Clueless Orioles are stupid to get Sosa

Mike Celizic

The Orioles have no pitching. If you don’t agree with that, name three starters on the Orioles. No? O.K., then name two. Still can’t do it? Don’t worry, no one else can, either.

Unless you follow the team religiously, you can’t do it. But you can name two starters on the Yankees and two on the Red Sox. An Orioles fan could argue that’s because Baltimore labors in obscurity, but anyone else can reply that’s because the team earns it.

The Orioles are a bad team. Period. They need pitching first, offense second. And instead of getting pitching, the knuckleheads running the team are getting Sosa.

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Five years ago it made sense. Even three years ago it might have. But Sosa hasn’t been Sosa since then, and there’s no reason to think he ever will be even remotely what he was.

And even if he jumped back to 60 home runs in the Baltimore band box, the Orioles still stink. And they’ll continue to stink because they have no pitching.

The Yankees finished one game short of the World Series, and they spent the entire off-season improving their pitching, starting with Randy Johnson. The Red Sox signed David Wells. Both of the premiere teams in the AL East went for pitching first, more offense

Beattie and Flanagan are going in the opposite direction. They need pitching and they don’t even get offense. They get a guy who’s been a bad actor, a pain in the butt, a declining talent.

You’d have thought the Orioles would have learned their lesson back when Albert Belle blew up in their faces. Obviously, they didn’t.

If you have season tickets for the Orioles, there’s only one thing to do: See if you can get a refund.

Mike Celizic writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in New York.

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