As D.J. Short noted yesterday, the Yankees were quite upset about the way the Orioles handled the rescheduling of games this weekend in the days before and after the arrival of Hurricane Irene.
Instead of trying to fit in a split-doubleheader on Friday, when Baltimore was dry and Irene was still a few hundred miles from the Atlantic coast, the O’s scheduled a two-game set for Saturday that eventually had to be completely called off.
They’ll make up one of those games as part of a doubleheader this evening, and are hoping to make up the other contest on September 8.
But September 8 is one of the Yankees’ few remaining off days before the end of the regular season, so manager Joe Girardi told the media that he’s planning to “fight” the MLB-approved rescheduling.
Representing an organization that was suddenly thrown into disarray after news of Mike Flanagan’s suicide, Orioles skipper Buck Showalter isn’t happy about the Yanks’ complaints. Via the Baltimore Sun:
“First of all, I felt that some of the stuff was a little disrespectful to Flanny quite frankly. That didn’t sit with me very well. I can tell you that,” said Showalter. “We didn’t say much – I think we had an April rainout there – and they just told us when we were playing. We were OK with that. Like I told you the other day, you tell us when we’re playing, we’ll play …
We understand that sometimes our opinions on things are not relevant. They come to me when there is two options and talk about it from a baseball standpoint. Every club does that. But some of it kind of has a feeling of [hypocrisy]. I don’t know. I don’t dwell on it. Their opinion on what the Baltimore Orioles should do for their fans and for their organization isn’t really that relevant to me personally. I can tell you that. We’ll do what’s best for our fans and for our organization and we expect it back that they’re going to do the same on their side.
We hope one day that we can be as competitive as they are. I respect where they are in the season and what their people are saying about the competitive part of it, but it means something to us, too. We’ll continue to do what’s best for the Baltimore Orioles and the fans, which are the same thing.”
Showalter probably has a point, and few people in this country are going to have sympathy for the Yankees missing an off day, but playing the whole “we’re being bullied” card is never going to help the Orioles climb out of the American League East cellar — both from a public perception and on-field results standpoint.
