Phony controversy

It's a petty little tempest in a teapot, but I still have to respond to the post-Brooks-bash "controversy" over how many current Orioles showed up at last night's event at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. There were 1,500 people there, including myself, and there were at least a dozen people who were definitely in attendance that I looked for and never saw, so I couldn't say with certainty who was or wasn't there. Frankly, I think it's terribly disrespectful to Brooks to shift the focus from his great night to some opportunistic Orioles axe-grinding. I didn't see any current O's there, but I didn't see any current Ravens there either (doesn't mean there weren't any, just that I didn't see one), and doesn't Brooks transcend baseball as one of the most important sports figures in the history of Baltimore? Of course he does. That's why Sandy Unitas was the one who convinced him to take part and that's why there were a ...