The Woeful O's have found their dystopia

A conversation with a friend:

Me:

Trembley is gone at the end of the year. It's ridiculous he stuck with Mora and Huff the way he did. I'd have had those useless has beens riding the pine along about June 1. Still - I keep looking at this lineup and instead of asking WHY, I ask WHY NOT? I'm borrowing from Robert Kennedy (as much as it pains me to do so) AND from the famous O's campaign of 1989 when we nearly shocked the world. THERE IS TALENT HERE. I know it. It just never presents itself on the field in the way I expect. The lack of clutch hitting is astounding and I'm given to turn the TV off in disgust the minute I get a whiff of their utter futility - along about the 2nd innning of most games. In some sense, they seem SO CLOSE - but they simply never get that one key hit that puts them over the hump. That is THE mark of a losing team with a losing mentality. They believe in their failure that is their self fulfilling prophecy. I DO think that if they get ONE more hitter - a first or a third baseman - AND Bergesen, Matusz and Tillman ARE as advertised - then this is at least a .500 team NEXT year assuming they also get a manager with half a clue. Eddie Murray - NO WAY. You are quite correct in your assessment - he has garnered a good deal of criticism for his poor performance as batting coach - no need to put the managerial crown on his head. Some fans are clueless about HISTORY. You and I are not among them. We well remember how Murray was run out of town for 'lack of hustle' and refusal to wear eyeglasses. We were so desperate to trade him that we ended up with Juan Bell. God give me strength. Murray will never be considered for manager here unless Angelos sticks his pig nose into things again and overrules McPhail thus driving McPhail out of town just like all the other GMs - excepting Syd Thrift who Angelos loved. Oh gosh - I'm rambling!

Him:

Okay, now that the O's are in their annual tailspin (a little earlier than in previous years) the masses are clammoring for the head of Dave Trembly. Among the candidates for his job are Eddie Murray, based on one observer's opinion that he's an old school (read winning) Oriole and will bring fire and intensity to the team and deliver them from mediocrity. Please refresh my memory if I'm wrong, but when Eddie left in 1988, lots of people were ragging on him, me included, because of, among other things, his lack of fire and intensity on the field (any one remember the last time we saw him diving in the hole for a ground ball?). Not that I think he's on McPhail's list of potential replacements, if there is one, but I think Eddie would be a terrible manager, not that any of the other old Orioles who keep on getting mentioned would be any better - Cal???, Palmer???, Dempsey????? I don't remember Eddie being any great shakes as a hitting coach and they want him running a team, especially with those legendary communication skills? By the way, I'm all for dumping Trembley; can't say he's the main reason we stink, and he was dealt one putrid rotation this year, but all of the baserunning gaffs, lineup management (Huff 4th and Mora 5th no matter how cold, and we're talking Kelvin Scale cold, their bats are) and poor fundamentals fall on his shoulders. Don't think I'd do it until the end of the season, but I'd definitely look elsewhere when the season's over.