News Is All Bad for the Orioles

BALTIMORE —  Distance gives simple, honest perspective. Rich Dauer loves the Baltimore Orioles. He’ll always be one, even though he now coaches third base for the Kansas City Royals. However, when he looks at the current Orioles, who lost six straight games this past week to seal their season, he doesn’t even bother to deny what he sees.

“They’ve got no chance in the wild-card race. Now they’re going to have a lot of decisions to make about who’s coming back next year,” Dauer said, hitting fungoes this weekend at Camden Yards. “If they re-sign everybody, their payroll will be $80 million.”

As an afterthought, Dauer said, “They won’t win anyway.”

“Why not?” he was asked. He wasn’t pushing some theory or trying to be controversial. He’s just a lifelong baseball man to whom it’s obvious the current Orioles are at a dead end. “They just don’t have it,” he said with a shrug.

Dauer knows what “it” is because he had it. Slow but tough, the second baseman was part of the Orioles from 1977 to ‘83, part of a team that always exceeded both its payroll and others’ expectations. Those Orioles played the game smart, hard, funny and together. They couldn’t wait to get to the park, play hurt, show up the rich Yankees or tell jokes at Earl Weaver’s expense. The day he retired, Dauer had the highest fielding percentage of any infielder, excluding first basemen, who ever played. Nobody knew, not even him. He wouldn’t have cared.

“I talked to Cal (Ripken) in April when they were kicking everybody’s butt,” Dauer said. “He was so excited. He said they had the best clubhouse chemistry since (the world championship season of) ’83. (Coaches Eddie) Murray and (Mike) Flanagan were back in the dugout.

“But then things went wrong for them. They didn’t react well.”

You find out about teams, and people, when their dreams don’t come true. Now, we’ll find out about the Orioles. So far, the news is ugly.

Last week in Chicago, Manager Ray Miller fumed, “I’m not pleased with the way we are playing. I’d have a meeting about it right now but I’m too bleeping mad, so I’ll do it tomorrow.” They had the meeting. Miller got hot, not for the first time this year. The result: the Orioles came home and lost two eloquent one-run games to the Royals.

One play on Friday night spoke volumes. Young Johnny Damon, a typical hustling, up-and-coming Royal, hit a fly ball off the top of the right-field wall in Camden Yards -- a routine double. Except that Willie Greene was in right field.

And why, you might fairly ask, is Willie Greene playing in right field? The answer, of course, is that the Orioles got sick of Jeffrey Hammonds -- tired of his years of nagging injuries -- and traded him to Cincinnati for Greene.

On Damon’s fly, Greene got much too close to the wall. The ball bounced 10 feet over his head. Greene chased it lackadaisically. Then, gradually gaining momentum, he bobbled the ball as he overran it.

Dauer was watching and waving. Damon never stopped sprinting. On a ball that never took a bad hop and that should have been a sliding double, Damon rounded all four bases. Triple, plus error. Since the gods were watching, the Orioles loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, trailing 6-5, then lost as they grounded into their FIFTH inning-ending double play of the night.

How bad is it in the Oriole locker room? It’s as silent now as it was jumping with music just a couple of weeks ago. How steamed is Miller? “I stood up for them and kept them here (in the first half) and I expect them to play hard,” he said this past week. “There’s no excuse for not putting any fire into it and it certainly looked flat as bleep the last (few) days -- pitching, fielding, hitting, everything.

“There is no Santa Claus, although some of these guys might believe there is because of the amount of money that is paid.”

Yes, the dream is over. Or, rather, all the intertwined dreams. The Orioles fantasized they wouldn’t miss Randy Meyers and Davey Johnson too much. Just so we know there’s some justice, Davey and wife Susan have been sailing around Scotland and Ireland, stopping at all the oldest castles and playing the best golf courses.

To their credit, the Orioles played so well the first six weeks after the all-star break they made it seem almost conceivable they could make up 15 1/2 games on Boston. In retrospect, the Orioles were right to keep their team intact for a second-half run. ‘Twas a nice midsummer dream. Nothing was lost. Juan Guzman was gained. Now, however, the Orioles are wide awake. And must look at reality.

“What we do the rest of this season is REALLY important,” said catcher Chris Hoiles. And he’s not talking about any wild cards. Futures are going to be decided. “We really want to keep the core of this team together,” said Hoiles.

If that core is so fond of itself, then it better suck up one last wind and get to the wire with some style. Otherwise, things could happen fast. Out on the road, in other cities, baseball people see the logic of Reds General Manager Jim Bowden or Marlins Manager Jim Leyland or Mets catcher Mike Piazza coming to Baltimore.

The farther you get from Camden Yards, the more curious the Orioles can seem. Does this team really think it can re-sign Robby Alomar, or that it should even try?

The current Orioles saved themselves from being summarily disassembled with their hot July streak before the trading deadline. Now, they need to do something similar in September. But is that enough? Should it be enough?

Why do the Orioles need the threat of eviction from the Camden Yards penthouse before they play like a $74 million team? Perhaps they deserve the same fate as Hammonds, exiled to the Siberia of Cinergy Field in Cincinnati.

“They’ve got a good crew over there, good people,” said Dauer this weekend. “But something is missing.” The idea is taking shape that, perhaps, if a few of them were missing, then that “something” -- that mysterious Oriole it -- might finally be found again.