Larry Brown Sports

If you were lucky enough to have an opportunity to purchase ALCS or NLCS tickets for the Orioles or Nationals, it was disappointing that your team’s season came to an end in the divisional round. The only plus is that it saved Washington and Baltimore fans some money, as they received a full refund once their teams lost. Or did they? Not exactly.

The Baltimore Sun reported on Tuesday that Orioles fans were not given a refund for their $6 service fee that went along with purchasing ALCS playoff tickets through Ticketmaster. WTOP in Washington said on Wednesday that the same is true for Nationals fans. Some teams provide full refunds while others do not return the cost of shipping and processing.

In an email to the Sun, Orioles spokesman Greg Bader explained that there are “significant” costs that go along with printing and shipping tickets for games even if they aren’t played and that the $6 fee helps offset those costs. As Deadspin pointed out, a $6 service charge per ticket would net teams roughly $500,000 for a series of games that never existed.

In 2002, the Yankees were forced to refund 90% of the revenue they took in from service fees on tickets to unplayed games. The New York Office of the Attorney General determined that 10% of the money was sufficient to cover their costs.

While I don’t doubt there are fees associated with printing and distributing tickets, isn’t that part of a team’s basic operating costs as a business? Someone has to cover the cost of the team being eliminated, but why should it be fans who bought tickets to games that never took place? The product — or in this case the team — didn’t do what it was supposed to do. The consumer shouldn’t have to pay when that happens.

The rookie hazing continued on Thursday with the Orioles finding a way to embarrass their new guys. The treatment for Baltimore? Tutus and ballerina attire. Baltimore Sports Report’s Avi Miller captured several hilarious photos of the rookies boarding the team bus, and third baseman Manny Machado (above left) seems to have stolen the show with his fantastic tutu.

Earlier this week, the Nationals rookies got the hazing treatment when the veterans made them dress as Olympic gymnasts. Machado and company got it pretty bad, but to this point I don’t think anyone has had it as bad as Mike Trout and his Lady Gaga outfit.

H/T Busted Coverage

Baltimore Orioles second baseman Robert Andino delivered the final blow to the Red Sox, closing a miserable September, and perhaps the most disappointing season in Boston Red Sox franchise history. Though the Orioles would finish the season last in the AL East by a wide margin, and among the worst teams in baseball, they were only too happy to spoil the year for the Red Sox. Andino, who had the walk off hit to win the game, made no apologies for ending Boston’s year.

“End of season like this, to make Boston go home sad, crying, I’ll take it all day,” Andino said. “To walk off, everybody wants to walk off. It’s priceless, man. You don’t have any words for it.”

There are a lot of sports fans around the country that are rejoicing along with Andino. Boston fans have been spoiled by the success of their city’s sports teams recently. The Red Sox were expected to make a World Series run and pick up where the Stanley Cup champion Bruins left off. But after the team’s worst September since 1952 — when they also went 7-20 in the final month — the season comes to an end.

It’s incredible that the 2011 Red Sox’s legacy is that they’re the first team to blow a nine-game playoff lead in September. Don’t get too disappointed if you don’t see LBS writer, and diehard Red Sox fan, Del, writing too much Thursday. It’s been a rough month.

Previewing the 2011 MLB season, we’ve already named the Phillies, Yankees, and Red Sox the top World Series favorites. We’ve already looked at the NL Central and NL East and this week we’re analyzing the AL East teams not based in New York or Boston. We looked at the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday and the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. Today we’ll wrap up the division with the Baltimore Orioles.

Off-Season Moves: The Orioles had a relatively quiet off-season as compared to the rest of the AL East. They brought in third baseman Mark Reynolds — he of the major league-leading 211 strikeouts in 2010 — from Arizona in exchange for two right-handed pitchers. They also traded for shortstop J.J. Hardy and acquired first baseman Derrek Lee, designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero, and right-hander Justin Duchscherer via free agency. Baltimore lost second baseman Julio Lugo, left fielder Corey Patterson, first baseman Ty Wigginton and rightie Kevin Millwood to free agency. Finally, the team re-signed reliever Koji Uehara and signed reliever Kevin Gregg.

