{"id":4130,"date":"2026-07-14T11:06:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4130"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:06:54","slug":"loverro-the-orioles-way-the-angelos-way-and-the-misery-in-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=4130","title":{"rendered":"LOVERRO: The Orioles\u2019 Way, the Angelos\u2019 Way and the misery in the middle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OPINION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Baltimore Orioles had just been swept in four games by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in mid-August of 1995. I was sitting in the press box writing the epitaph on the season \u2014 at 46-53, their hopes for the postseason were pretty much buried \u2014 and so was the future of first-year manager Phil Regan.<\/p>\n

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On the phone was one of my top sources as a beat writer covering the team: Baltimore owner Peter Angelos. And he wasn\u2019t happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should fire him,\u201d Angelos told me, referring to Regan.<\/p>\n

Angelos, in his second full year of ownership, loved confiding with reporters in the early days of his tenure. He was still basking in the glow of being the hero for standing up to his fellow owners and refusing to use replacement players in the spring during the baseball strike. He didn\u2019t just talk to me. He spoke to the beat writers for the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post as well.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, though, in return for inside information, Angelos asked for something \u2014 your opinion. He listened to his sons; he listened to writers. Not so much his front office.<\/p>\n

During the winter, when the club was debating whether to promote outfield prospect Curtis Goodwin from Double-A to play centerfield in Baltimore, Angelos asked me what they should do. I said you should sign a free agent to a one-year deal to buy some time \u2014 someone looking to revive his career. I suggested Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andy Van Slyke, who was struggling with injuries and played in just 105 games in 1994, batting .246.<\/p>\n

A few days later, they signed Van Slyke.<\/p>\n

They traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies on June 18 after 17 games and a .159 average.<\/p>\n

Yet here he was on this Sunday afternoon in August 1995, asking me, \u201cDo you think I should fire him?\u201d<\/p>\n

I had no business telling Angelos what to do with his team. It certainly wasn\u2019t journalistically appropriate. It wasn\u2019t a Dianna Russini-level crime but wasn\u2019t proper. It was the price, though, to pay for these Angelos conversations.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t going to have Phil Regan\u2019s blood on my hands, so I told Angelos, \u201cYou\u2019re pretty much done for the postseason. You\u2019re only a few weeks from all the attention on your team from the Cal Ripken record-breaking streak. You don\u2019t want anything to take the spotlight away from that, like firing a manager. Why not just let him finish out the year?\u201d<\/p>\n

He did just that, firing Regan during the World Series after the Orioles finished 71-73 in the strike-shortened season.<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t think I did Regan any favors. He was miserable throughout the whole Ripken streak celebration, even more unhappy than he had been.<\/p>\n

Regan died last week at the age of 89. He had been an outstanding relief pitcher over 13 major league seasons, from 1960 to 1972 \u2014 a 96-81 record with a 3.84 ERA, including an All-Star year in 1966 when he posted a 14-1 record with a 1.62 ERA with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was nicknamed \u201cThe Vulture\u201d by teammate Sandy Koufax because he picked off so many wins in late-inning relief appearances.<\/p>\n

He spent a decade coaching college baseball and made it back to the majors in 1983 as the Seattle Mariners\u2019 minor league pitching instructor. He was promoted to pitching coach for the major league club in 1984. In 1987, he returned to the Dodgers as an advance scout for six seasons and then was hired as pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians in 1994.<\/p>\n

But Regan\u2019s dream was to manage. He spent eight winters managing in the Dominican and Venezuelan winter leagues, all with the hopes of landing a major league job. Finally, in 1995, he got the job in Baltimore, hired by a special committee Angelos put together to replace Johnny Oates, who had been fired after leading the Orioles to a 63-49 record in the strike-shortened season in 1994 \u2014 his third straight winning season. It was a mercy firing. Oates nearly had a nervous breakdown managing for Angelos for that one 1994 season.<\/p>\n

It was a cursed job from the start because of the strike, which meant two spring trainings \u2014 one with minor leaguers while other teams used replacement players and a second shortened veteran camp.<\/p>\n

Regan had been waiting for years for this chance and had a book on how he wanted to do the job. But he entered a culture that had followed \u201cThe Oriole Way\u2019\u2019 \u2014 a philosophy taught to generations of players by Ripken\u2019s father, Cal Sr. \u2014 and wasn\u2019t ready to change for a rookie manager who had different ideas. Regan clashed with veterans in the clubhouse, so much so that at one point Ripken was calling pitches from his position at shortstop. Regan\u2019s dream turned into a nightmare. He wouldn\u2019t get another chance<\/p>\n

Regan was the Dodgers\u2019 Triple-A Albuquerque manager in 1996, then spent the next two seasons as the Chicago Cubs\u2019 pitching coach. He was hired in 1999 as the Indians\u2019 pitching coach, then served as the pitching coach for the 2000 United States Olympic gold medal baseball team. He bounced around the minor leagues after that.<\/p>\n

I was in Sydney, Australia, covering that Olympic team. I told Regan the story about my conversation with Angelos. He didn\u2019t thank me.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 You can hear Thom Loverro on \u201cThe Kevin Sheehan Show\u201d podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Baltimore Orioles had just been swept in four games by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in mid-August of 1995. 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