Sometimes, revenge is a dish best served hotter than a plate of chicken enchiladas and refried beans.
Two weeks after the Baltimore Orioles refused to reschedule a September 5 evening game against the White Sox to allow the Super Bowl champion Ravens to open the season on the Thursday night after Labor Day, none of the Ravens representatives invited to participate in pregame festivities at the O’s home opener were present on Friday.
The reason? A scheduling conflict, of course.
"[D]ue to conflicts of schedule and prior commitments for each person, unfortunately, today didn’t work out,” Ravens spokesman Patrick Gleason told Childs Walker of the Baltimore Sun. “It was determined that those invited would try to reschedule an opportunity to attend a different game this season.”
While Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne noted that 100 staff and family members attended the game, the inability of the Ravens to send any of the requested representatives for a Super Bowl commemoration invites speculation that the Ravens wanted to keep their distance from a team that wouldn’t move a home game that few will attend or watch, given that the Ravens will still be opening the season that night, on the road.
It’s disappointing that the Orioles didn’t stand down, but it’s also understandable. Over the last three decades, baseball has seen football gradually yet inevitably pass America’s pastime as the dominant sport in the nation. When baseball has a rare opportunity to throw a little rain on football’s ever-growing parade, we can’t really blame baseball for giving in to temptation.
