What the Ravens Can Teach the Orioles

This story could easily be more like a novel if we really want to get deep into anayzing everything that is right about the Baltimore Ravens vs. everything that is wrong about the Baltimore Orioles. However, I'll leave a majority of the work to you, the reader, who should flood this story with comments and opinions.

In Baltimore, there are a bunch of other sports played, but football and baseball rule the professional level, the airwaves and the media. SB Nation not only has the Ravens covered here on Baltimore Beatdown, but the Orioles have a huge following over at Camden Chat, so check it out if you haven't already.

I have a huge sense of respect, if not pity, for the efforts of what Scott did for years and now Stacey and her group is doing over at Camden Chat. They endured nothing but losing seasons since,....well, since the internet became popular! Yet, they continue to pump out great content on a daily basis with a perpetual eye on the future and hopeful success.

So what can the Orioles learn from the Ravens?

Obviously, the main thing the O's can do is learn how to win games. Not just the first 7-8 innings, but the full game. However, it seems to be more of a culture change that is needed than just the ability to win games. Of course, they do say that winning cures all ills, but this "illness" is going to be a tough one to cure. The team can start at the top.

The Baltimore Ravens' fans are blessed to have had not one, but now two owners that are more than happy to stay out of the way from the true football people in the Front Office. They actually prefer to stay out of the media's glare as well. They allow their football leadership to make the decisions and grant them the abilities to succeed and if necessary, fail. For the most part, these football guys have done a great job in the Ravens' Front Office.

Over at Camden Yards, the same can't be said about the Orioles. Their owner is meddlesome, overly involved, stubborn and a huge obstacle to the team's success. While the Ravens always seem to find gems all over the place in the NFL Draft, it is hard to find more than one or two draft picks for the O's that have become truly successful home-grown talent. While other MLB teams succeed through a mixture of their farm system and free agency, the Orioles seem to miss badly on their young players and settle for the second or third tier of free agents. This is as much a knock on the team's ability (or lack thereof) to sign the right players as it is the free agents not wanting to accept "Confederate" money to come to a team with such a profound history of losing.

Thirteen years and counting, the losing does not look like it is going away anytime soon. Unfortunately, the state of the game of baseball may be as much to blame as the team itself. As long as MLB allows a team like the New York Yankees to double or even triple the payrolls of its competitors, th playing field will never be level as it is in the NFL.

The Orioles have brought in head coaches with limited coaching resumes like the Ravens, however the results have been polar opposites. Why is this? Perhaps the team itself helps make the coach who he is, specifically having an on-field leader such as the Ravens Ray Lewis. However, looking at current Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, he has smartly and non-egotistically decided to surround himself with sound, reputable coaching minds that only make him look better.

Conversely, the Orioles promote from within the same negative culture that the player do not seem to even respect and the team consistently makes Little League mistakes and cannot overcome it's obvious weaknesses year after year after year....

So join in and put in your two cents' worth, and head on over to Camden Chat to see what they have to endure and how they keep the optimism (or not) on what is surely one of the saddest franchises with such a wonderful past history that is now over a generation ago and counting.