The Battle Of Baltimore: Part II

Major League Baseball and the Baltimore Orioles were unable to accommodate the Baltimore Ravens, so the team will be opening the season on the road. With fans of both teams split on the opinion of who was to blame for this decision, the issue appeared to be fading into the background until the season starts, especially as the Orioles got off to a quick start the first few days of the baseball season.

However, it has once again reared its ugly head when news came out that the Orioles had asked the Ravens for a player to throw out the first pitch at the team's home opener this past Friday afternoon. According to the Ravens , scheduling conflicts made it impossible for any player to be able to receive this honor.

There are those conspiracy theorists who feel that the Ravens were sending a message to the Orioles, something to the tune of,..if you can't help us out, we certainly won't help you either. In its place, the Orioles did a unique tribute to the late Manager, Earl Weaver, that, depending who you asked, was either warm or underwhelming, especially for an exciting opening day.

The Orioles might have had this scheduled for a long time and the Super Bowl ended around two months ago, so if the to teams had communicated properly, one would have thought the first pitch honor could have been scheduled for at least one of the Ravens star players to represent the team at Oriole Park.

But to find out that head coach John Harbaugh, QB Joe Flacco, RB Ray Rice, WR Torrey Smith, TE Dennis Pitta, OLB Terrell Suggs, DT Haloti Ngata and yes, even LB Ray Lewis, were all "unavailable," seems a little far-fetched to this writer.

More likely, the message from the Ravens seems to be saying, "thanks, but no thanks," work it out on your own, Orioles. Both teams have said they'd like to arrange another chance at a Ravens player to throw out the first pitch, as we've seen Ngata, Ed Reed, Lardarius Webb and Torrey all take their turns over the past year or so.

Something tells me that had the Ravens wanted to help out their stadium neighbors, there could have been proper planning to make it happen one way or another. The last time the topic of the Ravens versus the Orioles as the more important sports entity in Baltimore was debated here on Baltimore Beatdown (The Battle Of Baltimore) in the topic of the 2013 home opener, it drew strong feelings on both sides. One would think this most recent issue will only fan the flames.