From WNST.com, courtesy of Drew Forrester's Blog:
Orioles to Return "Baltimore" to Away Jerseys in 2008
Without official confirmation from the Orioles (more on that below), I announced today on The Comcast Morning Show that the Orioles are going to wear NEW uniforms next season on the road...yes, for the first time since the early 1970's, I have it from several sources that the word "BALTIMORE" will appear on the front of the away jerseys in 2008. This whole story actually started about three weeks ago when a FORMER employee of the team alerted me that he/she was aware of paperwork that was being filed for 2008 that included a request to change the O's away uniforms. For the unitiated, teams must request a change with MLB and can only change their uniform and/or logo once every three years. In other words, once you change it, you're stuck it with it for at least three seasons. Although the former employee who first gave me this information is a trustworthy sort, in the back of mind I had to remember that my info was coming from a FORMER employee of the club. Still, I was intrigued enough to follow through with some inquiries to those who might be in the know. I was able to get a hold of someone currently associated with the team last week and they told me the same thing - yes, the paperwork has been filed and, yes, the word "BALTIMORE" will be going back on the uniforms next season. OK, one former employee and one person closely associated with the team - both of whom have avenues to gain this knowledge - are telling me the same thing, and they have no idea that the other has told me this information. Now, I'm ready to bite on the hook. At this point, I have three people - all independent of one another - telling me the same thing. I'm as convinced as I can be that this is the truth but I still need someone in a high-level front office position to confirm ON THE RECORD (or off the record, even...if I trusted the person) that my information is correct.
REACT:
Excellent news. It's time for Baltimore to have their team again. If people from Washington want to continue to support a team that hails from Baltimore according to their jerseys, I've got no problem with that if they were raised lifelong O's fans. But I think that this is a sign that the O's accept that the Nats are here to stay, accept the fact that there is a big block of Nats fans who are not coming back to roost with the O's, and want to reconnect with their base supporters, those who identify best with Baltimore sports teams. Finally, could Cuban Pete be getting something right???
5 Responses:
It's about time they got around to fixing this. I guess we can be glad that it was only the uniforms that were "regional" and not the team name, like the shit the Angels have gone through the past few years.
On a related note, the Nationals too will be putting Baltimore on the front of their road jerseys. According to Stan Kasten, "We're not going to humiliate Washington any longer. Peter Angelos owns more than 50% of the revenue stream for this organization, and we want the road jerseys to reflect that."
We should have known it was too good to be true.
It made too much sense to be true.
I guarantee the best-selling Orioles jersey these days is the gray wool 1965 Brooks Robinson "Baltimore" road jersey.
Also, I'm not opposed to the black hat with the non-retarded 80's style Orioles' bird on it.
Anyone send this to Paul Lukas at UniWatch?
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