All Too Familiar

Few men understand the game better than Perlozzo. But he continued a tradition of nice-guy players' managers who have failed in Baltimore. Neither authoritative in bearing nor combative by nature, he couldn't transform that inert culture. When the team's expensive new relievers collapsed, it made no difference whether he waved his right or left arm toward the bullpen. All decisions were wrong. Orioles crowds, unable to directly boo Flanagan and Jim Duquette, took out their justifiable frustration on the amiable but often perplexed-looking Perlozzo.

"I'm happy they gave me the chance to manage," said Perlozzo, who had a 122-164 record, a .427 percentage that bears an interesting resemblance to Mike Hargrove's four-season mark of .425. Could the players be a factor?

"I'm sorry I wasn't the guy who could fix it," he added.

What kind of manager might fix it? "I'm starting to think you need a drill sergeant in there," Perlozzo said.

At the moment, the Orioles would love to hire just such a disciplinarian -- ex-Marlins manager Joe Girardi, who was fired after being named NL manager of the year last season. Does that ring enough irony bells? Girardi was reportedly canned because he yelled at Florida owner Jeffrey Loria in midseason. Ten years ago, the Orioles parted ways with a manager, Davey Johnson, who clashed with owner Peter Angelos, then left town on the very day he was voted AL manager of the year.

So, let's get this straight. In '97, the Orioles didn't want a smart, cocky manager who made his players bristle (even Cal Ripken) and who didn't give a fig about his relationship with Angelos. Now, a decade later, Baltimore's dream candidate is Girardi, who laid down the law to young Marlins players and gave his boss a piece of his mind worthy of Davey.

The most important piece of the Orioles' future that now hangs in limbo is not the identity of the next manager. Fair or not, such men are easily and frequently changed. Even an Earl Weaver never reverses the long-term direction of an entire franchise.

However, one hiring in Baltimore might truly represent a watershed event. Andy MacPhail, a third-generation elite baseball executive who helped construct two world champions in Minnesota, is as respected as almost any team builder in the sport. After mixed success with the Cubs, he has worked on projects for the commissioner. Since Perlozzo's firing, the sport's grapevine has buzzed that the Orioles want to hire MacPhail as chief operating officer, a title second only to Angelos, so that his past connections to Girardi might help Baltimore land the hot managerial candidate of the moment.

That is exactly backwards. Managers matter. But not nearly as much as men like Harry Dalton and Hank Peters who laid the foundations and upheld the standards of the Orioles' long run through 1983. Get Girardi, if you can.

But offer MacPhail a percentage of the revenue for the Inner Harbor aquarium. Then throw in the Bromo-Seltzer tower, too.