On the Record

By: Liz Farmer

Yesterday’s ninth-inning comeback from the Red Sox — one night after the Orioles executed a similar feat against them — highlighted what has become a theme for Baltimore this year: you never know which O’s squad you’re going to get.

The Orioles have been streaky this year, to say the least.  Seven-game losing streaks, five-game winning streaks. They blanked the Rays one night then allowed 11 runs the next. They were scoreless against the Yankees on May 8, then touched home plate 12 times the next night. More than half of their wins have come from runs scored in late innings.

I recently heard a radio ad highlighting the fact that the Orioles have been an exciting team to watch because you can’t count them out in the later innings. Last year, the O’s marketing team launched a tongue-and-cheek promotion around the team’s bad luck on Sundays. At that point, the Orioles had a 13-game losing streak at Camden Yards on Sundays and marketers launched a “You Win We Win” promotion on July 6 that promised to give fans a free ticket to a future, non “prime” game to fans in attendance that day if the O’s broke their Sunday streak.

From talking with fans, I get the sense that there isn’t really any ill will about the streakiness because most know it’s just a characteristic of a young squad.  That being the case, can you market this unpredictability? The radio commercial I mentioned touches on it, but I wonder if team marketers can take it a step further and design a promotion around the team’s come-from-behind drama they’ve frequently displayed at home.

For example, they could print up a bunch of $8 off and $9 off ticket coupons and have them ready to hand out after a game for an eighth- or ninth-inning comeback (making it clear to fans that the go-ahead run is scored in one of those innings for the promotion to take effect).

On the other hand, as the manager of a ball club, you want to see your team jump out early and hold on to the lead. Would a promotion like the one I mentioned be a conflict in philosophy?

By: Caryn Tamber

Everyone’s feeling the recession, including Peter Angelos.

Press Box points out that Forbes left the Orioles owner and personal injury-law mogul off its World’s Billionaires list last month and its Baseball’s Billionaires list last week. The magazine put Angelos’ net worth at around $1.2 billion last September but now estimates that he has since lost at least 30 percent of his net worth, “despite the Orioles’ value staying flat at $250 million this year.”

No word yet from Angelos’ satirical Twitter alter ego, @Peter_Angelos, on how the drop in net worth is affecting his lifestyle.

By: Danny Jacobs

The NFL released its entire 2009 schedule Tuesday, but it’s eight specific games on the calendar that are the focus of a courtroom hearing in Washington, D.C. this week.

The octet of games will air later this year on NFL Network, which is owned by the league. Comcast has put the network on its premium sports tier, which costs extra on top of the standard digital package, where the league wants its network to be.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, claims it put the network in the premium tier because of high costs associated with carrying the channel; the NFL says Comcast put the channel there so as not to compete with Comcast’s own sports channels. 

An administrative law judge with the Federal Communications Commission will make a ruling that could have implications beyond sports:

It is the first big test at the FCC of a 1992 federal law that prohibits cable companies, such as Comcast, from favoring their own entertainment content over that of independents, such as the NFL Network. …[A ruling in favor of the NFL] could make it easier for independent programmers to gain access to cable systems, experts say.

This case is one of three that will be heard in the next few months by Judge Richard L. Sippel; another one, interestingly enough, involves MASN, the Orioles’ and Nationals cable network. After settling a separate federal suit against Comcast (over “split feed” advertising in the Baltimore and D.C. region) a little more than a year ago, MASN now wants Comcast to carry the channel in several southern Virginia markets.

By: Caryn Tamber

I got in this morning after a few days out of the office and saw an e-mail letting me know that @Peter_Angelos was now following me on Twitter. My BS detector went off immediately. (See how quick on the uptake we trained reporters are?) Can you imagine the cantankerous, 79-year-old personal injury mogul and Orioles owner on Twitter?

Sure enough, it’s clearly a fake, but a pretty funny one. The pseudo-Angelos idenitifies himself as an “uber-ambulance chaser” and muses about “refreshing myself with a quick swim in my money vault before heading to Camden Yards. Note to self: wear underpants.” Another gem: “Note to self: place sun on probation. I’m paying good money & I expect that stupid ball of fire to blind Johnny Damon on routine pop-ups.”

