Leo Mazzone stood at a podium at the B&O Warehouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards as the organization?s biggest free agent signing in years and told reporters: “They say there is a time and a place for everything?. the time is now, the place is now.”
Now officially is gone forever.
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Last Friday, the Orioles decided the services of perhaps the best pitching instructor of all-time were no longer needed and fired Mazzone after two seasons.
In a short news release sent to media outlets by the team, manager Dave Trembley thanked Mazzone for his time with the Orioles, but ultimately decided someone else would be better towork with the team?s young pitchers.
In what seems like a first for an Orioles manager in a long time, Trembley has free reign to hire and fire his own coaches, but the decision to fire Mazzone was as stunning as his arrival in October 2005.
Mazzone spent the 1990s and the early part of this decade grooming the greatest pitching staff in the history of the game. Outside of the 1996 and 1997 seasons, the Orioles have been one of game?s worst organizations, most recently turning out ten straight losing seasons.
When the Orioles marketed their 2006 team, Mazzone was the focus. He was featured in commercials and was on the cover of the team?s first program. He was supposed to be the miracle worker, the guy who left the successful Braves to work for his friend and then-manager, Sam Perlozzo, and turn around a woeful staff just as he did in Atlanta.
After Perlozzo was fired halfway through this season, some feared Mazzone would quit in protest. But he resisted, and worked with Trembley the rest of the year, helping groom Erik Bedard and Jeremy Guthrie into front-line starting pitchers.
Toward the end of the year, he reiterated his desire to return next season. The Orioles had other ideas and apparently felt he wasn?t reaching pitchers like Daniel Cabrera, who went 9-18 this season.
It?s true some did not take to Mazzone?s teachings. Just this year, former Oriole Rodrigo Lopez said he had no relationship with Mazzone during the 2006 season and felt he and Perlozzo “gave up” on him during his struggles.
Lopez was not the only pitcher to find heartache under Mazzone. Bruce Chen went from winning 13 games the season before Mazzone joined the O?s to none in the one year under him.
The most frustrating lack of development comes from Cabrera, who lost 28 games in the last two seasons. Cabrera was supposed to be the organization?s Randy Johnson, but neither former pitching coach Ray Miller nor Mazzone figured out the 6-foot-7 monster.
Mazzone never had the chance, or the time, to succeed with the Orioles. Only Cabrera pitched through the 2006 season, as Bedard, Steve Trachsel, Jaret Wright and Adam Loewen were either traded or succumbed to injuries to end their seasons prematurely. Kris Benson didn?t throw a pitch this season.
A terrible bullpen only made matters worse for the Western Maryland native.
Trembley might have someone else in mind, or he might have been uncomfortable with Perlozzo?s old friend sitting next to him. That?s fine, but to think there is someone more qualified than Mazzone out there is foolish.
Matt Palmer writes about football and collegiate sports. He can be reached a [email protected]