Strengths: Three of the team’s four 2010 leaders in home runs and RBI — plus the top three batting averages — make up this year’s starting outfield; left fielder Luke Scott (.284, 27, 72), center fielder Adam Jones (.284, 19, 69, pictured above) and right fielder Nick Markakis (.297, 12, 60). The fourth member of that group is the departed Wigginton (.248, 22, 76).

Read The Rest of the Story…

After finishing a disappointing 66-96 last season, the Baltimore Orioles have made strides to upgrade their team this off-season. First they acquired Mark Reynolds from the Diamondbacks in a trade, and then they brought in shortstop J.J. Hardy from Minnesota in another deal. Now, The Baltimore Sun reports they have agreed on a one-year deal with first baseman Derrek Lee.

Lee is coming off a down year where he only hit .260 with 19 home runs. He got traded mid-season to the Braves and did well, but he only managed three home runs in 129 at-bats for them. Given that Lee smashed 35 home runs with a .972 OPS in 2009, this is a strong signing for Baltimore. On top of consistently playing good defense, he’s a good bounceback candidate for 2011.

Baltimore may not be anywhere near competing in the AL East, but at least they’ve improved their team. The infield consisting of Reynolds, Hardy, Roberts, and Lee is nothing special, but at least it’s respectable. Their pitching is another story, but at least they’re moving in a competitive direction, and I’d much rather have Lee on a one-year deal than Adam LaRoche on a three.

This should go well with Orioles fans — what’s left of them. Baltimore hasn’t had a winning season since 1997. They’ve lost eight in a row and they’re off to a 1-10 start. You would think a team like that would be looking for help wherever they can get it. That is unless you have an egotistical owner like Peter Angelos who has destroyed baseball in Baltimore and infuriated fans in the process. Ken Rosenthal of FOX reports that Angelos rejected Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr.’s attempt to help the club:

Ripken met with Andy MacPhail, the team’s president of baseball operations, about rejoining the organization, sources said. Angelos, however, nixed the idea in a separate conversation with Ripken, telling him, according to three sources, that he did not want Ripken to receive credit once the team returned to prominence.

Ripken did not discuss a specific role with MacPhail, one source said. However, another source said that Ripken wanted to work with young players such as catcher Matt Wieters and help them “finish off” their developments at the major-league level.

I really can’t think of a better coach or tutor for young Orioles players than Ripken. The dude was a consummate pro and holds one of the most respected records in all of athletics. How could his influence not be positive for the Orioles? I’m sure there are two sides to the story but any scenario in which Angelos rejected Ripken Jr. deserves criticism. The Orioles are a much better team than their 1-10 record indicates and their rebuilding efforts seemed strong, but for Angelos to decline Ripken’s efforts because he didn’t want to share the spotlight is ridiculous. It also seems to fall within character of what we know about Angelos.

UPDATE: Per ESPN, Angelos says he would love to talk to Ripken

Sources:
O’s turned down Ripken for job [FOXSports]

It’s only been about seven weeks of the season, but the attendance figures are already down for MLB this year. The most glaring and immediate cause would be the recession that has left many people jobless and/or fearful of spending. More peripheral issues to explain the decline would be the poor weather in certain cities to begin the MLB season, not to mention the fact that many kids are still in school. According to the Baltimore Sun, more than half the teams in the league have seen a decrease in their attendance since last year. (Good news, the Marlins are drawing 300 a game, up from last year!). The subject of the story stems from interleague play that begins this weekend because the Nats and Orioles will meet for the Beltway Series.

The O’s are supposedly drawing just a shade under 22,000 fans a night, down 10.6% from last year. The Nats are huddling in just over 20,000 fans a night, down 32% from last year, their first in the new ballpark. Seems pretty obvious to me — even a fresh and new stadium can’t mask a crappy team. Simple as that. MLB still isn’t worried yet that the Nats are struggling at the gate, regardless of the lack of success D.C. has had with retaining teams in the past. The League also wants to point out that another big reason for the league-wide drop in attendance is that the Yankees and Mets — two big-ticket teams — both moved into smaller stadiums this year. I suppose that could account for something considering how much of a draw they are, but wouldn’t they still attract just many fans on the road? I think there’s no doubt this is the impact of the recession. Hopefully it will lead to declining salaries, just as it did last offseason.