Hasta la vista, Sam Perlozzo. The first blood of managerial sacrifice has been spilled by the modern-day Caligula of the AL, Peter Angelos. He's a lawyer who made his bones on asbestos and fen-phen litigation. He also hit the jackpot as lead attorney for the state of Maryland in a suit against Philip Morris. Accomplishments like these do not foster a healthy sense of humility and Petey-boy might not like that characterization but . . . screw him. His mismanagement of a once-proud Oriole franchise is nothing short of, say, criminal. He bought the team in '93 and had some early successes with Ripken breaking Gehrig's record in '95 (a MARKETING success); the wild-card berth in '96 (hello, Jeffrey Maier); and the division title wire-to-wire in '97. Then, the Great Man has a spat with manager Davey Johnson and fires his ass posthaste. Since then, it has been a world of suck with lots of losses; massive on-field and front office turmoil; and egocentric media circuses that a young Steinbrenner would've been proud of. The ego of lawyers is impossible to overestimate, most of the time . . .

Sam Perlozzo took over as interim manager (promoted from bench coach) for the remainder of the '05 season after the ritual sacrifice of Lee Mazzilli and was made manager for real for '06. The Orioles sucked that entire time. For the '07 season, Sam brought in Leo Mazzone, a good friend and helluva pitching coach, to try and get something more out of the Orioles staff than their usual putridity. However, the sucking continued and now Sam has to pay the price for Angelos' stupidity.

Leo gets to work with whoever gets hired with the rumor mill pointing to Joe Girardi as a possible candidate. Whatever . . . if Girardi signs on to this after being Jeffrey Loria's whipping boy last year, he deserves whatever may come his way. And former Twins and Cubs' GM Andy MacPhail is supposedly in line to be the next GM, which in O-Land is the SECOND person to be fired. Christ, has everyone drunk the kool-aid here or what? Maybe the savage ass-beatings inflicted by Boston and New York every year have caused a mental defect because the thinking up in Charm City suggests a LOT of lead plumbing.

I've been listening to the Band With No Name commonly referred to The Good, The Bad & The Queen. Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen have formed a truly formidable GROUP and recorded a very strange and powerful album, "The Good, The Bad & The Queen". For those not hip to the names:

Damon Albarn - Blur (ya know, that song that went "whoooo-hoooo!" like nine million times) and Gorrillaz, which have only been slightly larger than Scientology since they hit.
Paul Simonon - the bassist for the greatest band of their time, The Clash as well a later project, Havana 3AM. He is also a well-respected artist with numerous exhibitions under his belt.
Simon Tong - guitarist and keyboardist with The Verve. He also played guitar on various Gorillaz songs including "Feel Good Inc.".
Tony Allen - incredible drummer and songwriter. Co-founder of the "Afrobeat" genre.

With all the different elements each brings to the production, it is incredible that Albarn and Co. have fused a common identity as a band (with Damon calling out band members for flubs during some shows) that surpasses all expectations and completely pisses off Noel Gallagher. I don't know if this is a rock album or not. I know it's weird and creepy and spooky and strange and tells some kind of alt-London saga about”The Kingdom Of Doom".

Really, all I know is that it's very good, if not great. A great album haunts me for hours after I've finished listening to it. A great album makes me return time after time to listen just once more to a certain chord change or bit of a lyric. A great album a lot of times (and I know at least three of my Seven Beloved Readers will call BS on this) tingles when I pick it up. So . . . seems TGTB&TQ is three-for-three - guess I'll have to call it a great album after all. Put this disc on shuffle with the first two Mansun discs and prepare for cerebral cortex melting. Set the controls for the heart of the sun, indeed . . .

Pale Hose 10 and 1/2 out. DEATHWATCH, DEATHWATCH, DEATHWATCH! We're comin' for ya, Ozzie. You can run but you will NOT be able to hide . . . Go Tribe . . . the Brewers just keep on keepin' on . . . and the Braves are STILL in the Mets rearview.

I gotta go. Paul Simonon's gonna teach me how to be THAT cool.

Later taters.


Paul doesn't just teach anyone, you know.


Never Liked The Beatles, Never Loved Elvis Archives

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