by Matt Webb
Major League Baseball announced today that the Baltimore Orioles have agreed to an assignment to the AA Eastern League for the remainder of the 2010 season.
The Orioles, who are currently in last place in the American League East Division and who lay claim to the worst record in Major League Baseball, will be replaced in the majors by their promising minor league affiliate, the Bowie Baysox. The Baysox, who made the AA playoffs as recently as 2008, are currently in second place in the Western Division and are in the midst of a tight battle with the Altoona Curve for the division title.
“I’m not going to lie,” said Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel. “This is going to be a tough pill to swallow. As a team, you just don’t want to ever admit that you’re not the club you once were.
"This is a proud organization that has had its share of success. We’ve won World Series championships and had great Hall of Fame Players like Jim Palmer and Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson. If you ask me, things started going downhill for us about the time Cal Ripken, Jr. retired and that piece of crap Rafael Palmeiro started making erectile dysfunction commercials and lying to Congress.”
Samuel said the meeting with Bud Selig was strained at times, but ultimately the team understood the League’s position.
“We’ve had our opportunities the last decade and we just haven’t performed," Samuel said. "There comes a time in every team’s career when you have to admit that maybe you aren’t as marketable as you used to be, that maybe your uniforms look dated and your logo just isn’t very cool. When you’re winning that stuff doesn’t matter, but when you’re losing the little things add up.”
“We felt it was time to give one of our younger teams a chance,” Selig said. “The Baysox have shown a lot of promise in the Eastern League this season and we feel at this time they could compete as well, if not better than the Orioles when it comes to playing real Major League teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees, and the Boston Red Sox.
"Sure they will be overmatched, but frankly so was Baltimore, and this can be a great learning experience for them.”
Selig went on to predict that the move could also work out well for the Orioles, who will get to spend some time playing in a league more suited to their abilities and where they will actually have a legitimate shot to compete for a division championship.
“They have a real chance of a winning record in the Eastern League,” Selig said. “Granted they won’t be the favorites, not against teams like the Trenton Thunder and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. But if they put in the work and prove they are capable of playing professional baseball at a high level again, then we will be more than happy to welcome them back to the American League East.”
The move is, of course, contingent on the team clearing waivers, but it’s believed no other league would dare pick up such an awful franchise. The NBA laughed at the thought of taking them off waivers, saying that they already had a Memphis Grizzlies franchise they are out of options on. The MLS said they might take a look at the Orioles, as even they are more popular than any team they currently have.
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