CEO says Birds are not leaving Baltimore amid Angelos lawsuit
Orioles CEO John Angelos said Monday the team will remain in Baltimore — and that he and his parents have never contemplated otherwise.
Angelos’ comments — released by the team — came days after he was sued by his brother Lou Angelos. Lou claimed in last week’s lawsuit that John has seized control of the Orioles at his expense, and in defiance of their father Peter’s wishes.
“John intends to maintain absolute control over the Orioles — to manage, to sell or, if he chooses, to move to Tennessee (where he has a home and where his wife’s career is headquartered) — without having to answer to anyone,” the lawsuit said.
The suit did not elaborate on how likely it was that the team might actually move, and John Angelos sought to reassure fans in his statement Monday.
“As I have said before, as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor, the Orioles will remain in Baltimore,” he said. “My mother was born and raised in northeast Baltimore, attended city public schools at Eastern High School and has worked with my father their entire lives to help the city, including by restoring the club to local ownership and preventing its relocation. For them, as for me, the Orioles will forever play at Oriole Park, and at no time ever have we contemplated anything different.”
Peter Angelos became the Orioles’ owner in 1993, but his public role has diminished in recent years and he turns 93 next month.
RAPINOE, MORGAN ON U.S. TEAM
Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan have been included on the U.S. roster for next month’s CONCACAF W Championship, which will determine four of the region’s teams in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Rapinoe and Morgan have not been named to a U.S. roster since last October as coach Vlatko Andonovski looked at younger players in the run-up to qualifying. The United States is the twotime defending World Cup champion.
“So excited to be back with my gals!” Alex Morgan tweeted following Monday’s announcement.
Twenty-three players were named to the qualifying roster, and three others — Sam Coffey, Carson Pickett and Jaelin Howell — were added to the training camp in advance of a pair of friendlies later this month against Colombia.
Several players were left off the squad because of injuries, including Sam Mewis (knee), Abby Dahlkemper (ribs) and Lynn Williams (hip). Catarina Macario tore her ACL recently while playing with her club team, Lyon, and is out for at least six months. Crystal Dunn recently gave birth.
Tobin Heath was also left off the roster, as was Christen Press, who was injured last weekend while playing for Angel City.
GRINER MEETING AT STATE DEPT.
State Department officials met Monday with representatives of Brittney Griner’s WNBA team about the Phoenix Mercury star’s monthslong detention in Russia and the Biden administration’s efforts to secure her release.
The State Department confirmed the meeting, which involved officials from its specialized office that advocates for hostages and wrongfully detained Americans, but offered no additional details about what was said or who specifically attended.
The administration has previously said that its working to bring Griner and another American, Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, home from Russia.
Griner was detained on Feb. 17 at an airport in Russia after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing a cannabis derivative. In May, the State Department reclassified Griner as wrongfully detained and transferred oversight of her case to the State Department Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, or SPEHA.
FREE BEER OFFER FOR TROTZ
A Winnipeg brewery says it will give Barry Trotz free beer for life if he returns to his native province to coach the Jets.
Little Brown Jug Brewing Company and a local sports talk show launched the campaign Monday, several months into the NHL club’s coaching search. Trotz became available a month ago when he was fired by the Islanders.
The idea sprung from a conversation between Little Brown Jug founder Kevin Selch and office administrator and liaison James Hofer in their taproom late last week.
“Just thought it would be a little fun initiative,” Hofer said. “We thought people would get a kick out of it and who knows, maybe it might get the coach here.”
Trotz, 59, is from Dauphin, Manitoba, about a 3.5-hour drive from Winnipeg. Andrew “Hustler” Paterson from Winnipeg Sports Talk said in a video message to Trotz posted on Twitter, “We need you back in your home province of Manitoba to help turn our team around.”
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John McEnroe, still the greatest tennis player NYC ever produced, said his infamous outbursts were coping mechanisms that masked issues dealing with the emotional toll of a complicated personal life and pressurized career.
The profanity, often directed toward the umpire, inspired McEnroe’s ‘angry rebel’ reputation, which ultimately became his lucrative brand.
“A lot of the times I was getting angry I was hiding something that was completely different,” McEnroe said. “And thinking something different.
“The first thing I think about is hopefully something funny, something that would lighten the mood. And I grew up with you got to be intense and you got to have that edge and you can’t let up for a second, you got to keep your foot on the gas. And I wish I was better able to do that. And at other times, you’d feel like there’d be tears in your eyes but I know that, at least when I grew up, guys don’t cry. You got to be tough. You got to grin-and-bear-it type of stuff. And so instead of showing tears, I was showing anger. So I became the crazy angry guy. I’m not that person.”
McEnroe’s antics are addressed in his documentary, ‘McEnroe,’ which will be available for SHOWTIME subscribers on September 2. It’s essentially a two-part film condensed into 100 minutes. The first half is a look back at his meteoric rise in tennis, summarized in the style of a prolonged Nike commercial. Bjorn Borg, the Swedish tennis great who retired to enjoy solitude at just 26 years old, is featured prominently as McEnroe’s idol and friend. The second part delves into McEnroe’s home life – including his failed marriage to actress Tatum O’Neal – while focusing on fatherhood.
“In a way, if nothing else, I hope that people see there’s more to me and more to a lot of people than meets the eye,” he said.
The mental ringer of fame and tumult contributed to McEnroe’s early descent from the top. He captured a seventh Grand Slam by 25 years old, but never again advanced to a major semifinal. After his film debuted last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, McEnroe found parallels between himself, Naomi Osaka and the evolving discussion around mental health in sports.
Osaka, 24, boycotted post-match press conferences last year because, among other reasons, they “show no regard for athletes’ mental health.” She then pulled out of the tournament and adopted a reputation of being mentally fragile. Osaka has resumed her participation in pressers, but, on the court, lost her momentum as the next tennis great. She failed to advance past the third round of her last four Grand Slam appearances and is unsure about participating in Wimbledon this month because of an Achilles injury. ““I worry about Naomi because she did something (boycotted the media) that at the time she thought was right and an incredible thing,” McEnroe said. “But the problem is that there’s more attention on her – Now how is she doing today? How’s the next one? Is she going to Wimbledon?
“So what started out as something that was done for reasons she felt good about, now she’s probably not quite as sure about. And it’s too bad. Because she’s the type of person we need. Big time. She won four Grand Slams already. And everyone has their way of dealing with (pressure). Some are healthier than others. If everyone can be like Rafa Nadal and give 100 percent on the court or every time they do something, that would be absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, that’s very difficult to do.”
McEnroe cited Osaka’s upbringing as a potential detriment to now dealing with adversity. Osaka was groomed to become a tennis pro and homeschooled from a young age.
“The idea that you can experience things so these kids can grow up and be able to handle things thrown at them,” McEnroe said. “Naomi Osaka from 3 years old was – it’s all going to be about being a tennis player and she was just sheltered and living in a cocoon and she wasn’t able to experience things that kids, good or bad, experience.”
“I find it healthy in a lot of ways that (mental health) is being talked about more openly,” added McEnroe, who also coaches youth tennis at his academy. “But this isn’t something that just started. This started way before me. Obviously with more money in sports, it’s become more of a business. Parents see dollar signs in in their eyes. It’s gotten way worse in that regard.”
McEnroe also criticized Wimbledon for banning Russian and Belarusian players as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The purpose is “to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible,” according to Wimbledon, but McEnroe believes it’s unfair to the players.
“It’s unfortunate that even in sports, how everything has become political,” McEnroe said.