If you had April 21 in the "When will Dave Trembley blow his stack" pool, collect your prize. The Orioles manager had a brief, but apparently noisy, team meeting tonight to get after his players for both their effort and execution in recent days. Trembley said it wasn't one play or sequence that set him off, but rather a collection of them. I'd say Julio Lugo's hustle down the first base line and the Orioles' getting leadoff doubles in two innings last night and not budging the runners were at the top of the list. Anyway, here is the transcription of Trembley's comments to the media about the meeting.
We need to get our offense going, and we need to find a way to get things done in order for us to win some games. It's been really unacceptable 15 games into the season for us to be losing the amount of games that we've lost by not doing the things that we're capable of doing. Let's hope tonight we get it started in that direction. We need to get it going.
It's time to turn it up. That's what it is. We're not doing the things that are necessary in order to win baseball games at the major league level. I think it has been too repetitive for the first 15 games, and I don't want any excuses anymore about, "Well, this guy is hurt, we don't have that guy." Nobody is feeling sorry for us. We've dug ourselves a hole, but it's not insurmountable. We're not going to give in or give up. But I'm not going to just let things continue to slide and say, "It's OK," and accept us getting our [butts] kicked. I'm tired of that. I want to see the guys succeed. I'd like to get them back on track so they can enjoy that. You're going to have to make some sacrifices and you're going to have to play more as a team and you're going to have to do the things that are necessary in order to win. In order to do that, you have to get your priorities straight. Your priorities are the team. I shouldn't have to talk to guys at the major league level about some of the very basics, but they were addressed.
It just goes to show you that you can take nothing for granted. Everybody needs a reminder now and then, and sometimes the reminder may have to be in a way that is not as pleasant as everybody wants to hear. But the reminders always have to come because in this game, the game is basics -- approach, attitude, focus, execution. It's easy to get off track. It's such a highly skilled game, and you have to remind people what they need to do in order to get it back.
I'm tired of a lot of things to be honest with you. Tired is rather mild. If that camera wasn't rolling, we could use some other adjectives, but I'm not allowed to do that. The FCC would come after me.
I had a meeting with the team as we always do the first day of the series, and our advance [scouting] stuff was pretty precise and I thought the plan was laid pretty clearly. And what I saw last night didn't sit well with me. I feel like I'm talking to the wall. I've got coaches putting in six to eight hours a day planning, video, reports and this or that. Some of the pitchers look [so tight]. They look like they are pitching totally different than what we want. It hasn't been acceptable. I'm very patient, but I'll tell you the truth: I didn't have anybody come up to me afterwards and disagree.
It's time to dial it up and get this thing going in a positive direction and quit accepting it and saying "It's OK." It's not OK. It's not OK at all. And I'm tired of covering for them. I get questions point blank, and I feel like I'm a damn presidential press secretary sometimes. Instead of telling them how it is, I got to smooth it over. I ain't smoothing it over anymore. Everybody here is intuitive enough. They know. I love the players. There are people that want to see them fail. I happen to be one that doesn't want them to fail. I want to see the Baltimore Orioles succeed. And I know the odds are against us, but I think we can do it. That's how I feel.