Sleeve Layered T-Shirt- by Alyssa Milano

I've written about or referenced Alyssa on the blog several times, the most popular post on her being this one form Sept. 18, 2010 titled, Proof positive that no photo of Alyssa Milano is without its magnetic CHARM. Not that we EVER doubted it!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/proof-positive-that-no-photo-of-alyssa.html

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http://alyssamilano.posterous.com/

2012 Spring Touch collection: http://alyssa.com/?p=2569

http://www.fansedge.com/

http://www.fandalia.com/

http://alyssa.com/

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-columnist-bdwyre,0,7769040.columnist