A quote is coming to mind:
"This saga is longer than Gone With The Wind and the time has come to conclude this." - Bud Selig, talking about the Expos situation in 1999, five years before he allowed a move.
Something else came to mind, and that was the handwringing from one local baseball writer after another about the perils of going big and getting Fielder. Most of it hinged around the notion that the team would hit an arbitrary salary ceiling (like Zuckerman's panic-stricken stuff about hitting $90 million in 2014 and [cue Dr. Evil voice] passing $100 million in 2015) that some have been conditioned to accept and sensible with any exceeding of it going into dangerous ground where only other teams may tread. Of course, I'm not hearing any such fear from Zuckerman when it comes to his personal favorite Sox, nor did equally weak-kneed Boswell less than a year before the Nats arrived.
I came across this telling article in which Boswell seems quite content to see his bird-in-hand "jewel of a franchise" O's go as large as possible in the free agent market, fully confident in his "big-market" birds that such spending would all be for the better, with no trepidation about future payroll watermarks. Enjoy the view from who many consider our pre-eminent local baseball writer, and maybe consider the sources of some of the local writers who don't particularly care if the Nats ever go big or not because their baseball hearts beat faster for other teams and markets, which certainly colors their risk-averse positions on Fielder and how soon if ever the Nats compete seriously for pennants:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22776-2003Dec22?language=printerPutting On A Big Shift
By Thomas Boswell
Tuesday, December 23, 2003; Page D01
BALTIMORE
Last Opening Day, I wrote, "Why boycott the Masters when you can boycott the Orioles?" Judging by the fading attendance at Camden Yards in recent years, lots of fans reached the same conclusion, many of them before I did.
However, times can change drastically. Now that Javy Lopez has joined Miguel Tejada as an Oriole, with Vladimir Guerrero perhaps coming soon, let's reevaluate. Birds can molt, change their feathers. So can we. If the United States can lift sanctions against Libya for improved behavior, then we can certainly lift our boycott of the Orioles.
Just kidding -- well, sort of. Orioles owner Peter Angelos still doesn't belong on many local Christmas card lists. He continues to publicly and fiercely oppose any team for the Washington area. However, the Orioles' strategy for defending their territory has changed by 180 degrees recently. And that shift makes all the difference.
It's dirty pool to try to keep a relocated team out of this area by fielding a lousy, unwatchable team in Baltimore. Whether the Orioles were bad in recent years by accident or on purpose we may never know. But it stunk that the Orioles whined throughout baseball about how moving the Expos here would kill Baltimore's fragile attendance.
Now, all that has changed. If the Orioles want to defend their territorial interests by assembling a winning team full of interesting players, that is entirely fair. That's just business, that's the way it should be. Let the Orioles be the "jewel" franchise they should be. Let Washington make its case on its own merits. Then let the cards fall.
In a matter of days, the Orioles have radically changed their place not only in the eyes of their fans and critics, but inside the entire sport. When you sign a catcher who hit 43 home runs last year, just a week after signing one of the premier shortstops in baseball -- thus turning your two weakest positions into your two strongest -- a new vista of possibilities opens up. Now, when the great Guerrero (with his .323 career average and one homer every four games) decides where to sign, the Orioles stack up just as well as anyone -- or better.
"We all agreed that this winter was a major crossroads for the history of the franchise," Orioles Vice President of Baseball Operations Mike Flanagan said yesterday in a warehouse elevator. "This whole process has been an enormous pleasure so far and it's a long way from completed yet."
If Flanagan and Jim Beattie keep landing the players they've targeted -- and they're 2 for 2 -- then they may have to invent an end zone dance to celebrate when the phone call comes that tells them they've scored another free agent. "I [don't] have my cell phone hidden in the goal post," Flanagan said. Not yet.
However, if the Orioles sign Guerrero, ex-Oriole Sidney Ponson (17-12) and, perhaps Rafael Palmeiro (38 homers), the phones of Oriole fans will be buzzing night and day.
By spending so little in recent offseasons and by outliving awful contracts (like Albert Belle and Scott Erickson), the Orioles find themselves in what may be a unique situation since free agency arrived in 1976. They are a "big-market" team -- thanks to the magnetism of Camden Yards and the passion of Orioles fans -- that has a very small-market budget. All of the Orioles' big spending this winter merely gets their payroll back to a level appropriate to a franchise that knows its ballpark will fill to capacity as soon as Orioles stars reappear.
"We're trying to create a rational model for a team," said Flanagan. Tejada, Lopez, Guerrero and Ponson -- plus a couple of more decent players -- could probably all fit within that model.
As a final twist, few other teams entered this offseason with money to spend on free agents or high-priced players acquired in trade. And those that did, such as the Yankees and Red Sox, have already shot their bankroll. Hard as it is to believe, the Orioles are almost the only bidder left at palatable prices. Miami politicians just turned down the Marlins on any chance of a new stadium deal. So, Florida can't throw a huge offer at Guerrero any more.
At this point, it is impossible to guess the Orioles' spring training roster. Flanagan uses multiple images, calling it "an elastic puzzle," and saying, "we can keep a lot of pots on the stove."
As an extreme example, if the Orioles do not sign Guerrero, they might sign a second all-star catcher -- Ivan Rodriguez, who just led the Marlins to a World Series crown. Say what?! That can't be right, can it?
But it could. Thanks to the DH rule, Rodriguez, 32, and Lopez, 33, could split the catching duties and play 140 to 150 games apiece. In theory, they would stay fresher, hit better in the dog days and, perhaps, not burn out at a young age like many great catchers have. Lopez has told the Orioles he could play first base at times. One reason the Orioles claim they preferred the slugging Lopez to the rocket-armed Rodriguez is that, thanks to the DH, Lopez may get 550 at-bats as an Oriole. He never got more than 489 in any year as a Brave.
"Pudge is not completely eliminated," said Flanagan. Then, rolling his eyes, he said, "Let me picture my [strategy] board in my room." It must be a sight to see -- perhaps as tangled as that chart of Saddam's family tree.
So far, the Orioles are on target for "Plan A," but there also are plans B, C and D. In fact, so many free agents are adrift in a market in which prices seem to drop every day that there may even be a Plan Z. Flanagan acknowledges that, if the Orioles get ridiculously lucky and sign so many players at reasonable prices that they suddenly seem like a contender again, the total payroll authorized by Angelos might even expand. Greg Maddux?
"That's all part of this elastic process," said Flanagan.
For the last six years, the Orioles have been locked in perpetual fourth-place limbo. Now, they're knocking on heaven's door. Part by plan and part by dumb luck, the Orioles now have Beattie and Flanagan running the show -- with Angelos just watching, not Snydering.
"Getting Tejada was the key," Flanagan said. "That opened up everything else."
Now, most of the pieces of this one-time-only puzzle may fall in place. Last week, a former MVP. This week, a catcher with 43 homers. Next week, perhaps, a cleanup hitter who's better than either. Even in the season of Santa, it's hard to believe.