If you are wondering, Twitter says it may suspend people who impersonate others on the service if they actually confuse or mislead people into thinking they’re the real deal. Parody, on the other hand, is fair game: “Parody impersonation accounts are allowed to exist. The profile information on a parody account must make it obvious that the profile is fake, or it is subject to removal from Twitter.com.” (HT: Slate, which saw one of its own reporters impersonated on Twitter last week.)

I’m thinking my new friend @Peter_Angelos is in the clear.

Obligatory self-promotional note: You can follow me on Twitter @CarynTamber.

By: jackie.sauter

If you’ve ever seen the “Dancin’ Homer” Simpsons episode where Homer gets a job as the local minor league team’s mascot, you know how entertaining an overweight guy dancing around in a cheesy outfit can be.

Now the Florida Marlins have brought that idea to the majors and are forming an all-male, plus-size cheerleading squad called the “Manatees,” according to ESPN.com.

“The team hopes to recruit seven to 10 tubby men to dance, cheer and jiggle during Friday and Saturday home games this season,” the article stated, noting that the men who were scheduled to try out this past weekend were judged on how well they danced a choreographed routine.

The squad won’t be paid, however they will receive free tickets to the games they perform at.

Here’s my thought: why let the Marlins have all the fun? Should the Orioles take advantage of its longtime fan base and start up its own squad? (the name “Harbor Seals” immediately jumps to mind – bonus points to anyone who can do “the worm”).

Does else anyone think the Orioles’ games could be livened up this season by adding some local entertainment to the mix?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer

By: jackie.sauter

The play on the field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards may not always be pretty this baseball season, but at least the new high-definition scoreboard will be sure to catch your eye.

With the first installment of the JumboTron’s replacement being hoisted up this week, here’s a few interesting tidbits an O’s fan might want to know about the team’s $5.2 million addition.

• The top and bottom scoreboards are made up of panels with tiny red, green and blue lights (about the size of pinheads) spaced 20 millimeters apart. That multiplies out to about 472,632 lights on the top board (27.5 feet by 74 feet) and 22,894 on the bottom (24 feet by 40).

• The old panels were made up of square lights a little smaller than a Post-It. Each light had a section of red, green and blue.

• The new scoreboards will actually weigh less and use less electricity than the old ones, although Maryland Stadium Authority technician Vince Steier couldn’t say yesterday whether or not it could pay for itself in savings over the years.

• The scoreboards cost $1 million more than third baseman Brian Roberts’ salary in 2007 ($4.2 million, according to ESPN.com).

• The $9 million total venture (including a sound system and control room upgrade to be completed by the 2009 season) is more than the O’s paid for any one player in 2007.

According to Steier, the installation, which began at 8 a.m. Tuesday, is on schedule to be finished by March 19. That will allow for two weeks of test runs to try out the new team graphics and animations and iron out all the kinks before the home opener against Tampa Bay on March 31.

Steier noted the Orioles management was “very conscious about maintaining the old time feel of the park but also giving fans the amenities they expect” from Camden Yards.

“It reflects the team and the state’s interest to make this a fun place to go,” he said.

LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer

By: jackie.sauter

The American Institute of Architects has released a list of America’s favorite buildings, which according to the methodology described on the project’s Web site, is actually more like, “the American Institute of Architects’ favorite buildings, plus a little bit of public input on the matter.”

So basically, it’s not the American people who have spoken, but card-carrying AIA-member architects who have weighed in, which means, potentially, that any number of pro architects out there might have voted for one of their own projects.

It’s also a reason why we shouldn’t feel so miffed that Maryland is only represented once – at No. 122 – with Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

We came in just behind the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, 25 spots behind the Federal Building in Islip, N.Y., and way shy of the New York Times’ new headquarters in New York, which, to my knowledge, has been covered by scaffolding since it opened in 2006. That’s right, our beloved ballpark is less attractive than an oblong skyscraper near Time Square that no one has yet seen in its entirety. Hmmmm….

Take a look – you can vote for your own favorites on the website.

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer

By: jackie.sauter

Watch the demolition of the old Oriole Park scoreboard unfold. The new scoreboard is scheduled to be in place by Opening Day, March 31, vs. Tampa Bay.

Click here to see the presentation in a larger window.

All photos by Eric Stocklin/The Daily Record

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