The Biggest Hurdle For The Orioles This Year? Not Having Joe Angel Calling Games
by Steve Fink
When the Orioles open the season today in New York, let's be honest: things are gonna be super weird. It's weird enough for the O's open on the road. But to open on the road with this squad, well, I know you're with me.
It's just weird.
And when they get back home to Oriole Park at Camden Yards next week? Oh man, not even a cold one from Clancy — wait, Clancy will still be there at least, right? — could take the edge off of the weirdness.
Don't get me wrong, the wonderment and cautious optimism over this "new era" of Orioles baseball has us, the black-and-orange faithful, buzzing. I mean, the fact that there's going to be a real-life concert at Oriole Park this summer is enough to give this guy some hope that things are on the up-and-up.
But hopeful thoughts aside, along with the weirdness there will also be a very palpable sadness this Opening Day. No Jonesy. No Manny. No Buck. Even a largely unrecognizable bullpen without O'Day, Brach, or Britton will surely sting our hearts a bit.
We'll all move on eventually, but for me, there's one person whose absence will make what's bound to be a mostly painful season even more agonizing. And especially more weird. Someone even bigger will be missing. Someone I viewed as the one person who could, at the very least, make this long season tolerable. Someone whose mere presence embodies the fading Oriole Way. Someone who, through all the struggles over the years, reminded me why I still love this team.
Someone who could make everything better — just by speaking.
Joe Angel.
When I found out Joe was retiring, my heart sunk more than it had after watching Adam Jones, the most important Orioles player since Cal, trot off the field in his final game last season. More than when Manny was traded and more than when we were told Buck wasn't coming back. We will be OK without #10 in center field. We'll move on without Buck in the dugout.
Forget all the challenges the O's face this season. No hurdle will be bigger than the absence of Joe in the radio booth, with all due respect to the rest of the broadcast team. You can replace a manager and you can replace a centerfielder. But you can't replace a legendary voice. Why even have an Orioles broadcast on the radio now?
I was not ready for this. Not right now, at least. Not when, perhaps, we need Joe's angelic voice more than ever before. To help us get through the uncertainty. To endear us to the players we know little about.
To make everything better. This season, we'll need every dose of uplift we can get.
Make no mistake, the Orioles as a team face arguably more challenges than any other Major League squad. I wish it weren't this way, and I'd love to be wrong, but let's be honest: the players you see now on the lineup card will be gone in a few years. They're placeholders as the rebuild gets underway. There may be an unlikely star that emerges out of the bunch, but the Orioles of now won't be the Orioles of what's ahead.
Simply put, a placeholder won't do when you lose a voice like Joe's. Not in a year like the one that fans will have to endure in 2019.
How do you make a 50-win season worth following? Joe Angel.
Every March, I have looked forward to the first spring training game broadcast on the radio for no reason other than to hear Joe Angel call it. Just by listening to him, I could feel the warmth of summer in the cold of March. His voice alone was classic, perfect Oriole Magic.
Driving in my car in the summer and listening to Joe call games was like meditation. It kept me young. His ageless voice and natural wit was a gift for us Baltimoreans. This summer, we'll realize just how spoiled we were.
We'll miss you dearly in Charm City, Joe, and we're grateful for every call, for every "Wave it bye bye!" And of course every O's game that ended in the win column!
Hasta la vista y gracias por todo, el Capitán.
Steve Fink is the Director of News Programming & Promotion for CBS Local Digital Media. He is a Baltimore native and die-hard Orioles and Ravens fan.