Schmuck: Phony controversy over “An Evening with Brooks”

Or as flamethrowing Radhames Liz Smith always says…“Only in Baltimore kids, only in Baltimore…”

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—if we’re going to get technical about this—doesn’t Brooks transcend baseball as one of the most important sports figures in the history of Baltimore?

...And one more thing, to compare this to the Elrod Hendricks funeral is just plain wrong. The criticism of the current Orioles roster at the time—which was represented at the memorial only by Melvin Mora—was legitimate, because Elrod was a major figure in the Orioles clubhouse and a friend to every one of those guys.

The “Evening with Brooks” was a trip down memory lane for all of the long-time Baltimore fans and sports figures, so I don’t know if you can expect the players who don’t have any personal or nostalgic link to Brooks to fly across country just to be seen.