Dude Manly

This weekend the State of Maryland and a group of private investors unveiled a 9 foot statue of Mr. Oriole, Brooks Robinson.  This statue is located across the street from Orioles Park at Camden Yards.  The statue's likeliness of Brooks is uncanny.  The glove he's sporting is gold to honor the 16 consecutive gold gloves he earned during his career.  For the record Brooks also appeared in 18 All-Star games and collected 2,848 hits.  His entire professional baseball career from 1955 to 1977 was spent in the Orioles organization.  Though Brooks was born in Little Rock, Arkansas he has spent the majority of his life as a Baltimorean.

During the time Brooks played professional sports most had off season jobs.  Brooks was the pitchman for Crown Central Petroleum.  It was the gentleman he worked for at Crown, Henry Rosenberg, who was the driving force in making sure the most beloved Oriole of many generations had the well deserved statue.  During the ceremony the list of donors were read.  There was nobody named Angelos mentioned.  The statue located near the stadium was not on stadium property. Angelos should have worked with the group and had the statue at the stadium, just like Brooks' friend, Johnny Unitas, statue is located at Ravens Stadium.

There is a harsh reality that hit me in the face.  Peter Angelos has taken the Baltimore Orioles away from Baltimore.  His name should be mentioned in the same breath as former Baltimore Colts owner, Bob Irsay.  The difference is the way each accomplished their task. Irsay dismantled the team, and when they had nothing left packed up the moving vans and went to Indy.  Angelos abandoned the rich Baltimore Orioles history and because he had achieved a degree of success in the business of Law he didn't need to know anything about baseball to make all the decisions for the Orioles. 

Immediately after he bought the Orioles it was noted that he boasted his son's knowledge of fantasy baseball made him an expert on how to make the Orioles successful.  Angelos' Orioles fantasy has turned out to be a tragity.  His abandonment of the "Orioles Way", a term coined by Cal Ripken, Sr, is evident.  The attitude of "Whatever happened before I arrived is insignificant" is appalling.  He alone has turned my beloved Orioles into a joke. 

The harsh reality is the team playing in Camden Yards is not the Baltimore Orioles.  Their resemblance is by uniform only.  Every year the hated New York Yankees have an alumni game in celebration of their history and out of respect to players and fans of years ago. Angelos has never done that.  Brooks and Frank Robinson brought the city of Baltimore joy.  Angelos has brought only despair.

I can no longer cheer for this team as it is no longer the one of my youth.  Mr. Angelos should take the lead of a Washington professional sports franchise owner.  I am not speaking of the equally evil Daniel Snyder.  I am talking about Bob Short, who took the Senators out of DC and moved them to Texas.  It is apparent that Angelos will not sell the team so get them the hell out of Baltimore.  We deserve better.  We deserve Brooks at Camden Yards.  Peter, you don't deserve Baltimore. Get the hell out! 

A short tribute to Gary Williams then let’s get down to business.
Gary Williams took a program that was in chaos and made it into an elite program, then took it back to mediocrity.  I remember it all very well.  
The day after the 1986 NBA Draft when The Boston Celtics chose Len Bias with the second pick the basketball program imploded.  Charles "Lefty" Driesell became the fall guy for the new UM administration.  The new administration wanted change and used Lefty to change not only the basketball program but also the overall reputation of the University of Maryland which was known as a top ten party school.  The administration hired Baltimore City legend, Dunbar High School Coach, Bob Wade to succeed Lefty.  The boosters and those remaining in the Athletic Department administration hated how all this went down.  Lefty was their guy.  Bob Wade got no support from the Maryland Athletic Department or the boosters.  He was the "Doug DeCinces" of the Terps.  (DeCinces, an outstanding 3rd baseman succeeded the HOF Brooks Robinson). 
Now enter Gary Williams, a former Terp, and successful coach at several college programs including The Ohio State University.  Both boosters and the Athletic Department opened their hearts and pocket books to Gary.  Williams did not disappoint.  He took Wade's talent and made them respectable.  Then he took a second tier recruiting class to consecutive final four appearances which culminated in 2002 with a national championship.  He did that with Lonnie Baxter, Chris Wilcox, Juan Dixon, Steve Blake and a cast of a few more.  Blake is still in the NBA as back up to Derek Fisher on the Lakers.  
After the championship season for whatever reason the Terps still didn't get top tier hoopsters.  Gary and Athletic Director, Debby Yow got into a public tiff resembling your typical afternoon soap opra.  There were no winners in that tiff, only losers including both Yow and Williams. 
OK, OK. Not much of a tribute but now I can get to the point.
Driesell was a superb recruiter and an average coach.  I can only imagine what Gary Williams would have done with a team with Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, Albert King, Len Bias, Buck Williams, Mo Howard, Brad Davis and John Lucas, the first pick in the 1976 NBA Draft, taken by the Houston Rockets.
Lets stay with John Lucas for a while.  John was absorbed in the 1970's drug scene.  Ad admitted addict, he has spent the majority of his adult life helping young adults in life situations.  In the early 1990's Lucas coached the San Antonio Spurs to the Western Conference semi-finals.  The following year under Lucas the Spurs went 55-27.   Lucas can coach.  He is a hard worker that has seen rock bottom and risen to heights dedicating his life to help young people.  He's a Terp, he can relate to inner city hoops and suburban hoops and the challenges they bring.  John Lucas should be the next coach of the University of Maryland Men's Basketball program.  He will be able to recruit top talent and get them to over achieve.
The popular picks will no doubt be Notre Dame's Mike Brey, Butler's Brad Stevens or VCU's Shaka Smart.  All are great coaches and very young.  They would be great picks but none could compare to what Lucas would bring to the table.