Angelos Reponds

Peter Angelos responded to the Ken Rosenthal article.

Peter Angelos responded to the Ken Rosenthal article today, calling the report that Angelos turned down Cal Ripken for a job with Orioles "absurd".

In a Baltimore Sun article, Angelos said the following:

“In response, simply what is being reported is inaccurate and grossly incorrect,” he said.

“I don’t know of any differences that exist between Cal Ripken and me. If there are any, I’d like to know them from Cal Ripken directly. He was a great player with the Orioles and a friend for many years since he retired. He and I have a lot of contact with each other. We have an excellent relationship in many ways.”

“Andy MacPhail is in charge of baseball operations for the club. There has never been any interest in my part or discussions where his authority in running the baseball operations would be shared with anyone.”

“Cal could make a contribution to any ballclub. I just don’t see Cal Ripken as being an assistant to anyone in a baseball context. If he expressed the wish to do that in some secondary position with the Orioles, which I think he’d never do, obviously that would be something that will be considered seriously. But Cal has many interests and is a very busy guy. I don’t think he’s ever considered himself available to play some secondary role with the ballclub and appropriately so.”

“What the story said is Cal proposed that to Andy, and I find that to be unbelievable, that Cal would somehow take a secondary or minor role in operation of the Orioles or any other ballclub. He certainly has the stature or the background where he could ask for or seek to be the top of the operations of any major league club.”

So color me confused.

Angelos is responding to accusations that Rosenthal never made. Angelos is making it sound like Ripken was interested in a front office position -- or an assistant to Andy MacPhail. However, in the Rosenthal article, it was reported that Ripken was interested in serving as an instructor for young players, and was turned down.

Here's what I think: Angelos is skirting the issue. He never responded to the Rosenthal article directly, and switched gears mentioning MacPhail's job security, something that Rosenthal never touched on.

So until Ripken himself responds, or Rosenthal prints another article, we're only left to speculate.

And I don't know about you, but Angelos' word isn't really worth much to me based on his previous "promises" that the O's would be able to compete in the AL East.