Really, that headline from the Baltimore Sun says it all, doesn't it? Yeah, but here's some more:
Team gets 17 hits, including 4 HRs, to start road trip on winning note
NEW YORK - Mike Mussina's reincarnation as a soft-tossing right-hander has produced impressive results. He entered last night with 13 wins, one off the American League lead, and had allowed two earned runs or fewer in 13 of his previous 17 outings.
It seems that everyone is impressed by the transformation - except his former team. The Orioles knocked around Mussina for the second time this season en route to their best offensive game in nearly two years. They pounded out 17 hits and belted four home runs in a 13-4 rout of the New York Yankees before an announced 54,120 at Yankee Stadium.
As an Orioles fan, at this point in the season you just get your joys where you can ...
It's about the ball, the bat, and the mitt. Ball hits bat, or it hits mitt. Bat doesn't hit ball, bat meets it. Ball bounces off bat, flies air, or thuds ground (dud) or it fits mitt.
Bat waits for ball to mate. Ball hates to take bat's bait. Ball flirts, bat's late, don't keep the date. Ball goes in (thwack) to mitt, and goes out (thwack) back to mitt.
Ball fits mitt, but not all the time. Sometimes ball gets hit (pow) when bat meets it, and sails to a place where mitt has to quit in disgrace. That's about the bases loaded, about 40,000 fans exploded.
It's about the ball, the bat, the mitt, the bases and the fans. It's done on a diamond, and for fun. It's about home, and it's about run.
Okay, so it's only 6 games into the season — I have to take my pleasures where I can with this team. We're in first place and on a 5-game winning streak! Click on the image to enlarge it. Please. (Sorry Red Sox fans, but I have no doubt this is a temporary situation ....)
President Bush threw out the opening pitch at the new Nationals baseball stadium yesterday, to the sound of boos and catcalls.Waving and smiling because (a) he is heavily medicated, or (b) he really just doesn't care, Bush strode out to the mound and threw the pitch high and outside.
Preaching the importance of respect, dignity and justice for low-wage workers at a Labor Day prayer service and rally, the men and women who clean Camden Yards called off a planned hunger strike today to give the Maryland Stadium Authority a few more days to sign a binding “living wage” agreement that the workers have demanded.
Organizers with the United Workers Association, a human rights group founded by homeless day laborers in Baltimore, said they were encouraged by public remarks Friday from Gov. Martin O'Malley and Frederick W. Puddester, chairman of the stadium authority.
Both expressed support for a living wage for the part-time workers who clean the state-owned Orioles and Ravens stadiums on game days.
With the average MLB salary nearing $3 million, the treatment of cleaners at Camden Yards is unconscionable. I've been a fan of the Baltimore Orioles for many years, and am always amazed at the amount of money flowing when I go to a game at Camden Yards. From parking, food, alcohol, even a bottle of water. Now I am ashamed to hear that the Maryland Stadium Authority, which owns Camden Yards, is refusing to pay the workers the Baltimore City living wage. And that Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who made a verbal agreement in 2004 to pay the workers the living wage, has been silent. But I shouldn't be surprised by Angelos. He's fodder for another posting.
On Sept 3, the cleaners at Camden Yards will begin a hunger strike until living wages at the publicly owned stadium are secured.
UnitedWorkers.org has been trying to improve the conditions at Camden Yards for years. From their website:
We focused on a single demand from the start: Pay every worker at Camden Yards at least the Baltimore City living wage. Baltimore was the first city in the United States to pass living wage legislation, but the stadium was not covered by this law because Camden Yards belongs to the state of Maryland, not Baltimore City. Anything less than a living wage is a poverty-wage, and we wanted to drive home the point that paying workers poverty-wages is part of the cause of poverty.
Camden Yards was rampant with human rights violations. When we started organizing at the stadium workers were paid a flat rate — regardless of hours worked. This resulted in workers usually making less than $4.50 an hour — not counting unpaid wait times. Woman were harassed. Breaks were denied and workers were mistreated on a daily basis.
The argument is often made that “these people” should be trying to get better jobs if they're not happy with the current wages. But that's not a fair statement. Not everyone has the same opportunities, skills, or abilities. Some of these workers live in shelters. This may be the best some of them can do. The fact that they want to work should be rewarded. Watch this video of Valerie, a middle aged, single woman who cleans at Camden Yards, and see if you think she's doing the best she can:
I'm sorry if I sound jaded, but as a long-suffering Baltimore Orioles fan, I've become more and more disenchanted with major league baseball. Those in charge allowed steroid use to run rampant throughout teams for most of the 1980s and late '90s, and now I'm supposed to care that one of these juiced-up players hit more home runs than Hank Aaron?
Hank Aaron is a class act, and as far as I'm concerned, that record still belongs to him.
Really, that headline from the Baltimore Sun says it all, doesn't it? Yeah, but here's some more:
