With the Orioles appearing on ESPN tonight at 7 for the end of their brief two-game set against the New York Mets, broadcaster Rick Sutcliffe, a former Orioles pitcher and National League Cy Young Award winner who will be working the game, took a few minutes to chat about Baltimore's 2015 campaign and how recent unrest in the city has impacted both the team and its fans.
Jon Meoli: I'm wondering from a baseball perspective what it says about the Orioles for them to deal with all the schedule stuff, changing plans, and for them to come out on the other side no worse for wear?
Rick Sutcliffe: "The first part, Jon, is that I've talked with several people this morning, but I'm going to be in that clubhouse in about an hour, be there around 3:30. I'll get a better feel for it then. I've obviously read a lot of the things, I saw a lot of the things that went on — we were all watching on TV. I just think that a lot of times, unfortunately, we're reminded just how unimportant baseball really is. As far as where these guys play the games and the home games being moved to Tampa, I feel for the city and I feel for the Orioles fans more than I do the players. The players, that's their job to go play whenever they're told. But I feel for the baseball fans there in Baltimore. There's such a great tradition there. There was back in there in the '80s when I played against the Orioles, and there was in the early '90s when I became one of them. There's a relationship with those fans there that's stronger than most, and that's what I felt for. I felt for the city not being able to embrace the team that they created."
JM: That was something else I wanted to get to. You pitched in one of the great days at Camden Yards, the first game there. What was it like to see no one allowed to be at a game there having had that experience? You probably have unique perspective on it.
RS: "The word that comes to mind is surreal. It's your job, you need to go out there and do it, but I know there were a lot of people who weren't totally invested in the ballgame. It was almost like you weren't sure if you were supposed to be there or not. I remember after [Sept. 11], the first game back in St. Louis, and Jack Buck addressed the crowd before anything happened on the field. He said, 'We weren't sure if the time was right or not, but looking around at all of you people being here, it's time to start playing baseball again. We know now it's time.' It brought a huge ovation, and you kind of felt like he was exactly right. Fans were saying we're ready for baseball gain. With nobody being in the stands, I think the players were [thinking], 'I don't know if we're doing the right thing or not.' But they were just doing what they were told."
JM: And just back to the general baseball, I'm sure you'll get a better feel for the Orioles when you're around them, but every year it seems like they're the type of team that gets underestimated and has injuries, and here they are again. They're more than treading water. Is this becoming the type of thing that's not an aberration, that the Orioles are able to contend by doing the opposite of everyone else in the league?
RS: "When I look at everything they lost last year, it's remarkable with Matt Wieters going down in May. They changed closers six weeks into the season. [Manny] Machado went down in August. The big splash, as they called it at the beginning of the year, the signing of Ubaldo [Jimenez], that didn't work out. Chris Davis being suspended. It's hard to fathom that they won 96 games with all that went on there. You look at what they've lost now. You look at [Nelson] Cruz, [Nick] Markakis, Andrew Miller being gone. You look at the disabled list and the names that are on that. I see the Orioles right now as being a lot like what they were last year.
"The starting rotation, they didn't get off to a great start, but remember last year, the first half of the season, the ERA was, I'm going to say it was in the 3.80 [range] and after the All-Star break it was in the 2.80 [range]. It's going to come back to that starting rotation, it always does. They're on a nice roll right now, and I think with that continuing, J.J. Hardy, [Ryan] Flaherty being back, Wieters is probably a month away — I'm just guessing — because he's just starting spring training now. Getting Wieters back might be the best acquisition about halfway through the season that anybody's going to make if they get him back and he's able to perform like he has."