It appears that the future of Baltimore's pro sports teams is bleak. The Orioles and Ravens are run by owners who would rather have their sons in charge than skilled general managers.
One owner (Peter Angelos) chases away any talent that he may have hired (Pat Gillick, Kevin Malone, Gary Nickels, etc.), and the other (Art Modell) is too stubborn to hire someone to run things. Instead, the Ravens are run by "committee," and the result has been constant losing seasons and not one Super Bowl appearance.
Both owners have sons in front-office roles, even though they are clearly unqualified. Nepotism might be OK in other businesses, but not in pro sports when people are paying good money to see professionals. If things don't change, the results will stay the same.
Kevin Cooper
Baltimore
Scrap the Ravens' nickname
Forget about the lost lawsuit over the Ravens' name and logo. It's a crummy name for a crummy team with a bad history, and it needs to be changed. The team name is taken from a dark poem about loss, just as the team is all about losses.
Cast a new light on the team. Honor Baltimore's nautical past. Celebrate Baltimore's future as host city to the sailing ships. Rename the team for the sailing ships built in Baltimore, the Clippers. Give the team the blue and white colors of the glory years of the Colts. Make the team symbol an anchor that could be fashioned to look like a horseshoe, and place it on the side of the helmet.
The Ravens' name has brought buzzards' luck. It should join Edgar Allan Poe in the graveyard.
Blake Lewis
College Park
ZTC
Reunion story missing
Did I miss a day-after story on the 40th anniversary celebration of the 1958 NFL championship game between the Colts and New York Giants?
I saw the photograph of Johnny Unitas and Don Joyce signing autographs at the banquet and I enjoyed the feature story on Ordell Braase's role as the driving force behind the reunion on the morning of the event.
If there was a post-dinner story, I missed it. If there was no story at all, shame on you. Not only is that bad judgment, it's bad journalism.
Lee Kennedy
Timonium
'Streak' didn't help O's
Why don't you folks take two steps backward and look at how much Cal Ripken, "Mr. Me," has really hurt the Orioles? "The Streak" was nothing but a distraction, and it didn't produce one run.
Young talent that needs to be brought up from the minor leagues isn't, and that's a big mistake. Keep this hero from yesterday and the Orioles will never improve.
Joe DiBartola
Baltimore
Minority mistreatment?
Perhaps another reason that free-agent outfielder Brian Jordan chose not to become an Oriole was because being from Baltimore, he was acutely aware of the team's historic mistreatment of its minority players, such as Reggie Jackson, Eddie Murray, Roberto Alomar and, most recently, Rafael
Palmeiro and Eric Davis.
Garland L. Crosby
Baltimore
Pub Date: 11/29/98